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As the country prepares for the presidential election, a special event was held at Independence Square to mark the first anniversary of the constitutional coup that took place on October 26 last year. Civic action group leaders and activists took part in this event which they said was a reminder to government leaders of how [...]
US fixer pocketed a billion from Lanka
Only a fraction of US$ 6.5mn–nearly Rs 1bn in today’s rates–paid by the previous regime in 2014 to an American fixer named Imaad Zuberi was spent on lobbying the US Government on behalf of the Sri Lankan Government and a massive 87 percent of the fee was spent by the agent on himself and his [...]
Superior Court judges dismiss AG’s Dept. fundraiser appeal
Supreme Court and Court of Appeal judges yesterday kept away from a controversial fund-raising campaign organised by the Attorney General’s Department at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo. The Sunday Times learns that the judges who were formerly invited for the event excused themselves giving different reasons over their inability to attend the event which was [...]
Don’t conduct mock polls, you may end up in jail
Institution heads will be held responsible for allowing employees to take part in mock polls aimed at testing the popularity of candidates and would be liable to a jail term and fine, the National Elections Commission warned yesterday. Elections Commissioner General Saman Ratnayake said the warning came in the wake of some of the private [...]
Former FCID Chief’s family linked to money laundering suspects
Former Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) head Senior DIG Ravi Waidyalankara’s wife assumed directorship of a company along with the wife of a key suspect his office was assigned to probe for suspected money laundering, documents filed at the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court this week show. Meanwhile, a company owned by his son–Asela Jayampathy Rajasundara [...]
Gem and jewellery industry not happy with FIU directive
Sections of the Gem and Jewellery industry are up in arms over a Financial Intelligence Unit directive urging them to collect customer information. The FIU, which comes under the Central Bank, has requested gem and jewellery establishments to appoint compliance officers to take down the name, identity card or passport number of the clients. They [...]
President’s report names underperforming and high performance ministries
President Maithripala Sirisena has cautioned secretaries of underperforming ministries after a Presidential Secretariat report revealed that several key ministries, including Defence, National Policies and Economic Affairs and Power and Energy, had not recorded adequate progress in the first half of the year. Acting on a President’s directive, Presidential Secretary Udaya R. Seneviratne has written to [...]
Portrait and bust of two legal luminaries unveiled
The portrait of former Minister of Finance and Constitutional Affairs and eminent commercial law luminary K.N. Choksy, PC, and the bust of a former Attorney General Shibly Aziz, PC, were unveiled at the Law Library at Hulftsdorp this week by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya. The Chief Justice addressing the gathering said the two personalities had [...]
SLLDC defends bid to buy sand dredger costing more than Rs. 6.5bn
The Sri Lanka Land Development Corporation (SLLDC) management this week mounted a spirited defence of its proposal to spend more than Rs 6.5bn on a dredger to mine sea sand for the local construction industry. At least seven officials, including General Manager K. Rajapakshe, met the Sunday Times in Chairman Roshan Gunawardena’s office. On the [...]
Wrong impression given to readers, say experts
Dr. Collin Seneviratne, a toxicologist based in UK and Prof. Sarathchandra Kodikara, a pathologist and the Head of the Peradeniya University’s Forensic Medicine Faculty has responded to last week’s article with the heading “ Govt. Analyst Department not sufficiently equipped: Many killings mysterious deaths go unsolved”. They said; The heading of this article is erroneous, [...]
Gota promises a poverty-free, secure, progressive country
A special relief package for the public, tax reductions and ensuring security are among the key pledges of the manifesto of the Sri Lanka Podujana Party candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR), launched at a ceremony held at the Nelum Pokuna, Colombo on Friday (25). The manifesto focused on eliminating corruption, introducing an efficient administration, improving the [...]
AKD pledges a new beginning with a clean slate
Sri Lanka’s import-export gap amounts to US$ 10.4 billion. Consequently, the economy has to be restructured with new economic policies, said National Peoples’ Power (NPP) presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake, when he unveiled his election manifesto, titled “Dawn of Hope”, at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo, yesterday (26). Speaking on the occasion, Mr Dissanayake [...]
CMEV voices opposition to use of children for electioneering
The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) has strongly come out against the use of children for election campaigning. This follows the presence of a 14-year-old girl carrying a Ceylon Workers Congress flag, with her face painted in Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) colours, at the launch of the SLPP’s election manifesto at the Nelum [...]
Campaigns mind the profusion of polythene
Authorities have commended the reduced use of polythene by political parties for their election campaigns this year. The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) said that it not yet received any complaints on the use of polythene campaigns. The prohibition of polythene was laid down in the gazette notice No 1466/5 on September 1, 2017 under section [...]
