A protest was held near the Mariawatte Junction on Gampola-Nawalapitiya road demanding reparation of the road running from Mariawatte area towards Udugama. The protest was launched by the by residents, earlier today (03).

During the protest, one of the Buddhist monks participating at the protest took a phone call to the Minister of Public Enterprise, Kandyan Heritage and Kandy Development and Leader of the House of Parliament Lakshman Kiriella.

There was heavy traffic congestion on the road by the relevant time and the monk told the minister that they intend to continue to carry on the protest. The monk requested the minister to repair the relevant road as soon as possible.

However, Minister Kiriella proceeded to berate the monk in strong words through the phone.

It was also observed that the rest of the monks who had been at the protest were angered by the strong words used by the Minister on the monk.

Issuing a statement on the incident Minister Lakshman Kiriella stated that he responded to a protestor over the phone and not a monk.

He says that he received the phone call when he had been busy and that the caller addressed him in a threatening manner.

Minister has stated that the caller blamed him of stealing Rs 50 million from funds allocated to build a road. Therefore, he too responded to the caller in an aggressive manner, Kiriella has further mentioned.

Following is the complete statement issued by Minister Kiriella: