New appointments were made to the Parliamentary Caucus for functioning towards safeguarding National Heritage recently.
According to a statement from the Parliament, MP Jayantha Samaraweera was appointed as the Chair of the Parliamentary Caucus for functioning towards safeguarding National Heritage.
MP Jayantha Samaraweera’s name was proposed by State Minister Sisira Jayakody and seconded by MP Weerasumana Weerasinghe.
The name of State Minister Sisira Jayakody was proposed for Deputy Chair by MP Gamini Waleboda and was seconded by MP Wimal Weerawansa, while MP Udaya Gammanpila proposed the name of MP (Prof.) Channa Jayasumana for Deputy Chair, which was seconded by MP Upul Mahendra Rajapaksha.
Addressing those present, the newly appointed Chair, MP Jayantha Samaraweera mentioned that the existing national heritages are not being preserved properly and there are still many places in the country that should be named as national heritages and their non-preservation has become a national problem. As a result, he stated that all the members of the Caucus are waiting to come together and prepare a formal program for this.
The Deputy Chair of the Caucus, State Minister Sisira Jayakody stated that not only physical places are considered as national heritage and that generational knowledge, medicine, various forms of mysticism etc, should also be considered and protected as national heritage.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chair (Prof.) Channa Jayasumana stated that it is said that there are about 600 unexploited inscriptions found in the North East. He pointed out that after Professor Senarath Paranavitana, Professor Mandis Rohanadeera made a great effort to understand these inscriptions, but there is still a lot left.
The importance of properly preserving national heritage sites and developing them as tourist attractions was also discussed. It was emphasized that national heritage belongs to all nations and national heritage is a source of pride in all nations for their motherland. Apart from that, it was also expressed that there should be a special division of the police which operates on the instructions of the Director General of Archeology to deal with national heritage.
The Members of Parliament further stated that it would be appropriate to appoint a sub-committee to deal with endangered and threatened national heritage. Such places exist in the North as well as in the South and to seek international support and assistance from local and foreign scholars for the preservation of these national heritages was also taken into discussion.
It was also discussed to prepare a program with a specific time frame for conducting the activities of the forum in a formal manner and appoint several sub-committees to facilitate the activities of the Caucus.
State Ministers Sisira Jayakody, (Dr.) (Ms.) Seetha Arambepola, MPs Wimal Weerawansa, (Dr.) Sarath Weerasekera, A. L. M. Athaullah, (Mrs.) Rohini Kumari Wijerathna, Udaya Gammanpila, Jagath Kumara Sumithraarachchi, Upul Mahendra Rajapaksha, (Prof.) Channa Jayasumana, Gamini Waleboda, Weerasumana Weerasinghe and the Secretary General of Parliament Kushani Rohanadeera were present at the Committee meeting. (NewsWire)