Members of the public can now send questions, requests for clarification and suggestions about the Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development directly to the minister as WhatsApp voice messages, under an initiative titled “Ask Handun”.
Voice messages on any issue related to the ministry’s services can be sent to 077 554 1646, the Daily Mirror reported.
Submissions will be reviewed according to their importance, and the minister’s answers published through his Facebook page.
Who “Handun” is
The Daily Mirror’s report does not name the minister. The scheme is named for Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, according to Newswire, which carried the same announcement and describes the public as invited to submit issues, clarifications or proposals regarding the ministry’s services.
Newswire frames the publication threshold slightly differently from the Daily Mirror: it says responses will be published on the minister’s official Facebook page depending on the national importance of the queries submitted, where the Daily Mirror says submissions will be reviewed based on their importance. Both describe a filter; neither says who applies it.
Handunnetti is the minister who in September said his remarks on the 22nd Amendment had been misinterpreted.
A one-way channel with a public filter
The design is worth reading closely. Messages go in by voice to a single mobile number; answers come out selectively, on a politician’s Facebook page rather than a ministry website. Nothing in either report describes a commitment to respond to every submission, a service standard for replies, or a route for a sender to follow up privately.
That makes “Ask Handun” closer to a public question-selection exercise than a service desk — a distinction that matters for anyone sending a complaint about a ministry service rather than a general query.
Not reported
Neither account says who operates the number or screens the messages, whether submissions in Tamil are accepted, or how senders’ personal data and voice recordings are stored and handled. Neither gives operating hours, says whether the number also accepts text, or states what happens to queries judged insufficiently important. Neither reports whether the initiative replaces or supplements the ministry’s existing public contact channels, and no launch volume or target is given.
Of the verified Sri Lankan newsrooms LankaNewz tracks, only the Daily Mirror had filed its own account at the time of writing. Newswire is not a verified newsroom for credibility purposes and is cited here for the minister’s identity and the ministry’s framing of the scheme.
