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More snags to come
The newly elected Deputy Chairman of Committees, Murugan Satchithanandan refused to enter the Chambers when Parliament met on Wednesday saying he had been allocated a seat on the government side of the House.

The CWC member's view was conveyed to the Speaker by Chief Opposition Whip Mahinda Samarasinghe who requested that Mr. Satchithanandan be allocated a seat on the Opposition side. The Speaker said he had no objection to this.

However officials said that the Deputy Speaker and the Deputy Chairman of Committees are allocated permanent seats on the government side so that it is easier for the Speaker to make eye contact with one of them when he wants to leave the Chair and needs one of them to preside over sittings. There are certain to be more similar snags now with a minority government and a majority opposition.

Deliberate ploy?
Another member who may not be too happy with his new seating arrangement in Parliament is the JVP's former Parliamentary group leader and now UPFA Colombo distirct MP Wimal Weerawansa.

The former front bencher has been allocated a seat furthest from the Speaker's Chair. A deliberate ploy, one would think, given Mr. Weerawansa's ability to seize on any opportunity to speak up on a matter and cause a rumpus in the House.

An eye-opener
Justice Minister John Seneviratne and Ministry officials paid a visit to the Government Analyst's Department on Friday. When they entered the production section, there were no officials on duty to be seen.

When the Minister queried where all the staff members were, he was told they were actually present but were hidden behind the large number of files and samples sent there for analysis. Maybe the sight will be an eye-opener to the Minister on the need to streamline the Department and modernise it.

Startling discovery
The Department also made a startling discovery last week. Samples of what was believed to be heroin sent by the Police Narcotics Bureau, which detected nine kilos of the alleged substance at Marawila, was found to be wheat flour. After all the publicity over the big seizure, the detectors have suddenly become camera shy.

All not lost
Tuesday's sittings in Parliament saw a large number of supporters and family members of the newly elected MPs gathering at the legislature to see their representatives at work. However the shuttle service that carries visitors from the main entrance of Parliament to the inner entrance was not at its best. There was only one small bus operating, which meant people had to queue up for quite a while to get in.

Unfortunately for many of them, by the time they made it inside, sittings had concluded. But all was not lost. Their manthrithumas made sure that they were given a taste of the parliamentary culinary delights.

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