Lankan Oppn leader claims Parliament Speaker said Prez Gotabaya ready to step down
Colombo(PTI): Sri Lanka's Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa on Wednesday claimed that Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene had assured that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was ready to resign if all political parties request him, media reports said on Wednesday.
There have been growing calls for President Rajapaksa's resignation over the past few weeks over his government's mishandling of Sri Lanka's worsening economic crisis.
Speaker Abeywardene, however, denied informing party leaders that the President was ready to step down, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.
"There is a report circulating on social media that I have informed party leaders of the President's willingness to resign if they (party leaders) make a request. I only said the President is ready to handover the government to anyone who commands majority," the Speaker clarified in Parliament.
Leader of Opposition Premadasa reiterated that Speaker Abeywardena had said this at a party leaders' meeting.
You said to the party leaders that all party leaders of his House go and ask him to step down, he is ready for it. We're ready to do that. You give us the opportunity. All of us in the Opposition are ready to unanimously make that statement.
"I am not a fool to distort what you said. Don't deny your statement. You are a Tom Pachaya (blatant lier)," Premadasa said.
The Speaker said it was Premadasa who was coming up with Tom pacha (blatant lie) .
Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella also confirmed that the Speaker did not say.
A unanimous call from party leaders would have to include the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), led by President Rajapaksa's elder brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Political analysts say it is unlikely that the SLPP will back such a call.
Sri Lanka, which is on the brink of bankruptcy, is grappling with an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst since its independence from Britain in 1948.
The crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices.
The island nation is witnessing large-scale protests against the government's handling of the debt-ridden economy - the worst-ever economic crisis in the country's history.
Protests demanding the resignation of the President and his Sri Lanka Podujana (Peramuna)-led government have intensified as shortages continued and prices soared.
Last week, the Sri Lankan government said it would temporarily default on USD 35.5 billion in foreign debt as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine made it impossible to make payments to overseas creditors.
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Assam govt drops ex-president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed's name from medical college in Barpeta
Guwahati, Mar 10 (PTI): The Assam government on Tuesday decided to rename Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital as Barpeta Medical College and Hospital.
Addressing a press conference after a meeting of the state cabinet, which approved the decision, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said most government medical colleges in the state are named after the places where they are located.
"All our medical colleges are named after their locations. We see that in the medical colleges in Guwahati, Dhubri, Silchar, Bongaigaon, Biswanath and Sonitpur. Somehow, the Barpeta one was named as Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital, which does not align with the naming pattern of other medical colleges," he said.
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Sarma said the cabinet decided to rename the institution to avoid confusion.
"Because of its name, many people ask whether it is a private medical college. That is why the cabinet today decided to change the name and make it Barpeta Medical College and Hospital," he said.
Sarma said the government would name another institution after former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed in recognition of his stature.
"As Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was India's president and the first one from Assam, the cabinet decided that another educational or cultural institution of the same or higher stature will be named after him. We will take a decision in this regard to keep his name alive," he added.
Established in 2011, the medical college is affiliated with Srimanta Sankardeva University of Health Sciences and has been offering undergraduate courses since 2012 and postgraduate medical education since 2019.
