News
Home » NewsElection law violations, abuse of State assets continue unabated as D-day nears
Nearly 4,000 candidates vying for 155 seats in the Southern and Western Provincial Councils (SPC, WPC) are set to end their official campaigns on Wednesday, as the two provinces go to the polls next Saturday. As the near-two-month campaign drew to a close, at least one election related death and over 900 complaints of election [...]
Poaching continues: No more release of Indian fishermen
No Indian fishermen arrested for poaching will be released on humanitarian grounds until proper talks are held either with Tamil Nadu officials or with Indian central government officials, Fisheries Minister Rajitha Senaratne said yesterday. The Government’s decision came as Tuesday’s proposed talks in Colombo on the fisheries crisis hung in the balance after Tamil Nadu demanded [...]
Govt. shifts pension gratuity to bank loans
Gratuity payments to retiring public sector employees will be given as a bank loan in terms of a new scheme formulated by the Government. Such payments will replace the existing system where an employee is paid 24 months of his or her gross salary through the ministry, department or the public organisation he or she served [...]
House-to-house search in north for two LTTE suspects
A Police-Army joint operation has been launched in the Northern Province to track down two former LTTE cadres wanted for criminal activities and a two-million-rupee reward has been offered for any information, a senior police officer said. The operation has been launched in the Vavuniya, Mannar, Kilinochchi and Jaffna districts for the suspects identified as [...]
Municipal Commissioner hauled up
Colombo Municipal Commissioner Badrani Jayawardena has been summoned by the Commission Investigating Allegations of Bribery or Corruption over the failure to declare assets and liabilities in her capacity as a supra grade official of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS). A Bribery Commission official said Ms. Jayawardena was summoned, but declined to give details.“I had [...]
JVP, DP likely to pose challenge
Nearly 5.8 million people are eligible to go to the polls on Saturday to elect 155 representatives to the Western and Southern Provincial Councils with a resurgent JVP under a new leadership and the Democratic Party (DP) of former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka expected to pose a challenge to the two main parties. The Western [...]
Dangerous weedicide: No total ban
The Government will not impose a total ban on the herbicide known by its trade name “Roundup” which contains glyphosate, though some experts have warned it could cause cancer and is linked to the Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Instead the Government will introduce measures to restrict the use of the herbicide only in areas where [...]
The saviour of Padaviya’s CKDu patients
Padaviya – From the comparative comfort of the Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital in Colombo, it was to the Base Hospital in this anguish-ridden area that Dr. Shamitha Dassanayake was posted as Acting Physician two years ago. With patients — caught in the vice-like grip of the mysterious kidney disease — and their relatives falling at his [...]
Tipoffs see rise in seizures of contaminated food
A string of raids carried out by the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) this week saw major seizures of food and drink unfit for human consumption, with one official disclosing that increasing tip-offs were resulting in the rise of successful raids. A stock of 500,000kg of contaminated sugar was seized on Wednesday from a warehouse in [...]
1200 lashes and jail term for Lankan maid in Saudi Arabia
A Sri Lankan housemaid in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to a 12-year jail term and 1200 lashes after she was found guilty of a robbery, Foreign Employment Bureau media spokesman Mangala Randeniya said. The woman had allegedly stolen from her employer. Mr. Randeniya said Foreign Ministry officials of the Consular Division in Saudi Arabia [...]
TU action paralyses Water Board
Trade union action by Water Board engineers has paralysed key activities such as providing new connections and work at project sites, a union official said J.A.C Piyal, secretary of the Engineers Union of the National Water Supply and Drainage Board, said union members resorted to trade union action, protesting over appointing engineer assistants to top [...]
Death of patient: Coroner to question doctor
A National Hospital doctor has been ordered to appear in the coroner’s court after a woman he operated on subsequently passed away due to alleged negligence. Colombo Additional City Coroner Mohamed Ashroff Rumy had given the order after the family members of 38-year-old Nishani Malima Perera, a pharmacist attached to a private hospital in Colombo, [...]
Kachchativu festival a good opportunity to build harmony, says Navy Commander
The annual two day St. Antony’s festival on the island of Kachchativu, that brings together pilgrims, mainly from the fisher communities of both India and Sri Lanka, drew to a close last Sunday. Jaffna’s Vicar General Justin Gnanapragasam conducted holy mass at St Antony’s church. “We believe that our saint listens to our prayers and [...]
Call to reduce using animals as lab objects
It was the ‘day of the humble guinea pig’, when like-minded scientists, veterinarians and researchers discussed ways and means of producing models to cut down on animal experiments. Held in the historic amphitheatre of the Colombo Medical Faculty’s Department of Physiology recently, it was also a historic event. The event was none other than the [...]
UN warns water energy needs coming to crunch- point
With the United Nations predicting that the world will need 40 per cent more water and 50 per cent more energy some 15 years from now, World Water Day’s theme of “Water and Energy” Friday was right on target, very much so for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is hoping to increase its reliance on hydro-power [...]
