Minister of Health and Mass Media Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa has been named the Chairman of the Parliament Committee appointed to conduct a comprehensive study on the lack of preparedness to face Cyclone Ditwah last year.

The members of the committee were announced by the Speaker of House Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne at the commencement of today’s Parliament sitting.

Accordingly, in addition to Minister Jayatissa, Deputy Ministers Prasanna Gunasena, Anton Jayakody, and Aruna Jayasekara and Members of Parliament Anuradha Jayaratne, Hector Appuhamy, Rohini Kumari Wijerathna, MKM Aslam, Anushka Thilakarathne, Kanthasamy Prabhu, Ruwan Mapalagama and Pathmanathan Sathiyalingam have been named as members of the special committee.

On January 21, a group of opposition members moved a motion to appoint a Select Committee of Parliament to conduct a comprehensive study on the lack of preparedness to face Cyclone Ditwah and report to Parliament and submit its proposals and recommendations.

The motion proposed by a group of opposition Members of Parliament was presented by the Chief Opposition Whip, Gayantha Karunathilleka.

According to the motion, the loss of lives, damage to property and damage to the people caused by Cyclone Ditwah, which is considered to be the worst tragedy in the history of Sri Lanka, have not yet been assessed and therefore the Select Committee will be mandated to conduct a comprehensive study on the preparedness and the corresponding events.

The Chair and Members of the Select Committee were to be appointed by the Speaker in terms of the provisions of Standing Order 101 of Parliament.

Furthermore, the Select Committee will be empowered to fix its quorum and summon any person to appear before it, to require any person to procure any document or record, to procure and receive all such evidence, written or oral, to conduct its inquiries.

The motion moved by the opposition stated that the Select Committee should present its report to Parliament within a period of three months from the first meeting of the committee or within a period proposed by Parliament.