SL Defence ministry wants 201 billion for remaining 5 months of 2010

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 June 2010, 07:34 GMT]
The Sri Lankan parliament met Tuesday morning with the Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa in the chair to debate emergency extension. Ruling Mahinda Rajapaksa government, which tabled the Appropriation Bill that outlined its expenditure for the next five months of this year, wants 201 billion rupees allocated for the SL Defence Ministry as against 60 billion rupees last year, parliamentary sources said.

Four days have been allocated for the debate on the second reading and five days for the committee stage debate. The final vote will be taken on July 9.

Rajapaksa government also wants to extend the State of Emergency for another month as it has been the practice since August 2005, despite the war has ended a year ago.