President, Premier et al failed the people: PSC report
Serious lapses on the part of the seniormost officials of the Security and Intelligence establishment, along with failures by the political leadership, led to the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, emphasises the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), appointed to investigate the attacks, in its final report of 274 pages. After a 5-month long investigation, the PSC finds [...]
Medicines regulator sets clinical trials rules
The National Medicine Regulatory (NMRA) Authority has taken steps to regulate clinical trials on medicines, devices and borderline products listed in its registry. NMRA said that the step has been warranted because of the lack of controls on clinical trials on pharmaceuticals products. Pharmaceutical medicines, devices and borderline products earlier came under the Cosmetics Devices [...]
More containers carrying foreign waste discovered; no solution till CA gives ruling
As 21 more containers carrying garbage from Britain have been discovered in the Customs’ Orugodawatte yard in recent weeks, officials appear to be at a loss as to what to do with tons of foreign waste in more than 200 containers. The Central Environment Authority’s chemical and hazardous waste management unit director, Ajith Weerasundara, said [...]
Gems from the presidential presser at secret location
The Sunday Times has obtained from Ryp Van Winkle the secret transcript of a live presser by the main candidates for the forthcoming presidential election, SP, GR and AKD, held at an undisclosed location. The media were allowed to pose any question they wished on the condition that the candidates’ answers would not be made [...]
2019 presidential election more critical than that of 2015
The presidential election of January 8, 2015 was significant in more ways than one. The election of Maithripala Sirisena as the Head of State and Government signalled a halt to the authoritarian trend of Governance that was becoming increasingly evident, after the end of the armed conflict in May 2009, with the defeat of the [...]
NEC to Media: Do not release “unofficial” election results
The National Election Commission (NEC) has requested all media institutions to refrain from releasing “unofficial” election results of the 2019 presidential election, and only release results certified by the NEC. In a media release, the NEC warned that releasing results obtained through unofficial channels could even create unrest among the public, and urged media institutions [...]
American fixer who took Lankan Govt. on a billion-rupees ride
In 2014, the Sri Lankan Government shovelled US$ 6.5mn–nearly a billion rupees at prevailing rates–into the accounts of a shady American fixer called Imaad Zuberi who vowed to improve the administration’s image after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. As repeatedly and extensively exposed by the Sunday Times from 2014 onwards, payments were made through [...]
Discussions on countering maritime threats
Local and overseas experts discussed maritime security cooperation once again at the 10th edition of an annual gathering in Colombo. The Galle Dialogue International Maritime Conference 2019, organised by the Sri Lanka Navy under the Ministry of Defence, was held at Galle Face Hotel in Colombo on Tuesday. This year’s conference held under the theme [...]
Colombo Air Symposium takes up challenges faced by small air forces
The Colombo Air Symposium, has achieved recognition as one of the most sought after discourses in Asia, Air Force Commander, Sumangala Dias said, in his keynote address at the 5th edition of the symposium held on Thursday and Friday. State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene was the chief guest at this international symposium that was [...]
Corruption, wastage within state sector continues unabated- COPE
Severe corruption and wastage within the State sector have been revealed by the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), Report submitted to Parliament this week. The Report contains details of COPE investigations into 23 State institutions from March 1-October 26, 2018. Among the institutions investigated are the Road Development Authority (RDA), Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), Ceylon [...]
Southern H’way link to BIA expressway opens on Nov.5
Traffic congestion in Colomb city to reduce, says RDA chairman The Outer Circular Highway (OCH) between Kerawalapitiya and Kadwatha will be declared open for the public on November 5, a senior Road Development Authority official said. The opening of the section will enable those using the Southern Highway to travel to the Katunayake International Airport, [...]
Disabled voters hampered by lack of facilities, say activists
Disability rights organisations say that more should be done for disabled voters to exercise their franchise at the upcoming presidential election. According to the National Census it is estimated that 1,617,924 persons live with some form of disability, a sizable amount which can have a direct impact on the results of the election they point [...]
Patient at the very heart of respiratory sessions
An up-stair room of Wijerama House, the ‘home’ of medics in Colombo 7, is a hive of activity. Seated around a table, dealing with phone calls and earnestly peering at papers while also discussing the entertainment part with some medical students are a set of doctors – Consultant Respiratory Physicians (Chest Physicians) fine-tuning an interesting [...]
CMC’s mosquito breeding grounds
With the continued rains, the risk of the spread of Dengue has been rising throughout the country. On one hand authorities have failed to take steps to minimize the spread of Dengue. On the other the apathy of the general public, and the lack of co-operation from the citizenry have been the main obstacles to [...]