60-year-old man gets 2 years for raping minor
A 60-year-old man who pleaded guilty to rape charges was sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment by Kandy High Court Judge Manila Waidyatilleke. During the course of the trial it was revealed that Selliah Subramaniam had committed the crime in 2008 when the victim was only 14 years old and State Counsel Charaka Dharmasiri had [...]
Mishandled dream of caring for sacred city strays turns to nightmare
A Health Ministry plan to provide shelter and veterinary care for hundreds of stray dogs in Anuradhapura has run into controversy with a Rs. 6 million shelter packed with sick, dying and dead animals on the verge of closure. The shelter was set up in mid-2013 at Nellikulama, a village 13km from Anuradhapura, as a [...]
Hanwella protest a repeat of Rathupaswela?
A village monk had encouraged the people of Thunthana in Hanwella to rise against a rubber glove factory by saying its effluents were contaminating the water in the area, residents said last week. In an incident strongly reminiscent of Rathupaswela, hundreds of people protested on March 15 and 16 demanding the closure of the Hanwella [...]
Lankans need to have better understanding of privacy settings in social media
Many Sri Lankans have little knowledge about privacy settings when using social media, a University lecturer pointed out at a recent discussion, adding that it was imperative to increase awareness in this area. Speaking at a panel discussion titled, Social Media: The Good, Bad, and the Ugly, organised by the Sri Lanka Press Institute, Kelaniya University [...]
Municipal councillor allegedly beats wife, assaults mediation board members
Kotte Municipal Councillor Dhanushka Vishwajith will appear before the Nugegoda Magistrate on Friday on charges of assaulting his wife and three members of a mediation board. The suspect, an active member of the UPFA, had attacked his wife at her place of work despite a restraining order against his contacting her and was charged before [...]
Temples losing their land: Title Registration Act to be amended
The Title Registration Act No 21 of 1998 under which the ‘Bim Saviya’ programme is implemented, is to be amended so that its provisions do not conflict with those of the Buddhist Temporalities Act of 1931. Protests have been made by the Maha Sangha that temple land has been alienated to unauthorised persons as a [...]
Marching towards a new beginning
For the first time a school for young prison inmates was declared open by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday at Watareka, Homagama. Homagama Sunitha Vidyalaya is the result of a joint effort of the Education and Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Ministries. It will have classes from Grades 8 to 11. The government has invested Rs [...]
Will Subasinghe: Sri Lanka’s oldest P.C. is no more
Sri Lanka’s oldest President’s Counsel, (P.C.) J.W. (Will) Subasinghe passed away yesterday. He was 96. Mr. Subasinghe was one-time Secretary to the Ministry of Justice and Registrar of the Supreme Court. He had a wide civil practice and was a close counsel of President J.R. Jayewardene throughout President Jayewardene’s long political career from the 1940s to [...]
Sithie Tiruchelvam passes away
The funeral of Sithie Subahanya Tiruchelvam, Attorney-at-Law, will be held at the General Cemetery Kanatte at 11 a.m. today. She passed away on Saturday at the age of 69. Mrs Tiruchelvam was the founding partner of Tiruchelvam Associates, a law firm she started with her husband, Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam, PC, MP., who was later killed [...]
CAA initiates programme for hygienic food, fresh consumer items for festive season
The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) has initiated a special programme to save consumers from fraudulant issues they would come across at the marketplace during the forthcoming New Year season. The programme which started on March 10, will continue till April 10, with the CAA’s district representatives including from the Colombo headquarters, intensively engaged in the [...]
UK Minister answers questions on SL live via Twitter ahead of UNHRC vote
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister Hugo Swire will answer questions on Sri Lanka, live, via Twitter, tomorrow (24), ahead of the UN Human Rights Council vote on a resolution that calls for an independent, international investigation into what happened on both sides during the war in Sri Lanka. The UK has co-tabled the resolution [...]
No mining or quarrying for limestone in the province: NPC passes resolution
The Northern Provincial Council this week passed a resolution not to allow any companies or individuals to mine or quarry limestone in the province, Agriculture and Environment Minister P. Ingaranesan said. A meeting headed by the Minister of Environment and Renewable Energy Susil Premajayantha and District Secretary of Kilinochchi Rupawathi Ketheeswaran will be held tomorrow [...]
MR categorically refutes CBK’s charges of violating her FR as lacking in substance
The cold war between former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and President Mahinda Rajapaksa came to a head this week after Ms Kumaratunga accused the Government of violating her privacy, causing harassment and expressed concerns for her personal safety, which the Government promptly denied. Secretary to the President, Lalith Weeratunga, writing on behalf of President Rajapaksa, said, [...]
Sudden death in trishaws sound a warning
Recent tragic three-wheeler accidents that have claimed lives on the spot should come as an eye-opener for authorities on the growing need for monitoring and regulation of three-wheelers, an expert warned. The warning from former deputy inspector-general of police Camillus Abeygunewardena followed the deaths of four young men last week when the three-wheeler in which [...]
