Public Security Minister Tiran Alles said that the Government has taken steps to register all NGOs with the National Secretariat for NGOs and measures will be taken to prohibit any NGOs that are not registered.
Minister Alles was speaking at the press conference held at the Presidential Media Centre yesterday (28) under the theme ‘Collective Path to a Stable Country’. He said that necessary measures have been taken as a responsible Government to stop hindrances to the lives of the people. He further stated that the programme to suppress the underworld has already been implemented under the instructions given by President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The Minister also pointed out that the Police Department is working on a non-political agenda and is always committed to protecting the law and order of the country at the highest level.
Public Security Minister Alles further stated: “Currently, the Police Department is working on a non-political agenda. All the necessary facilities have been provided. It has been about a year since the current Government took office, so not everything can be accomplished within a year. However, the Police Department has undertaken a significant amount of work. The Police Department currently comprises around 85,000 officers.”
“The Ministry has developed a special programme to eradicate narcotics from the country. Underworld activities in the South have been on the rise consistently. Due to this, the Special Task Force, the Police and other Security Forces jointly started special operations in such areas. As a result, it has been possible to eliminate to some extent the underworld activities in the Southern Province. At present, there are a number of reports of shootings between groups of underworld gangs. They murder each other. Necessary measures have already been taken to stop such activities of the underworld gangs. The Security Forces have also been instructed to shoot if necessary. As a responsible Government, no activity that harms the lives of the people will be tolerated,” he said.
“Following President Wickremesinghe’s instructions, we provided the Catholic Church with a copy of the complete investigation report concerning the Easter attacks. The Catholic Church should also extend its support to the Police investigations into the Easter attacks,” he said.
“In the Department of Immigration and Emigration, which falls under my Ministry, we have initiated the process of issuing passports through an online system. In the past, various types of scams occurred. Now through this new online system, we have completely stopped the possibility of such fraudulent activities. There are 51 centres that have already been established islandwide to facilitate necessary fingerprint scanning for new passports. Therefore, people can have their passports delivered to their doorstep within a few days,” Minister Alles said.
“We have taken the necessary steps to enhance the facilities related to the efficient operation of the department. In some cases, system errors and crashes may occur. Therefore, we must implement modern technology to prevent such issues,” he said.