News

The SLRC is assigned under the Ministry of Defence with effect from midnight yesterday (9).

The move comes as the Elections Commission prepares to call for Presidential elections.

The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation was earlier under the Ministry of Mass Media which is under the purview of Non Cabinet Minister Ruwan Wijewardene. However, it is now under the purview of the President, who is also the Defence Minister.

There has been a continuous controversy over the post of SLRC Chairman with Minister Wijewardene attempting to appoint a new Chairman to the institution while incumbent Chairman Enoka Sathyangani has refused to vacate office.

The UPFA has nominated H. M. D. B. Herath to fill the vacant UPFA parliamentary seat in the Kurunegala District.

Herath’s name has been gazetted as the new parliamentarian to fill the vacant seat.

Controversy surrounded the filling of the vacant seat with the next in line from the Kurunegala list being Shantha Bandara, who was appointed to parliament through the National List.

However, following Dissanayake’s demise, Bandara resigned from the National List slot to fill the vacancy created by Dissanayake. The argument then was that Bandara could not be nominated through the Kurunegala District list since he was already in parliament as a National List MP.

The controversy has now ended with Herath’s appointment.

The issue of the symbol of the proposed alliance has stalled the talks being held between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) on forming a political alliance.

The SLFP team stands firm that the party cannot contest under the SLPP’s “flower bud” symbol while the SLPP maintains that the proposed alliance should retain the “flower bud” symbol as it is a well-known political symbol.

The eighth round of talks between the SLFP and SLPP was held last Friday (6) at the Opposition Leader’s office.

The SLFP however maintains it will give priority to forming an alliance with the SLPP over fielding its own presidential candidate at the upcoming presidential polls.

United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) General Secretary and SLFP Senior Deputy Leader MP Mahinda Amaraweera says the party was prioritising the alliance with the SLPP.

“We held talks on Friday as well with the SLPP group. Forming an alliance with them is our main objective right now. Fielding our own candidate is secondary,” Amaraweera said.

Meanwhile, on Thursday (5), SLFP General Secretary MP Dayasiri Jayasekara announced that the party would be fielding its own candidate to contest the upcoming election.

The SLFP team at the talks was led by party General Secretary Jayasekara and included UPFA General Secretary Amaraweera and SLFP Treasurer MP Lasantha Alagiyawanna.

The SLPP team was led by party National Organiser Basil Rajapaksa and included party Chairman Prof. G.L. Peiris and MP Dullas Alahapperuma.

Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera, who is in Jaffna for the Enterprise Sri Lanka National Exhibition, held a series of meetings with war affected people to help them to make use of opportunities presented under the Enterprise Sri Lanka credit scheme to obtain loans, the Finance Ministry said in a statement today.

In the morning, he met war widows and small and medium scale entrepreneurs' associations at the Jaffna Kachcheri.

He also held a separate meeting with the former combatants who had been rehabilitated at the Jaffna Kachcheri. Secretary to Ministry of Finance Mr. R.H.S. Samaratunga and the Jaffna District Secretary N.Vedanayagam were also associated with the minister at this discussion.

The Minister announced at this meeting that the government has decided to offer interest subsidized loans upto 1.5 million rupees under the Enterprise Sri Lanka loan scheme without obtaining collateral. So he said that there is no need for the women of the war widows association and the ex-combatants to look for two surety guarantees.

Samaraweera emphasized that the government was mindful of the hardships faced by the people in the North during the last thirty years and under the hardships faced by the women led families.

"Let bygones be bygones. We are here to lift your livelihoods by giving you interest subsidized loans," declared the Minister.

Samaraweera also said that the Cabinet of Ministers have approved a proposal to pay a monthly allowance of Rs 6000 to each family of missing persons. He instructed the members of the missing persons to obtain the Certificate of Absence (CoA) in the name of their missing persons from the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) after which they would receive a payment to be paid from November 01.  

Earlier, these women and the ex-combatants apprised the Finance Minister of the social hardships and stigma they face with regards to obtaining guarantors for their loans.

