President Ranil Wickremesinghe sacked Roshan Ranasinghe from the cabinet after the latter failed to answer two questions posed by him.
Ranasinghe was handed over the letter of removal at this afternoon’s (26) meeting of ministers at committee room 3 of parliamentary complex.
Soon after his arrival there, Ranasinghe was posed the two questions relating to the ministries of sports and irrigation.
The first was as to why Ranasinghe had gone to opposition leader Sajith Premadasa’s office and together with him and chief opposition whip Lakshman Kiriella, spoken to India’s cricket board via the Indian high commission while a cabinet subcommittee has been appointed to negotiate with the ICC to resolve the cricket issue.
Secondly, he was asked to explain a cabinet paper presented by him for the distribution of Mahaweli land to a group consisting mainly of his political friends and relatives, while there were many landless people.
With Ranasinghe unable to answer either, the president said he had violated collective responsibility of the cabinet and handed him the letter of removal from his cabinet portfolios.
This is the first time that a minister had been sacked following a cabinet meeting.
