Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam

Hon. Rasamanickam raised a point of order under Standing Orders 102, 103, and 104, noting his inclusion in the Parliamentary Select Committee on Provincial Council Elections. He acknowledged that the PSC, chaired by Minister Wijitha Herath, had been constituted approximately two months after the motion was presented on 6 January, and expressed satisfaction at its formation. He requested that the committee's first sitting be scheduled within the following parliamentary week and proposed that the twelfth member be Opposition MP and former Minister Hon. Faizer Mustapha.

Hon. Rasamanickam rose under Standing Orders to respond after his name was mentioned, addressing two matters. First, he defended his right as a party leader to raise questions of national importance under Standing Order 27(2), arguing that the mechanism loses its purpose if ministers are permitted to respond after the fact. Second, he clarified that his party is entitled to two front-row seats, currently occupied by himself and Hon. Sritharan, describing the arrangement as an internal party matter not requiring outside intervention. He also raised a constituency concern, stating that insurance coverage for farmers in Batticaloa has been officially suspended since the 11th of the month.

The speech is too brief to contain substantive content for meaningful summarization. The member, Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam, simply noted that a fellow member, Hon. Archchuna, had mentioned his name during the debate.

The Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam referenced agreements reached at the Parliamentary Business Committee the previous day, suggesting these understandings had relevance to the current proceedings. He attributed ongoing friction between the Government and Opposition to the Speaker's conduct of proceedings from the Chair, and requested one minute to raise a matter of national importance.

The speech is too brief to contain substantive policy content. The Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam rose on a point of order in the House on 19 February 2026, indicating he wished to raise an important matter, but no further detail is provided in the available text of the speech.

It looks like the speech content is incomplete — only the opening salutation is included, with no substantive remarks following it. Could you please provide the full text of the speech? I'd be happy to summarize it once the complete content is available.

The Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam invoked Standing Order 27(2) to assert his entitlement to five minutes for clarifications regarding a question for which the Deputy Minister had requested a two-week deferral. He referenced a prior agreement made at the Parliamentary Business Committee the previous day, which had approved a five-minute window for clarifications, and sought the Speaker's recognition of this procedural right.

The member indicated no objection to the Deputy Minister's request for a two-week period, while seeking the Speaker's permission to make a brief clarification on the matter, noting its national importance.

The speech is too brief to identify substantive policy content or specific arguments beyond the procedural nature of the contribution. The Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam rose to raise a point of order in the House on 19 February 2026, but no further detail of the point of order is contained in the excerpt provided.

Hon. Rasamanickam raised an urgent matter under Standing Order 27(2) concerning the demographic impact of land allocation under the Mahaweli Development Project in the Northern and Eastern provinces. He argued that successive governments have allocated State lands under Mahaweli settlement schemes without adhering to ethnic ratio requirements mandated by the 13th Amendment (Ninth Schedule, Appendix II), thereby altering the demographic composition of historically Tamil-inhabited areas. He cited recent concerns over the Kivul Oya project in Mullaitivu and Vavuniya Districts and disputes over grazing lands at Mayilathamadu and Maathavanai as specific flashpoints. The member submitted seven detailed questions to the Ministry, seeking district-wise and ethnicity-disaggregated data on land allocations and beneficiary families since inception, specifics on the Kivul Oya project's settlement plans and selection methodology, the extent to which traditional community lands have been absorbed into Mahaweli zones, the rationale for not releasing 3,000 hectares for local agricultural and grazing use, and details of a proposed new Mahaweli 'CS' Zone. He additionally raised related concerns about human-elephant conflict arising from water scarcity in Mahaweli project areas, flooding caused by earth removal works in Batticaloa, and the exclusion of unregistered farmers from crop insurance schemes.