Udaya Gammanpila

Who is Udaya Gammanpila?

Udaya Prabhath Gammanpila is a Sri Lankan politician and current Minister of Agriculture, Agrarian Development, Irrigation, Trade and Environment in Western Provincial Council.

Gammanpila was active in politics since his schooling days at D. S. Senanayake College where it is alleged that he actively participated in the 1987–89 Insurrection by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, he has neither admitted nor denied this fact, however his principal of the school at the time, R I T Alles, has mentioned in his autobiography “My Life” that Udaya actively participated in the JVP organized student protests. he has claimed that he was a student leader of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka.

Having obtained the highest marks in the country's Advance Level examination in the commerce stream in 1988 he won a scholarship to study Computer Science at Monash University. He was a teaching assistant while as an undergraduate and became a member of Australian Computer Society. Later he became an Attorney at Law. After graduation, he joined the corporate sector as a Management Trainee and became the Chief Executive Officer of Australia Lanka Group at the age of 26.