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Several parties representing the JO are said to be in secret discussions in order to take an important political decision as the current political power struggle within the Rajapaksa family is becoming uncontrollable. 

According to a source, they are therefore now looking to join with the group of 16 to form a separate faction of collective progressive forces. 

They are also hoping to align themselves with other Sinhala nationalist parties and organizations sources say.

The group is said to be disgruntled as Basila Rajapaksa is said to be using the JO to promote the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna while disregarding other parties within the fraction continuously.

The 15% VAT that is charged from private hospitals will be removed with effect from next week, the Minister of Finance and Media Mangala Samaraweera said.  He pointed out that this is part of the Yahapalana government’s plan for providing concessions for the public.

The Minister made these remarks at an event held in Matara yesterday to provide compensation to victims affected by the floods in 2017.

Police have arrested five suspects in connection to the clash which occurred in Tellippalai, Jaffna yesterday. One person was killed when Police was forced to open fire at a group who were attacking two policemen with swords. The deceased has been identified as 33-year-old Pakyarasa Sudarshan.

Sources say a clash had occurred between two groups near the Tellippalai church during a festival and the police officers had intervened to disperse the crowd. However, a group wielding swords had then attacked the two police officers prompting police to open fire at them. Two other persons were also reportedly injured in the shooting and had been admitted to the hospital.
 
The police have arrested 3 suspects along with the injured 2 in the hospital regarding the incident. Tellippalai police are conducting investigations into the incident while Police Special Task Force (STF) personnel have been deployed in the area to control the situation and maintain peace.

The chief suspect of the assassination of Karandeniya Pradeshiya Sabha Deputy Chairman Somapala Amarakeerthi Donald Sampath Ranaweera was arrested in Kahawa today.

The Deputy Chairman was shot dead while returning home from a wedding at Uragasmanhandiya by two gunmen who arrived on a motorcycle at Uragasmanhandiya in Elpitiya on June 8.

Another suspect identified as Paththini Hakuru Asela Ranasinghe (24) of Pahalawela, North Magala, Uragasmanhandiya was arrested on June 9 by Karandeniya Police.

Joint Postal Trade Union Front has refused the calls by the Postmaster General Rohana Abeyratne, to return to work unless their demands are met. Issuing a communique convenor of the front, Chinthaka Bandara said under no circumstance will the workers return to work as officials have not shown any interest in their issues. 

According to Chinthaka Bandara, convener of the Union, despite a joint ministerial communique signed by Minister Sarath Amunugama and Minister Abdul Haleem on January 12, 2018, promising to resolve the issues faced by them, no action has been taken as yet. “Again on June 1 we were told solutions will be provided in another two weeks,” he said adding that too has lapsed now.

Meanwhile 1,500 airmail sacks had piled up at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) due to the ongoing postal work stoppage sources said. Accordingly, mail sacks were also seen piled up at the Central Mail Exchange (CME) as mail collection and distribution islandwide has come to a standstill as a result of the strike action.

Other than mail collection and distribution, postal services such as pension payments, examination payments and spot fine payments has also been totally disrupted following the strike causing severe inconvenience to the public.

However Postmaster General Rohana Abeyratne has requested all postal department employees to halt their strike action and report to work immediately. Releasing a communiquéhe urged the employees to resolve their problems and demands through discussions.
 
“The Minister of Posts, Ministry Secretary and I as the Postmaster General, agree that the demands presented by the Unions are fair,” the communique said.
 
The Postmaster General also assured that their demands will be addressed within a month. “An acceptable solution will be provided,” he said, adding that the Department should be protected from competitors by providing services to the public.
 
The strike which commenced on June 10 has reached its seventh day. According to sources of the Department of Posts, it is incurring a loss of Rs. 150 million daily as a result of the ongoing strike.

The annual feast mass of St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade was held on June 13, 2018 with the participation of a large number of Catholic devotees across the island. The holy mass was presided over by His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith the Archbishop of Colombo.

Naval personnel attached to the Western Naval Command made their presence at the holy mass and provided amenities for the successful conduct of the event.

There is a conflict within the Joint Opposition regarding the 2020 presidential candidate, says Deputy Minister Nalin Bandara. He stated these attending a meeting held in Kurunegala area.

According to him, former Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and former Minister Basil Rajapaksa both are hoping to become the next presidential candidate, while MP Namal Rajapaksa does not prefer either.

He points out that there is a crisis within the Rajapaksa family and the Joint Opposition.

UNP has never acted in a way to disturb the peace among racial and religious groups, he further stated.

Source : Ada Derana

Indian President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the Tamil Nadu government’s request to release the seven prisoners convicted for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991.

Kovind conveyed to the State government that the “Centre doesn’t concur with its view” to release the prisoners. The President is bound by the advice of his Council of Ministers in such matters.

In the last four years, the State government has written twice to the Home Ministry to pardon the convicts and release them on humanitarian grounds.

