Nov 12 (FT) The extension work of the Kandana Water Treatment Plant at Kandana, Horana was completed recently providing the southern areas of Greater Colombo, an improved potable water supply service that is able to meet the expected demand in the years to come. The extension work of the Kandana Water Treatment Plant under the Kalu Ganga Water Supply Project was executed by the National Water Supply and Drainage Board and was funded by Japan Bank for Int'l Development. more..

Nov 12 (FT) In recognition of the role Govt medical practitioners played in the country, the Bank of Ceylon joined with the GMOA to sponsor the Good Intern Program conducted recently. The GMOA has initiated the interns program as a preparatory course for doctors who are waiting internship. Consultants of major disciplines, medical administrators and legal officers participate as resource personnel at the program which addresses both theoretical and practical aspects. more..

Nov 12 (Island) The FSP yesterday made a request to the police headquarters to resume investigations into the complaint they had lodged three years back with regard to the abduction of their leader Kumar Gunaratnam. Party’s Propaganda Secretary Pubudu Jayagoda said that three top level members of their party had visited the Police Headquarters and asked the police to resume investigations as there was new evidence more..

Nov 12 (Island) A 17-year-old girl of Sivali Vidyalaya, Ratnapura participating in an Inter-school boxing competition at Balagolla after falling ill over a week ago died at the Kandy General Hospital on Tuesday 10. The A/L student Harshani Sewwandi was a competitor at the Inter-School boxing competition in the premises of a BOI industrial firm at Pallekele, police said. The event took place on October 30 and the student who fell ill was admitted to Kandy general hospital. more..

Nov 12 (FT) Golden Key Depositors Association will appeal to the Chief Justice to reopen their case against the company after the Govt failed to meet its October deadline for the second round of repayments. The association insists apart from the first tranche which disbursed Rs.556 million among 2,536 depositors in August (below Rs.2 million deposits), Govt has failed to continue payment to depositors thereafter. “We were supposed to get the second tranche of Rs. 4.2 billion on 4 Oct more..

Nov 12 (Island) Having sidelined China the govt had become a junior partner in a powerful bloc of western countries, former Minister G.L. Peiris charged. "Sri Lanka is now taken for granted having entered an alliance dominated by big nations as junior partner," he told a news conference which had been summoned to announce the appointment of Dinesh Gunawardena as leader of the Joint Opposition comprising a section of the SLFP more..

Nov 12 (Island) The funeral of Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera is scheduled to be held at the Parliament ground at 3.00 pm today with full state honours. The govt has declared Thursday a day of national mourning. Ven. Sobhitha Thera passed away around 5.50 am (3.20 am Lankan time) Sunday at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where he had been treated at the intensive care unit for three days. His remains were brought to the Sri Lankan High Commission at more..

Nov 12 (CT) Govt's dealings have gradually turned murky over the past 10 months and the accusations they have been levelling at the former govt were nothing but campaign slogans, SLFP MP Dullas Alahapperuma said. He added that the govt, which was speaking of transparency, is far from transparent. Addressing a media briefing yesterday he said that the Minister of Highways keeps avoiding a burning question pertaining to the construction cost of the Central Expressway. more..

Nov 12 (Island) Weapons issued to Nikaweratiya and Elpitiya police stations had been found on board Sri Lanka Shipping Company owned Avant Garde tug chartered by the Avant Garde Maritime Services (AGMS), Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said. He stressed the need to inquire into the circumstances under which weapons issued to police had ended up with the AGMS. Avant Garde carried over 800 assault rifles. more..

Nov 12 (CT) Minister S.B. Nawinna said that govt has decided to grant dual citizenship to 2,000 persons. A large number of applications had been received by his ministry seeking dual citizenship and 2,000 of them have been selected on the instructions of President Sirisena and PM Wickremesinghe. Arrangements have been made to grant these individuals dual citizenship at an official function that will be held under auspices of President Maithripala Sirisena on 17 Nov. more..

Nov 12 (Island) IUSF said that it had no faith in the committee appointed by PM Ranil Wickremesinghe to look into the grievances of university students. Convener of IUSF Lahiru Gunasekera said: "The committee has no practical knowledge of the problems we are experiencing. They know nothing about difficulties faced by us. PM’s committee is only an eyewash." "When we recently met the committee some members asked us whether we had walked all the way from J'pura University to more..

Nov 12 (Island) MP Dinesh Gunawardena, alleged that appointment of retired DIG Frank Silva to the Independent Police Commission was unconstitutional since there had been court strictures against him. He said that govt which had campaigned on a platform of good governance and rule of law had not practised what it preached. "Appointment of retired DIG Frank Silva to the Police Commission, against whom more..

Nov 12 (DM) A grateful Sri Lanka today says hail and farewell and a heartfelt thank you to one of our greatest prelates, the Venerable Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera who played a courageous and vital role in the campaign to rebuild a just society based on noble values and virtues such as good governance and democracy, honesty and integrity and a deep respect for diversity and plurality. At historic moments like these, when golden memories are mixed with silver tears, we recall more..

