UPFA MP Dinesh Gunawardena today lamented that he was charged Rs. 400 by Parliament for a copy of the Sri Lankan constitution. 

Gunawardena told the Speaker that important documents such as the Constitution should be made available to lawmakers free of charge. 

He also urged Speaker Jayasuriya to intervene in the matter and ensure that MPs are not charged when obtaining public documents. 

However, the Constitution can be downloaded from the official website of Parliament without any cost and the MPs are given laptops, tabs and internet access at the expense of taxpayers. 

Lawmakers can also obtain printouts of all pages of the Constitution and his stationery costs are borne by the public. 

Informed political sources said many Sri Lankan lawmakers are not conversant with the internet and hardly use it to gather information relevant to their work.