Bacchus
in classrooms
Thousands of policemen and military personnel were detailed for
duty during Nomination Day on Friday, October 7. Most of them were
housed at the President’s College at Rajagiriya the previous
night and the school was closed for that day. When students and
teachers returned after the weekend what they found in the classrooms
was not a pleasant sight. In each classroom there were 10 to 15
empty bottles of arrack and the first thing the students and teachers
had to do before resuming classes was to collect the bottles and
put them away.
Media
savvy
Opposition leader and Presidential candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe
held a press conference last Thursday.
Winding up the briefing, Mr.Wickremesinghe said he would meet with
the press again before election day. When some scribes urged him
to hold press briefings more often, the Opposition leader quipped,
“Parakramababu did not have any press conferences.”
Obviously the modern day Parakramabahus are more media savvy.
Big
clash soon
After the 2004 general election, 20 political appointees had been
brought into various positions in the Rupavahini Corporation on
a casual basis. With the upcoming elections, the Director General
of the Corporation is apparently trying to make them permanent employees
when the normal procedure is for casual employees having to wait
five years before being made permanent.
Over
these issues, all the trade unions at the Corporation have threatened
to go on strike and cripple work there. But the DG too seems determined
to stick to his guns and so do the TUs. Hence there is likely to
be a big clash there soon.
|
