While Sri Lanka Cricket spends millions of rupees for entertainment purposes such as dining and dancing till the wee hours of the morning, half of the police detail deployed for the ongoing Asia Cup at Dambulla were forced to starve for long hours. Someone had not ensured the proper delivery of food.
At the moment there are an estimated 1,500 police officers on a round-the-clock duty in and off the grounds on a day-to-day basis.
These men are billeted at the local temples in the area so that they could be deployed at the shortest notice even after the matches are over.
SLC insists that the meal packs for the policemen will be distributed only to those present at a shift. However, this should not be the case. The men who are not rostered for that particular game are nonetheless on standby duty and are not allowed out of Dambulla, according to Central Province DIG Pujith Jayasundera. "In short they are on duty and the SLC is ignorant about this,” he said.
"I made several appeals to SLC to rectify this issue but they have remained stubborn. A mere Rs. 70 for a meal is pittance for the SLC which is known to spend lavishly.
"I made arrangements for the local police stations to prepare extra food for the men on the beat at the grounds and its environs," he said.
It is a shame on the part of SLC to treat the country's policemen in such a shoddy and degrading manner, he said. "This is an international event involving four countries and we must remain alert at all times because anything could happen at any time," DIG Jayasundera said.
On Friday, SLC complained that some of the police officers had eaten the food brought for the VIPs. One supposes that God only helps those who help themselves.
V-day party largely for armed services
It was easily one of the biggest parties hosted by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
More than 3,000 guests turned up at Temple Trees on Friday evening for the 'V Day' party to mark the first anniversary of the military victory over Tiger guerrillas. Earlier in the day, a colourful victory parade was held at the Galle Face Green.
A larger number of the invitees were officers of the armed services. Their Police counterparts, however, were a handful.
Wake up, DMC
As Sunday dawned a week ago, a tremor was experienced in parts of Sri Lanka after an earthquake near the Nicobar Islands. When a journalist checked with an official of Colombo's Disaster Management Centre, he was not aware of the tremor.
However, some 15 minutes later when the same journalist called again the response was even funnier.
The official who answered the phone said he was travelling to the head office as the officials there were still sleeping. He had to get to the machines to send out alerts about a possible impact on Sri Lanka.
Anarkali with Oberoi: No pics please
Indian Actor Vivek Oberoi and actress turned Southern Provincial Council member Anarkali Akarsha made a visit to the Dalada Maligawa this week. Oberoi had stayed behind after coming over to take part in the Indian International Film Academy Awards (IIFA) ceremony in Colombo.
They were taken by surprise when a group of photojournalists sprung from inside the Maligawa. They were there to cover another event. The plea from the acting couple was “pleases do not take photographs”. Now, that should start tongues wagging.
The forgotten GSP Plus
Cabinet Media spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella was asked by a journalist at a news conference about the position of the GSP Plus concessions from the EU.
The Minister turned around and asked the Media Centre for National Security Director Lakshman Hulugalle as to what GSP Plus was. "It is the EU tax concessions, the tax concessions," he remarked. Journalists were not quiet sure whether the Minister was unaware of the concessions.
Row over
rows averted
Two Ministers - Douglas Devananda and Dinesh Gunawardena - found that they were relegated to the back row at Friday's Victory Day ceremony.
Officials on hand were quick to make a change. They were moved to two vacant seats in the front row. The duo sat between former Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake and Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa.
Learn from the Dr. Police Chief
Barely two weeks after a visit to Russia, Police Chief Dr. Mahinda Balasuriya will leave in the coming week for Pakistan.
He will be attending the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation) heads of police meeting. The learned IGP will have much to teach the region's police grappling as they are with a host of law enforcement problems.
UNP ex-MPs enter the scene
There were more developments in the crisis ridden United National Party (UNP).
On Friday, some 20 ex-Parliamentarians met at a Colombo hotel for cocktails and lunch.
The purpose of the meeting was to form a joint body. Since a UNP ex-Parliamentarians association exists, they decided to write to its senior member (Dr. Ranjith Atapattu) to make their organisation active so the rest could join. Otherwise, those gathered yesterday are to form a new organisation. |
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