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Three weeks after the milk crisis broke out in Sri Lanka, the confusion continued, further bemusing the people when some “experts” discussed issues totally unrelated to contamination and the Government maintained a sphinx-like silence. Thunder and fury exuded by the experts effectively curdled the milk fiasco, without casting much light on crucial issues. This was [...]
New tourist city to rise from Mt. Lavinia sea
A multi-billion rupee project to reclaim part of the sea off the Mount Lavinia area for mixed development projects including tourist-related facilities is to be awarded to a company from the Netherlands, a senior Government official said yesterday. Dr. Anil Premaratne, Director General of Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management Department, which comes under the purview [...]
Milk crisis: Ministerial com. meets tomorrow
A seven-member ministerial committee appointed to probe the milk contamination issue on a Cabinet directive meets tomorrow just as confusion prevails in the market over the sale of milk products, government and milk industry sources said. The committee headed by Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena is expected to submit a report within a week over tests [...]
Kidney disease spreads; Govt. to ban ads on agro-chemicals
Fresh on the heels of the continuing milk food crisis and questions over the advertising of milk products, the Government wants to impose a ban on advertising pesticides and agro chemicals causing the mounting Chronic Kidney Disease in Sri Lanka and establish a statutory Technological Council to promote environmentally friendly agriculture. These are highlights of [...]
State banks’ billions for Wimal’s million houses
Housing and Construction Minister Wimal Weerawansa has got the country’s five state-owned banks to cough up more than Rs. 4.2 billion for the Government’s programme to build one million houses. The banks are People’s Bank (Rs. 1,200 million), Bank of Ceylon (Rs. 1,200 million), National Savings Bank (Rs. 1,200 million), Housing Development Finance Corporation (Rs. [...]
Journalists ordered to come to Army camp, residents refuse to go
The Army Court of Inquiry investigating the August 1 Weliweriya attack has issued summons on the journalists who were at the scene to testify before it. The summons were first faxed and thereafter hand delivered by the Army to the journalists’ offices on Friday to come to the Commando Regiment at the Ganemulla camp at [...]
Honouring those to whom honour is due: Prof G.L. Peiris
President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared open the Russian sculptured statue of the late Mr Lakshman Kadirgamar at a solemn function on Monday on the 8th anniversary of his assassination, at the premises of the Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies, named after the late Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka. The statue was commissioned on a [...]
Bus owners, NTC on collision course over fare hike
The National Transport Commission (NTC) and the Lanka Private Bus Owners Association (LPBOA) are on a collision course over the latter’s decision to increase fares from September 1. The NTC on Friday vowed it would not allow an arbitrary fare hike as the Government had given a string of concessions to private bus owners. But bus [...]
Former IGP Ernest Perera’s funeral today
The funeral of former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ernest Perera takes place at the General Cemetery in Borella (Roman Catholic Section) at 4.00 pm today. He passed away on Friday. He was 81. He entered the Police Dept as a graduate Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in 1957. The following year he was posted [...]
Ranil off to India
Opposition and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe will leave for India tomorrow for a three-day visit. He will meet with several high level Indian leaders during his stay, a media release from the Opposition Leader’s office said.
Turning circle case: Ex-IGP’s widow loses appeal
An action instituted over 28 years ago, and after several trials over a turning circle down a by-road in residential Colombo has brought interim relief to the petitioner, the country’s first lady President’s Counsel, Ms. Maureen Seneviratne. Ms. Seneviratne P.C. initiated the action against Mrs. Sita Rajasingham, wife of former Inspector General of Police Rudra Rajasingham [...]
NP National Physical Planning Committee to start development planning
Maankulam will be the administrative centre of the Northern Province, while Jaffna will be the cultural hub, with Kilinochchi as the trade hub and Mannar as the port city, according to the National Physical Planning Committee of the Northern Province, which will commence its development planning in the Province. This was revealed at the Committee’s [...]
Rookantha: Those in political, security and cinema fields gave the orders
When they came for Rookantha Goonatillake and his wife Chandralekha Perera the first time, the couple managed to flee in the nick of time with their two young children, leaving behind their meal laid out on the table and leaving open the cover of the piano on which Mr. Goonatillake had been playing a song [...]
