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Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today announced that a mega-development plan will be implemented with the objective of uplifting rural areas in the next two years.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe made these remarks while participating in the opening ceremony of the newly built Manmunai Pattu Divisional Secretariat building in Batticaloa on Sunday.

Speaking on the occasion Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said that necessary steps have been taken to develop tourism industry in the Eastern province.

"We have already started an accelerated development program throughout the country. With the present government taking office, in 2015, each Grama Niladhari division in the country was given 1 million rupees for development programs. The Divisional Secretariat is the main hub of development work. In 2015 there were many shortcomings existed in these Divisional Secretariats and we decided to addres them."
"By now, steps have been taken to fix the shortcomings in Divisional Secretariats and provide efficient services to the people," the Premier added.

He said the government is planning to continue the implementation of the mega development plan for rural areas in the year 2019 and 2020.
"The President has initiated the "Grama Shakthi" Rural Development program according to this plan. We have also started the Gamperaliya program. In addition, several other development projects have been started focusing on developing the village," the Premier said.

The rural development programs will renovate existing and construct new reservoirs anicuts and roads, the Premier explained. He added that when these constructions are carried out, the government hopes to give priority to local farmers associations and constructors not to the large scale contractors in order to direct the money to the village.

"In addition, we have launched other programs to develop the conflict-affected East. One step is to develop the tourism industry in this area but the main issue is the difficulty in transportation. As a solution we are planning to commence aviation services for tourists in the Eastern Province," he said.

The Prime Minister also vested in the public the new Eravur Divisional Secretariat building.

The new Manmunai Pattu and Eravur Divisional Secretariat buildings were constructed with the financial allocation from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Government has spent over 69 million rupees to construct the new buildings consisting of fully equipped auditoriums and all facilities needed by the staff.

The Minister of Home Affairs, Vajira Abeywardena, State Minister of Highways and Road Development, ALAM Hisbulla, Governor of the Eastern Province, Rohitha Bogollagama, Secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs, S.T. Kodikara and a large number of government officials including politicians and politicians participated in the events.

Source : Colombo Page

High Commissioner of India, Taranjit Singh Sandhu visited and reviewed the progress of the construction of National Tri Lingual School in Polonnaruwa which is being built under Indian grant assistance of Rs. 300 million. 

The School is one of the key projects prioritized in close consultation with President Maithripala Sirisena under the “Pibidemu Polonnaruwa” (Awakening of Polonnaruwa) district development program. The Project is expected to be completed by January 2019.

Import and Export Controller M.G. Gamini who was arrested for accepting a bribe has been further remanded till August 7.

The suspect had allegedly requested a bribe of Rs 200,000 from a businessman in Weligama to provide a report containing recommendations necessary to bring down two vehicles from Japan which are around 10 years old through legal channels. He was arrested by officials of the Bribery Commission while accepting the bribe in Battaramulla on July 20.

For many travellers, it seemed like a scene straight out of their wildest dreams: A sleek, new international airport where you didn’t have to queue. At all. Ever.However, that was because just a single airline operated out of Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Sri Lanka, and as a result only a handful of people passed through its terminals per day at the peak of its popularity.

Great for a seamless passenger experience, but not for the airport’s bottom line.

Last year, it was estimated the airport received just seven passengers per 24 hour period. It quickly earned the title of the world’s “loneliest” airport and was labelled the nation’s biggest white elephant.

Ever since it opened in March 2013 — intending to accommodate one million passengers a year — the airport has been running up heavy losses. The area where it’s located — Mattala — is close to Hambantona, a small rural area that was meant to become the country’s new commercial and transportation hub.

But the dream has not yet come to life. In 2016, the airport handled just 4700 passengers, and that was actually an increase from the pervious year’s figure of 2739.

Unfortunately the problems at the $282 million airport have continued to get worse. In June, the last flight took off from the airport when Flydubai said bye-bye, abandoning it due to a lack of passengers and expensive bird strikes.

Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport. Picture: Amila TennakoonSource:Flickr 

The airport, named after former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was funded with high-interest loans from China. It’s been reported the country has been struggling to repay them. 

The world’s loneliest runway. Picture: Amila Tennakoon Source:Flickr 

Now, in a desperate last-minute bid to save the airport, India has announced it will operate it as part of a joint venture.

“We need to revive this dying airport which caused a massive loss of LKR 20 billion

(AUD170 million),” Sri Lanka’s Civil Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said.


Plenty of seats. Picture: Amila Tennakoon Source:Flickr 

But no details have been revealed about the deal yet, and is it too little too late, anyway? 

(Kate Schneider)

Government has decided to increase the rates of allowances paid to doctors for being on call during emergency situations. Accordingly the allowance will be increased from Rs. 35 000 to Rs 50 000 while specialist doctors allowance will be increased to Rs 60 000. 

Accordingly allowance for doctors working in the government service will increased by Rs. 15 000 for a normal doctor and by Rs. 25 000 for a specialist doctor. 

However while the allowance is being provided, sources say there is no transparent method to check if the doctor actually provided the service.

According to him, the war affected the doctors needing them to be on call but without such a situation the increasing of the allowance seems unusual he said. 

Already the starting salary of junior doctors are Rs. 167, 000 while a specialist doctors starting salary is Rs. 250 000. The are also granted Rs. 3 600 000 as tax relief and vehicle permits.

The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) has submitted the progress of the report of the action plan in protecting Yala National Park  to the Prime Minister's Policy Development Office .