“The President has rejected the Tamil Nadu government’s plea to free the prisoners on the advice of the Home Ministry. This has been conveyed to the State. The assassins of the former Prime Minister of India cannot walk free under any circumstances,” a top official told The Hindu.

On February 14, following the Supreme Court’s directions, the Home Ministry sought details on eight grounds from the State to “facilitate further” its request to release the convicts. It asked the State to furnish details such as the “physical and mental status of the convicts,” their “economic and social background” and the previous cases registered against them. The convicts are V. Sriharan alias Murugan, A.G. Perarivalan, T. Suthendraraja alias Santhan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Ravichandran and Nalini.

On January 23, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court gave three months to the Home Ministry to decide on Tamil Nadu’s proposal to remit the sentences of the life-term convicts. The Centre moved court against the State’s proposal, which dates back to February 19, 2014, where it said the State had decided to remit their sentences as they had already served more than 20 years in prison.

Under Section 435 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the State government has to consult the Centre before releasing prisoners who were tried by the Central Bureau of Investigation or under a central legislation.

On March 2, 2016, the then T.N Chief Secretary K. Gnanadesikan sent another communication to the MHA that it had received petitions from the convicts with requests to release them since they have spent more than 20 years in prison. “The Government, after taking into consideration the petitions of the seven convicts, has decided to remit the sentences of life imprisonment as they have already served imprisonment for 24 years,” the letter by Gnanadesikan said in the letter.

The Supreme Court in December 2015 said the State government had no power to release the convicts without the Centre’s concurrence.

Source : The Hindu

The now-imprisoned Galagodaththe Gnanasara Thera of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) will not seek for pardon from the President, Cheif Executive Officer of the BBS, Dilantha Withanage said. 

Speaking to the media, he said while the monk will not seek for pardon, it is up to the President and officials to understand the arrest is unjust and act accordingly. 

While mentioning that certain parties are working towards getting pardon for the monk from President, however, the BBS is not involved in these moves.

The date of the Ramazan festival will be revealed after convening a meeting today, the Colombo Grand Mosque has announced. The holiday was not declared yesterday as the new moon was not sighted as expected. 

The popular Muslim holiday will most likely fall on Saturday sources said.

The Government has decided that the Secretaries to Ministries, Heads of Departments, Chairpersons, executive officers and Accountants of Government Institutions should take the responsibility of paying salaries to redundant workers they have employed in addition to the approved Cadre.
 
At the same time, the Cabinet has also decided that  making relevant statutory payments in time such as contributions to Employees Provident Fund and Employees Trust Fund of state corporations, statutory boards and government owned companies is also the responsibility of the heads of such institutions.
The Cabinet has taken these decisions when the Report of the Final Quarter of the State Sector Employees – 2017 was submitted by Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera   recently.
 
It is reported that there are over 7500 personnel employed in various government institutions above the Cadre positions approved by the Management Services Department of the Treasury.

It has been computed that there are currently 1,375,499 public servants employed in the entire state sector including government ministries, departments, provincial councils, and local government institutions as well as other public enterprises, government owned institutions and state banks at the end of 2017. During the  year 2017 alone, 23,224 persons have been recruited to state service. At the same time, 5,000 servants have retired from the services and another 246 servants have been dismissed on various disciplinary actions during the same time.

It was also revealed that there are a large number of vacancies at senior executive level positions of the state sector. The Director General of Management Services Department stated that the main reason for this situation is that there is a limited number of officers who have completed the required number of years in service to be eligible for promotions. 
 
There are 74,872 approved positions for development officers service in the state sector and, nearly 18,000 positions out of them are currently vacant. However, the Director General of the Management Service Department further said that it was observed during staff review meetings that development officers attached to certain institutions are not assigned on a particular subject or are not given a specific job of work. 

In addition, there are a lot of vacancies in the Engineering, Technical and Technological sectors of the government service but attracting candidates to fill such positions has become a difficult task as the private sector pays more than what is paid to such professionals in the public sector.
 
Cabinet approval has been granted to a proposal made by Finance and Media Minister, Mangala Samaraweera to hold those relevant Secretaries to Ministries, Heads of Departments, and the Accountants who pay the salaries and other allowances to the employees who have been appointed in their respective institutions over the  approved cadres by the Management Service Department.

Samaraweera also noted that there are many discrepancies between estimated costs and actual costs incurred during the execution phase of many government infrastructure projects where a large number of government contracts have been awarded over and above the engineers' original cost estimates. In another measure to curb corruption and wastage, Minister Samaraweera's proposal to establish a special Cost Estimate Review Committee to evaluate total cost overruns and contract cost variations of infrastructure development projects falling under Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committees (CAPCs) was also approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday (12).

The Appeal Court has extended the stay order issued preventing any action from being taken against former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa under the Public Property Act.

Rajapaksa had filed a writ petition with the Court of Appeal seeking an interim order preventing the police from arresting him in connection with the investigation into the misappropriation of public funds for the construction of the D.A. Rajapaksa museum under the Public Properties Act.