The heads of six state sector corporations and statutory bodies have been sacked by the President on the basis of findings of the report of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), its Chairman Senior Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera told Parliament on Tuesday.

“The President took action to remove six heads of public enterprises on the basis of the findings of COPE.  This time we demanded action based on the findings of our Report, unlike our predecessors, Minister Gunasekera who heads the Parliamentary Oversight Committee said.

Winding up a day-long debate on the Report of COPE in Parliament, the Minister warned that if the CID and Bribery Commission (CIABOC) fail to take action against those who had been found guilty and make further investigations, COPE would summon the heads of the CID and CIABOC and question them.

A train accident in the Kalutara-Wadduwa southern coastal line which left a driver and his assistant injured, has interrupted railway services, officials said a shorwhile ago.

The train had collided with a cement mixer at a crossing, Railway officials said.

Efforts are under way to clear the track to restore services before midnight, officials added.

The Government has spent millions of rupees to purchase vehicles for government institutions during the first two months of this year, according to details of supplementary allocations submitted to Parliament today.

The money has been allocated from the Budgetary Support Services Contingency Liabilities Project under the Department of National Budget.

The highest allocation of Rs 200 million has been made to the Ministry of Justice to purchase 23 motor vehicles for Judges of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal while another Rs23 million has been allocated to purchase vehicle for the use of the Secretariat for Special Functions (Senior Ministers).

Another Rs 11. 8 million had been allocated to purchase vehicles from Sri Lanka missions in New York the Netherlands and Singapore.

Other government institutions allocated  supplementary estimates  to purchase vehicles include  Parliament (Rs 8 million),  Private Passenger Service Ministry(Rs 6.4 million),  Ports and Highways Ministry (Rs. 8 million),Ministry of Child Development and Women’s Affairs (Rs. 16 million for two vehicles), Ministry of Environment (Rs 8 million) , Ministry of Cooperative and Internal Trades (Rs 3million for car and two jeeps), Ministry of Industry and Commerce (Rs 11 million for five cabs) Ministry of National Heritage (Rs2.5 million) Water Supply and Drainage Ministry (Rs5.2 million)  Ministry of Traditional and Rural Industries(Rs 9.6 million) , Office of Chief Government Whip( RsRs5.7 million)  Ministry of Petroleum Industries  (Rs3 million and  Ministry of Cultural Affairs (Rs.7 million).
 

The Colombo Magistrate Court refused to issue arrest warrant on
Pariamanetarain Duminda Silva since the CID had not informed court
that it could not arrest him. The court however noted that it would
not be a bar for the party   to take alternative steps for the same.



Colombo Additional Magistrate Prasanna Alwis made the observations
when the counsel appearing for the aggrieved party, the family of the
deceased Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra made an application to arrest
the MP, who is now receiving treatments in Singapore.




However, the CID informed court that it is having discussions with the
Attorney General in this regard.