After performing pirith at the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday to mark the completion of the first year in office by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, the bhikkhus said that the country has made satisfactory progress during the past 12 months.
Ven Kirinde Assaji Thera said it is obvious to everyone about the progress in the country. If anyone expresses an opinion honestly, that person will admit that the country has reached a satisfactory position during the past one year.
“You have taken the office of the Prime Minister at a time when the country was burning and there was instability everywhere. Now the country is on the right path,” Ven Kirinde Assaji Thera said. “When President Ranil Wickremesinghe became the Executive President and the Supreme Commander of Armed Forces, he wanted a person with integrity and experience as Prime Minister. You have been elevated to that position because you are a long-standing politician with vast experiences. Both of you have given the leadership to the country and taken it to the correct path towards progress,” he said.
Ven Udawela Kolitha Thera of the Walukaramaya in Kollupitiya, said as the President and the Prime Minister joined hands, it was possible to take the country on a positive path avoiding a clash between the executive and the legislature. “The country is now being stabilised and we, as the Maha Sangha, are quite contended with this progress,” he said.
Chief Incumbent of the Walukaramaya in Kollupitiya,Ven Maharagama Nanda Thera, Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva, Susil Premajayantha, Tiran Alles, Ministers of State Anupapaqual, Sisirajayakody, Ashoka Priyantha, Suren Raghavan and MPs Gamini Lokuge, Yadamini Gunawardena, Madhra Withanage and Jayantha Weerasinghe, former Deputy Speaker Geetanjana Gunawardena and the staff of the Prime Minister’s Office took part in the religious observations.