Image: President’s Counsel Saliya Peiris.
President’s Counsel Saliya Peiris, has been now appointed as the Chairperson of the OMP, government controlled Daily News reports. Mr. Saliya Peries was not among the constitutional council selected seven members to the OMP in December 2017 but president Sirisena included him out side the due process. Saliya Peries has recently argued at the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka that Sirisena’s presidential term should be 6 years. But Supreme Court decided that Sirisena has only 5 year term which will end in November 2019.
In December 2017, the Constitutional Council nominated the names of seven persons to the OMP, having selected them from over 100 applications. President returned the list of names to the constitutional council, requesting them to reconsider the nominations. later he has named two persons, who were not among the original applicants, according to informed sources.
Now President Maithripala Sirisena has confirmed the appointments of the seven members to the Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) which was established in September 2017.
The members of the OMP are: Jayatheepa Punniyamoorthy, Major General Mohanti Antonette Peiris, Dr Sriyani Nimalka Fernando, Mirak Raheem, Somasiri K Liyanage and Kanapathipillai Venthan.
The Act stipulated that the OMP would, “Provide for the establishment of the office on missing persons; to provide for the searching and tracing of missing persons; to provide assistance to relatives of missing persons; for the setting up of a database of missing persons; for setting out the procedures and guidelines applicable to the powers and functions assigned to the said office; and to provide for all matters which are connected with or incidental to, the implementation of the provisions of this act’.
The 2018 Budget has allocated Rs 1.4 billion for the OMP.
(With the inputs from the Daily News)