Southern Province Chief Minister Shan Wijelal de Silva assured that an investigation will be held into an incident, where a Pradeshiya Sabha (PS) Chairman is alleged to have printed thousands of forged entry tickets for a trade and educational exhibition at the G/Baddegama Ratnasara Maha Vidyalaya.

JVP Galle district member Victor Jayasundara brought this alleged fraud to the notice of the Chief Minister during the Southern PC meeting held recently.

He charged that the Baddegama PS Chairman Amarasiri Narangoda (PA) and his supporters were behind this fraud where 12,000 forged tickets had been printed and over Rs. 100,000 collected on the sly.

The principal of the school, S. J. H. T. Mohotti had complained to the police and following investigations, thousands of forged tickets had been taken into custody, the JVP member said.

This fraud came to light when it was found that the Education Department’s stamp of authority was missing on the fake tickets. Hundreds of unsuspecting people had purchased them and had lined up to view the exhibition, Jayasundara said.

The previous day, the school had earned Rs. 50,000 from the sale of tickets and all proceeds were in aid of the school’s development projects, he said.

The event could not be continued and had to be cancelled following the detection of these spurious tickets and this caused a big loss to both the school in terms of proceeds from the sale which went towards development and also to the students, he said.

These poor rural students were deprived of viewing this educational exhibition and gathering more knowledge, the JVP member said.

He charged that the principal had been threatened by the PS Chairman following this incident.

Police have arrested a supporter of the Chairman in this connection, he said.