31st named as Day of Mourning for Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka ... revoked

31st named as Day of Mourning for Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka ... revoked

Though 31st was named as a Day of Mourning on behalf of the bereavement of Mr. Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka was announced last afternoon, the government has revoked it on the request made by members of his family.

As a result of the son of the former Prime Minister MP Vidura Wickramanayaka including the kith and kin of the family maing the request in this connection, the Ministry of Local Government has announced that the said day would not be announced as a Day of Mourning. It

is the opinion of members of the Wickramanayaka family that since the 30th and 31st are the final days of the year and is also a period where festivals and other activities have been effected, the public would be inconvenienced if the 31st is named as a Day of Mourning. Therefore, if one of those two days has been named a Day of Mourning ... relatives of the family have made a written request from the Director General of Government Information too, to abolish it.

On the occasion when photographs showing Mr. Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka seriously sick before his death were published across the media last week, what his son Mr. Vidura Wickramanayaka informed was that his father was not suffering from that sort of sickness and was expected to be brought home having recovered from his ailing condition and to publish such photos was bad ethics. A few days later after that the former Prime Minister breathed his last.