Public Security Minister Tiran Alles told Parliament yesterday that the entire population of Sri Lanka will be registered with the Police due to the high crime rate.
He said that the aim is to create an internet database where any Sri Lankan can be identified at any time.
The Minister said this while replying to a question raised by the MPMano Ganesan as to why the Tamil community and especially the Tamils in Colombo are being registered with the Police currently.
He said that it has been decided to register the entire population in Sri Lanka irrespective of ethnicity and the allegations made by MP Ganesan that only Tamil people’s information is obtained are baseless.
The Minister said that the information of 90 percent of the people living in the vicinity of Colombo has been obtained and all the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims are among them.
He said that records should be maintained regarding whether a person living in another province commits a crime and comes to Colombo and hides or whether a person living in Colombo commits a crime and hides in another province.
However, the Minister said that he explained the true situation in this regard on many occasions before and that this process cannot be stopped for any reason.
He said that the registration forms printed in all the three languages are distributed to houses all over the country to get the information.
“MP Ganesan told a blatant lie that information is collected from only houses that Tamils are living in. I told him this when I met him personally. I also gave him statistics. This application was given not after I assumed as a subject Minister. This form has been given for some time. It was also given during the war. We collect only the names and we don’t ask about their religion. If you need more information, let’s sit down and talk,” Minister Alles said.
“We can’t stop this process now. We have to be concerned about our national security. We can’t stop it. If we are concerned about security, we will do it. There is nothing to hide. Information will be collected to know about the people at home. Even though the war is over, crime has increased. We are now building a new computer database so that anyone can be identified at any time,” the Minister said.
Irangika Range