Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) leader and Joint Opposition (JO) parliamentarian Dinesh Gunawardena has written to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on behalf of the Joint Opposition requesting that Parliament is summoned on the grounds of the Meethotamulla tragedy.

Calling the incident a ‘national disaster’, the JO in its letter said: ‘This is the first time a garbage heap has caused a tragedy of this scale. Even as lives are lost, the government has not yet made known how it plans to deal with these issues clearly. We request that you summon Parliament next week so that we can question the government on the loss of lives, the infringing of human rights, the harm to the environment and other questions pertaining to this issue."