Nov 12 (DM) The unexpected demise of the effervescent colossus among the community of the Maha Sangha in contemporary times, The Most Venerable Maduluwawe Sobhitha Nayake Thero who was greatly admired and endearingly respected by all walks of life for his distinctive articulation, outspoken and fearless stance on socio-political issues that have plagued the fabric of our society for long, touched all Sri Lankans deeply as the news about his loss, broke in Singapore. more..

Nov 12 (SL) It has now come to light as to how the former Rajapaksa regime that has been accused of lavishly spending tax payers’ money on extravagant image building programmes, has spent Rs.200,000 per minute for the opening ceremony of the Bellanwila walkway on Sept 9, 2014. The Sunday Leader is in possession of the relevant documents. The SLLRDC which comes under the purview of the Defence and more..

Nov 12 (DM) When former Law and Order Minister Tilak Marapana remarked in Parliament that there was no illegality regarding what many called Avant Garde floating armoury, he would have never anticipated that his utterance would lead to his resignation from office as a Cabinet Minister. Both some govt ministers and a section of the Opposition, particularly JVP, were mounting pressure against law enforcement authorities more..

Nov 12 (ST) A week after students and police clashed at Ward Place, Colombo 7 three separate committees are trying to determine causes and parties responsible for the key issues that led to the fracas in which at least 30 students were injured. The committees were set up by separate parties including PM Ranil Wickremesinghe after HNDA students took to the streets on Oct 29 demanding reactivation of more..

Nov 12 (Island) Secretary of Ethera Api organisation and former JVP MP, Lakshman Nipunarachchi, said that about 3,200 migrant employees had urged the Ministry of foreign employment to grant their demands. Nipunarachchi said 1,200 migrant Lanka workers employed in Kuwait and 2,000 from Dubai had submitted to the Ethera Api a petition which was over to Minister of Foreign Employment, Thalatha Athukorala. more..

Nov 12 (Island) Families of JVP members who had gone missing met representatives of the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) in Colombo on Tuesday and forwarded their complaints according to Brito Fernando of the Families of the Disappeared. Among the family members looking for missing JVPers was Arumugam Veeraraj, father of Lalith Kumar Veeraraj, who disappeared with more..

Nov 12 (DN) Anti-Corruption Front called on the govt to investigate on a financial scam involving USD 750,000 (Rs. 100 million) in an SFIDA fixed deposit account in Bank of Ceylon. Front Director Board Member J.A. Wickramasinghe said it has complained this matter to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption, PRECIFAC & FCID, but there was no progress in relation to the investigations. more..

Nov 12 (DN) Labour Minister John Seneviratne said govt has already taken measures to legalize the proposed salary increase in last budget, for the private sector employees, by Rs 2,500. Draft in this regard has been sent to Attorney General by the Labour Ministry. After the consideration of the Attorney General and with the approval of the Cabinet, the draft will be forwarded to Parliament in due course, he said. more..

Nov 12 (CG) Govt has been accused of violating the Geneva agreement by failing to secure the release of Tamil political prisoners. Former LTTE member and leader of Transnational Govt of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran said that the continued indeterminate detention of these prisoners constitutes continuing serious breaches of international law. He said that all of Tamil prisoners have been held more..

Nov 12 (CG) The Govt is to look at inviting Serbian aircraft to land at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA). Serbia, which is an upper middle income country, makes a vast contribution to its economy through tourism and has entered into multilateral air agreements with 13 countries in the European Union. Govt observed that the air service relations of Siberia would be helpful in development of air service & tourism in SL. more..

Nov 12 (CG) The New York office of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said it was unaware of instructions issued to the families of missing in Sri Lanka not to speak to the media on their meeting with the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances held this week. Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for UN Secretary-General said, that he is not aware if any instructions had been issued by UN office in Sri Lanka. more..

Nov 12 (CT) There would be no great leaders without great crises. If such leaders had lived in times of peace, no one would have known their names. The same is true of the Venerable Maduluwave Sobitha. Our nation is bereaved. The entire country seems helpless because of our loss of him. But we are in a better situation today because Ven. Sobitha passed our way, because he provided leadership to democratic forces at a crucial time in Sri Lanka’s political history. more..

Nov 12 (Island) Commercial High Court Judge of Colombo, Shiran Gooneratne will, on Nov. 13, deliver the order in respect of publishing newspaper advertisements, pertaining to a plaint filed by SL Transport Board claiming Rs. 142 million as overdue payments for the use of buses by the UPFA/SLFP during the last presidential election campaign. Among the respondents, cited in the plaint are the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former General Secretary of the UPFA, more..