Yala, as an internationally-renowned wildlife park, has attracted a large number of international and national visitors annually. The majestic leopard endemic to Sri Lanka is one of the main tourist attractions of this wild life park. While this interest in wildlife is remarkable and certainly positive for revenue collection, the increasing effects of over-visitation is posing a great threat of damage to the park and to its wildlife. 

Numerically, visitation has increased from 43,368 visitors in 2008 to 545,007visitors in 2015. This is an increase of over 1,000% in seven years. This has resulted in an average of 250 vehicles entering Yala Block 1 per day with increased numbers during holiday seasons, often exceeding 700 vehicles per day.

To curb this over visitation, the Yala Sub-committee of the Prime Minister’s Office is formulated to create a path towards a more sustainable management of the Yala National Park. 

The DWC and the Tourist Board are the main stakeholders of this sub-committee while the Policy Development Office (PDO) of the Prime Minister’s Office act as the monitoring organisation of this Sub- committee. 

According to the PM's Policy Development Office, the action plan is divided into three sections namely, short-term, medium- term and long-term actions and covers the period from January to June 2018. 

Short-term actions: Patrolling of at least two DWC vehicles in the park between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. daily; DWC to permit entry and exit times to be decided on dawn and dusk timing; introducing rotational closure of Yala Block 1, 3, 4 and 5 for three months periods beginning with Yala block 1.

Medium-term actions: Yet to be implemented.

Long-term actions: Introducing a phased program to gradually limit the number of vehicles entering Yala Block 1 in conjunction with the improvement of wildlife sightings in Yala Blocks 3, 4, 5 and other developments in adjacent national parks.

Department of Examinations has announced that holding tuition classes for students sitting the Advanced level examination this year will be banned from tomorrow midnight (31).

According to Commissioner General of Examinations Sanath Pujitha, the ban will be in place till September 1. 

Meanwhile, tuition for Grade 5 scholarship exams will also be banned from August 1 midnight till the exam is over he said. 

Accordingly holding tuition classes, seminars, workshops, printing of model examination papers, distributing them including posters, banners and handouts will be illegal in any format.

The Director General of the Bribery Commission President’s Counsel Sarath Jayamanne says the commission has not received the adequate facilities to fulfil the objectives expected from the country’s anti-graft commission.

According to him the Bribery Commission still does not possess the authority to file cases based on the evidence coming from the Presidential Commission of Inquiry and that it can only summon the witnesses once again and record their statements. He also questioned as to how bribery and corruption can be eradicated in the country without increasing the wages of the officials of the Bribery Commission.

Jayamanne further added that a section of the commission’s old building has broken down and that a portion of the officials are at a different location and also that a new building will be needed if new officials are recruited. Although permission has been granted for a new building, the Urban Development Authority (UDA) has blocked the move, he revealed. 
Source : Derana

Minister of Wildlife and Sustainable Development, Sarath Fonseka says the decision if to implement the death penalty or not must be taken after a referendum.

The Minister speaking to the media recently at an event held in Wellawaya claimed the punishment should be reserved for those whose actions are detrimental to the country.

“If the government gets in order the public too will follow suit” the Minister added.

The case filed regarding two attempts to assassinate Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian, M.A. Sumanthiran will be taken up tomorrow, July 30 at the Colombo High Court to serve indictments on the suspects.

In January 2017, Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) reported to the Kilinochchi Magistrate’s court that they had apprehended five suspects in connection with plotting the assassination of the Member of Parliament from the Jaffna District. The suspects, Karalasingham Kulendran, Gnanasekaralingam Rasmadan, Murugaiya Thawendran, Welayudan Wijeyakumar and Lewis Mariyanagam Ajanthan were apprehended by the TID in 2017.

The suspects were initially arrested under the normal law and granted bail, unlike in the case of arrests made under the PTA where suspects can be held in detention during the course of investigation and trial.

TID has however decided to indict the suspects under PTA regulations for several reasons, including the fact that some witnesses had refused to testify if the trial was conducted in the Northern Province fearing reprisals.

Ordinary law also only allows people to be indicted on charges of conspiracy to murder, whereas suspects could be indicted on charges of attempted murder under the PTA. Due to the nature of the case, the suspects were indicted in the Colombo High Court, which has sole jurisdiction in PTA cases.

The B report filed before the Kilinochchi Magistrate’s Court in 2017, reads that the suspects “on the advice and guidance from several persons keeping contact with them, have kept in their possession high impact claymore bombs, locally manufactured detonators and other weapons to be used at several assassination attempts made against the parliamentarian within the Jaffna Peninsula”. 
Source : Sunday Observer

Addressing a meeting held in Nawagaththegama recently, State Minister of Disaster Management Palitha Range Bandara announced that he is ready to quit politics in the year 2020. According to him the public often votes against politicians no matter how much of a service they had done for them.

Explaining the rationale behind the disbandment of the Prison Intelligence Unit, Minister of Justice and Prison Reforms, Thalatha Athukorala said the unit has been a failure.

“What is the point of such a unit if all these corrupt things such as use of mobile phones by prisoners and drug dealing is happening within the prison” she said. 

According to the Minister she has received a large number of complaints regarding such malpractices. “Even today people known to me have received calls originating from within the prison” she revealed. The Minister said no final decision has been taken about the unit however yet.

She also said that it is clear that no action has been taken by Department officials even when the intel unit has provided them with information.