On the instructions of the Minister Samaraweera, the Jaffna GA is to arrange a two day workshop on coming Friday and Saturday to help and train the prospective entrepreneurs to prepare there proposals that are to be submitted to the banks, the Finance Ministry said.

The Northern Province area managers of State banks who were present at this meeting agreed to send in there representatives to make their proposals viable for them to obtain loans.

More than 2,000 Tamil Nadu fishermen were allegedly chased away by the Sri Lankan Navy while they were fishing off Katchatheevu islet, a fishermen association leader said on Sunday.

The naval personnel also snapped fishing nets of several boats.

The fishermen from this island town had ventured into the sea on Saturday and were fishing near Katchatheevu when the Lankan Navy came to the spot and cut the fishing nets before driving them away, Rameswaram Fishermen Assocation President, P Sesuraja alleged.

The fishermen returned to the shore this morning without a catch, he said.

Four fishermen from here were rescued and detained by the island nation authorities while they were struggling in the sea near Katchatheevu islet after their boat was damaged on hitting a rock.

Former Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan has taken a swipe at former Defence Secretary and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) presidential hopeful Gotabaya Rajapaksa claiming that the next President of Sri Lankan must be an experienced politician.

Muarlitharan has made this observation at the Viyathmaga Annual Convention held at the Shangri – La Hotel in Colombo yesterday (8), which was a pro-Rajapaksa event.

The Sri Lanka cricket legend has noted that cricketers and other professionals cannot lead the country.

Muralitharan has said that some people in Sri Lanka have placed their faith in businessmen and others but a President can only be someone who has experience in politics to take political decisions.

The former cricketer has called on the public to vote for a President who had already made a mark in Sri Lanka and who will protect the people as well as lead by example.

He has further stated that a true leader must lead by setting an example and not lead just by words.

Muralitharan has said while some leaders say they will die for the country, there is no point if they die as what is required is for them to rule the country.

Referring to the war and the sacrifices made has said the LTTE had a choice when peace talks took place but instead they killed innocent people.

According to Muralitharan, the greatest day in his life was in 2009 when the LTTE was defeated and the war ended.

Viyathmaga was launched by professionals under Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s patronage. The forum was initially used as a political launch pad by Rajapaksa.

Two people died from heat exhaustion after attending a mass open-air faith healing session in northeast Sri Lanka which left 13 others fighting for their lives, police said today (09).

Around 10,000 people, some of whom were seriously ill, had gathered at a school to listen to a man who claimed he could use "powers of the gods and the Buddha" to cure the sick.

Police in the town of Horowupotana, 260 kilometres (162 miles) north-east of Colombo said 18 people were taken to hospital, with 13 in a critical condition.

Officials at the local hospital said the two who died suffered heat exhaustion while others were treated for dehydration. Temperatures have soared to about 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in the area this weekend.

The faith healer, Deegoda Kumara, used his YouTube channel to deny he had caused the deaths and accused local media of causing unrest by spreading mistrust about his work.

In one video, Kumara claimed to have revived a road accident victim who had been in a coma in a Californian hospital. He said he blessed the victim after speaking to her relatives on the phone.

Election affairs are to be headed by Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Jagath Abeysirigunawardena

The appointment was made with immediate effect with the approval of the National Police Commission (NPC).

Election affairs have been handed over to Senior DIG Abeysirigunawardena who is also in charge of the Western Province and Traffic Directions.

Abeysirigunawardena is taking over election duties from the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) C. D. Wickremaratne.

Sajith Premadasa, who is being requested to come forward as the party’s presidential candidate by a majority of party members will visit Jaffna tomorrow (09) morning.

He will visit Jaffna as the Chief Guest of the Enterprise Sri Lanka National Exhibition being held at the Muttraveli Grounds in Jaffna. The exhibition will be open to the public from 10 am onwards.

Following the exhibition, Premadasa is also scheduled to meet a number of political activists and party representatives.

The 'Enterprise Sri Lanka' Jaffna exhibition was inaugurated by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday (08). Large crowds from the North were seen attending the exhibition.

Several politicians including Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M.A Sumanthiran and UNP MP Vijaya Kala Maheshwaran accompanied the Prime Minister.