Nov 12 (CT) Most Venerable Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera makes his final journey today. He fought over four decades against injustice by successive administrations in his bid to create a just and free society. Unlike many other monks, Ven. Sobhitha Thera did not align himself with political parties. He led a civil organization that clamoured for justice. At times he was at the receiving end of the bad moods of political leaders in power. He was harassed by those political leaders. more..

Nov 12 (CI) West Indies drew inspiration from their defence of 137 in the 2012 World T20 final at the same venue, to earn a farewell win on this tour, captain Darren Sammy and Man of the Match Dwayne Bravo said. West Indies hit 162 batting first on this occasion, which Sammy described as better than a par-score, given the conditions. Sri Lanka had reached 93 for 1 in the 13th over, before West Indies' bowlers sparked a collapse that cost the hosts nine wickets for 46 runs. more..

Nov 12 (PSL) President Sirisena said that solutions to the matters regarding the resettlement in the North and East must be provided while giving priority to practical issues pertaining to the resettlement process. President gave these instructions at a special discussion on Northern and Eastern resettlement programme held at the Presidential Secretariat today (11). President also gave instructions to schedule the meeting of more..

Nov 12 (EN) Sri Lanka has approved a deal with China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCECL) to do a free feasibility study to upgrade rail links in the island’s east. Minister Rajitha Senaratne said the comprehensive feasibility study is to modernise rail tracks from Maho to Batticaloa and from Galoya to Trincomalee, including upgrading of railway stations. Cabinet approved the proposal by Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, for the feasibility study, more..

Nov 12 (Island) Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medicine (MHIM) said that a snap three-day mosquito control programme would be carried out in the Western Province following a spike in the incidence of the disease last month. The programme would commence today with the support from several MOH offices in the Colombo District, six MOH offices in Gampaha and four MOH offices including the National Institute of Health Science (NIHS) in the Kalutara District. more..

Nov 12 (EN) Sri Lankan manufacturers of asbestos roofing sheets have urged the govt not to go ahead with a proposed generic ban on all asbestos-related products, saying they are not harmful if used with proper care. The four manufacturers that have formed the Fibre Cement Product Manufacturers Association to raise awareness of asbestos said the material was used in many countries and that alternative roofing more..

Nov 12 (Island) Attempts by foreign elements to disturb the peace enjoyed by Sri Lankan Muslims will be defeated using maximum legitimate force, a top official of the Apex body of Muslim theologians said yesterday. "We will do our best to maintain co-existence with all communities in Sri Lanka and strongly protest against any organisation trying to create chaos in an existing peaceful climate," Moulavi Fazil Farook of the All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulama (ACJU) told The Island. more..

Nov 12 (Island) Counsel J.C. Weliamuna, who appeared for the petitioner fishing industrialists of Negombo, told supreme Court, that scientists should be consulted on reports filed by some respondents, in respect of Colombo Port City Project. Time was required to consult geologists and environmental experts, he said. Petitioners have complained that the Port City Project of Colombo, has upset off-shore ecosystems. 16 mn cubes of rock and 30 mn cubes of sand have to be removed. more..

Nov 12 (CG) TNA MP Sumanthiran and Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) representatives including Reginald Jeganathan, Chairman of ATC had a successful meeting with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in Canberra this week. MP for Reid Craig Laundy also participated. They also had detailed discussions with senior Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials including First Secretary for South and West Asia more..

Nov 12 (CG) Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake said that the Govt’s new budget on Nov 20 will be capital oriented while aiming at higher revenue than recurrent expenditure. The Minister said that much more than the previous allocation the capital expenditure will be significantly increased in the coming budget. Minister also said that the budget is aiming to raise taxes in areas which have not been looked at before without placing a greater burden on the public. more..

Nov 12 (Reuters) Shares fell for a third straight session on Thursday to their lowest in more than a week despite foreign buying, while speculation and uncertainty over the upcoming budget dented investor sentiment. Brokers said total trading volume was low because investors were on the sidelines awaiting policy direction from the annual budget scheduled for Nov 20. The main stock index ended down 0.18 percent, or 12.88 points, at 7,006.35, its lowest close since Nov. 4. more..

Nov 12 (DM) Colombo Chief Magistrate directed CID to produce the details on the complaint made by former minister Mervyn Silva to them in January regarding the alleged white van abductions that took place during the time the previous govt was in power. In relation to Habeas Corpus petitions filled against three alleged abductions reported in the Matakkuliya area in 2011, Mr. Silva was noticed to appear as a witness more..

Nov 12 (AD) Construction of the Colombo-Kandy highway has been estimated to be around Rs. 4.2 billion now, however, former govt had plans to finish the project for Rs. 2.2 billion, MP Namal Rajapaksa says. “Two lanes of the A1 highway have also been removed, but the estimated cost has doubled. As the opposition, we have the responsibility to monitor these development projects,” he added. The first phase of construction work on the Colombo-Kandy Expressway began on Aug 3. more..