Police alert Defence Ministry over Chinese, Taiwanese criminals
Police have alerted the Defence Ministry over an alarming increase in financial crimes involving foreigners, especially by those from China and Taiwan. Authoritative sources told the Sunday Times that Criminal Investigation Department (CID) statistics indicated that 136 foreigners were arrested between January 1, 2010, and July 5, 2013, for their alleged involvement in financial or credit [...]
Computer ‘jilmart’ in Education Ministry’s Rs 527m ADB-funded project
Schools which received computers under a project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), complain that they find it hard to maintain them due to the failure of the private company which provided them to honour their contract. The Ministry of Education signed a contract with a private company based in Nugegoda in 2010, to [...]
The return of the Damselfly after 154 years
An animal or plant is considered ‘extinct’, if it has not been recorded for more than a century. The Sri Lanka Emerald Spreadwing (Sinhalestes orientalis) a beautiful Damselfly that had not been recorded for 154 years and thereby considered extinct had made a re-appearance last year. The finding is published in the recent issue of [...]
Hacking and stabbing: Our crime scene is getting uglier by the day
Last week, a man was killed and three were seriously injured when a family of four was attacked in Tangalle by an unidentified group. The attackers had hacked to death Nuwan Chamira Andrahennedi while three members of his family are receiving treatment at the Karapitya Hospital. The police have so far tracked the three-wheeler that [...]
Red alert over rising rape cases
Activists warn of lawlessness and social decadence; politicians among main culprits With a woman being raped every 90 minutes in Sri Lanka, women’s rights activists and academics are expressing serious concern over the rise in grave sex crimes – a disturbing trend that puts the lives of local and even foreign women here on high [...]
Smuggled high-spirit, high-lifers’ drink in the market
An upmarket imported alcoholic beverage of 68% strength and green in colour, has found its way into the local market, a recent raid by the Excise Department revealed this week. As of now, the Excise Dept has recovered some 300 such bottles, mainly from supermarkets and nightclubs, Excise Commissioner General D.G.M.V. Hapuaarachchi told the Sunday Times. [...]
PC polls: Campaigns hotting up in NWP and CP, NP still lukewarm
With just a month to go before elections to three crucial provincial councils, the campaigns in the North Western and Central Provinces are hotting up while in the Northern Provincee (NP), it’s still a slow process.Incidents of election law violations have been reported mainly from the NWP where the presence of many political heavy weights, [...]
A method in the madness to rein in the ‘tuk-tuk’s
Three-wheeler drivers charge that, despite the new regulations for the operation of three-wheelers, absence of a State body to monitor and support three-wheeler drivers, will, for all intents and purposes, result in the regulations being observed in the breach. All-Island Three-Wheel Drivers and Owners Union President Sudhil Jayaruk said most people sought three-wheelers as the [...]
Probe ordered into death by hanging inside police cell
The police have re-opened a probe into the death of a suspect found hanging inside the cell at Baddegama police station earlier this month, a senior police official said yesterday. The fresh probe was initiated on an order by Baddegama Additional Magistrate Wimalaratana Mahapalagama, following a plaint filed by the victim’s mother Kariyawasam Pathirige Gimara, that [...]
Grandpass: A commitment to peace after ugly clashes
It was time for Friday prayers but the old mosque on Swarna Chaitya Road in Molawatte, Grandpass, stayed empty last week. Hunks of wood, sawn off the Bo tree that had overshadowed its minarets for many years, were piled outside the door. There were no devotees at the disputed new mosque —or “prayer centre” — either. [...]
Setup polluting industries in industrial zone: Environmentalists
It is reported that the President has ordered the Rathupaswala factory be relocated in an industrial zone. Environmentalists agree that industries which have the potential to pollute the environment should be located in industrial zones. “It is better to set up polluting industries in industrial zones instead of in populated areas that are environmentally sensitive,” [...]
Not just Rathupaswela, many more areas polluted by factory waste
Following allegations that waste material from a company was polluting the water in Rathupaswala, Weliwerivya, similar cases of environmental pollution have been reported from various parts of the country. The other areas include Ekala, Kadalawala-Wattala close to Bopitiya, Jaela, Katunayake, Biyagama, Muthurajawela and Galle, environmentalists say. When the Sunday Times visited the Kadalawala area where charges [...]
Broken down buses
The Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) bus service is a main component of the country’s public transport service. Unfortunately, the dire state of these buses are an eyesore and make travelling unsafe for weary passengers who have no choice but continue their journey. “We are unable to complain as depot officers tell that they are [...]
