SriLanka, Sept. 23 -- Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP S.M.Marikkar challenged the government in Parliament to hold the Provincial Council elections without further delay as a litmus test to gauge the people's mandate.

Addressing the House yesterday (22), he asked the government where the dollars are which is required to import raw material to build the country's essential mass scale infrastructure citing that they cannot be developed with Sri Lankan Rupees.

"According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to pay the debt by the end of this year in December, if US$ 8.465 billion is required in the country's reserves, and if we are only having US$ 6.9 billion currently in the reserve, there is a shortage of US$ 1.5 billion.

In such a...