Road deaths continue unabated with 5 deaths and 54 hospitalised
At least five persons, including two women and a soldier, were killed and 54 others including children were injured, some critically, in four separate motor accidents in several parts of the country yesterday, police said. Two women were killed, when the cab they were traveling in crashed onto a roadside tree at Thabuttegama in the [...]
148-year-old Police Ordinance to be overhauled
The 148-year-old Police Ordinance is to be overhauled to empower law enforcement officers to crack down more effectively on criminal activity. The Ministry of Defence and Urban Development has appointed two official committees to identify changes required. One comprises representatives of the MoD, the Attorney Generals Department and a senior police officer. The second committee comprises [...]
Govt. must heed call of its own ministers to rein in hate mongers
The unrelenting targeting of Muslims during the past couple of years shows no signs of abating as evidenced by the attack on a Muslim place of worship in Grandpass by unruly mobs last week. Muslims have been watching with great concern and bewilderment while they are being made to feel aliens in the land of [...]
Low-interest loans for undergraduate studies in non-State Universities
A loan scheme for students who wish to pursue higher education in Engineering and Medicine at non-State universities, is to be proposed to the Government by the University Grants Commission (UGC), revealed its Chairperson Prof Kshanika Hirimburegama to Education Times. “We are going to introduce nonprofit and non State faculties for Engineering and Medicine in [...]
‘Harmony Centres’ in campuses to resolve student issues
The University Grants Commission (UGC) is to expand ‘Harmony Centres’ within local universities to resolve student issues and improve reconciliation, officials of the Commission said. These Harmony Centres were first put up by the UGC early this year, following several unruly actions by university students. According to UGC officials, the centres will play a bigger [...]
A hand up for graduates to do their own thing
The UGC is also to provide loans to graduates who wish to start their own businesses after completing their higher education. Prof Hirimburegama said that the project is called the ‘Business Sells’. “In this project, the interested student present his/her business proposal to the relevant officials of Business Sells, who will forward them to an [...]
For a solid higher education system
Senior officials of 17 higher education institutes at a discussion held by the Higher Education Ministry at Nawala on Wednesday (14)
Agro Tech online courses for farmers
Online courses for the farming community have been introduced by the Institute of Agro Technology and Rural Sciences of Weligatta, Hambantota. The programme that teaches the farmers Agro Technology in four levels which are Certificate Course Level, Diploma, Higher Diploma and Degree Levels is provided to farmers interested in pursuing the subject for their advancement. [...]
Quality higher education through State accredited Institutes: UGC head
A National Quality Assurance and Accreditation Council (NQAAC) will be introduced from next year to look into the quality and accreditation of all universities in the country, said Chairperson of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Prof Kshanika Hirimburegama. “This way we can assure a solid education system,” said Prof Hirimburegama on the current state of [...]
Eastern University seeks Rs. 5 bn for Medical Faculty upgrade
The Eastern University of Sri Lanka has requested Rs.5 billion from the Ministry of Higher Education to carry out a number of development projects within the Faculty of Healthcare Sciences (Medical Faculty), the section’s Dean, Dr. K.T Sundaresan, said. Dr. Sundaresan said that the university was going to use the funds to build a five-storied [...]
Workshop on ‘Education in Human Values’
‘Education in Human Values’ will be the subject of a two-day Workshop organised by the Institute of Sathya Sai Education in Sri Lanka, on August 24 and 25, from 8.00 am to 4.30 pm at the Saraswathi Hall, Lorenz Road, Colombo 4. The Workshop intends to promote education in human values. Chief Guest at the [...]
Ruhuna undergrad wins Gold at Inter University Chemistry competition
Dinesh Amarasinghe of the University of Ruhuna won the Gold Medal at the all island Inter University Chemistry Competition 2012/2013, conducted by the Royal Society of Chemistry, Sri Lanka at a ceremony held recently. Thirty top performers from the six universities competed. K.K.D.P.D. Godakumbura and Ruvini Rajapaksha received two merit awards. The Awards Ceremony was [...]
Lack of Lecturers, facilities hinder local Higher Education
Lack of facilities and competent lecturers has affected the higher education system in the country, said top officials of educational institutes. The disclosure was made at a meeting held at the Higher Education Ministry, Nawala on Wednesday (14). between Higher Education Minister, S.B. Dissanayake, Higher Education Ministry Secretary, Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratna and National Center [...]
