Minister SB still gratifies sister-in-law!
- Tuesday, 19 November 2013
In an attempt to tone down rising
opposition to the casinos, higher education minister Sumanaweera Bandara (SB) Dissanayake recently told the media, “Casinos are good. I also played.” The reasons for his having gone public to whitewash casinos are now being revealed.
Minister Dissanayake’s son Narada was married to Lakshi Nettikumara, the daughter of Vajira Janaki Nettikumara, who runs the ‘Salaka Regino’ casino. That marriage took place following the mysterious death in 1999 of Vajira Nettikumara’s husband Lucky Nettikumara. Lucky was a very good pal of minister Dissanayake. And, that friendship led to the marriage between the two families.
When S.B. Dissanayake was a minister in the Chandrika Kumaratunga government, parliament passed a proposal to levy a Rs. 50 million annual tax on casinos. But, Vajira Nettikumara got minister Dissanayake to convince the Department of Inland Revenue that ‘Salaka Rejino’ is not a casino, but a rushino. The difference between a casino and a rushino is that the former bets with chips in lieu of paid currency, but the latter deals directly with currency. Accordingly, minister Dissanayake has told Inland Revenue officers that the Rs. 50 annual tax was not relevant to ‘Salaka Regino.’
In 2001, minister Dissanayake left the Kumaratunga government and joined the UNP, after which a complaint had been lodged at the Bribery Commission against him, which questioned as to how he had found money to build a palatial house at Hanguranketha. Vaijra Nettikumara came to his rescue, and said she had given the money in question as the dowry to her daughter. Some time later, the Lakshi-Narada marriage broke up, but it is clear minister Dissanayake has not yet forgotten the favour his sister-in-law had done for him
- Tuesday, 19 November 2013
In an attempt to tone down rising opposition to the casinos, higher education minister Sumanaweera Bandara (SB) Dissanayake recently told the media, “Casinos are good. I also played.” The reasons for his having gone public to whitewash casinos are now being revealed.Blue Mountain Properties, yet another Ceylinco project?
- Tuesday, 19 November 2013
There is suspicion that Blue Mountain Properties (Pvt.) Ltd., which is these days getting wide publicity as a real estate developer, is actually a devious project by Lalith Kotelawala, who has claimed himself to be bankrupt. Chairman of Blue Mountain Properties is Dr. Hiran Hettiarachchi, a doctor attached to Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital.
However, using Dr. Hettiarachchi as a front, the man who is really running the business is Vinesh Atukorale, a garment factory manager. Dr. Hettiarachchi knows next to nothing about what happens in the financial division of the company. Although Atukorale functions as the financial controller, he doesn’t have any professional qualification to hold such a position. He is being guided by an unseen hand, internal sources of the company say.
Blue Mountain Properties has acquired large plots of land across the island, mainly in Colombo, Gampaha, Galle, Matara, Kandy and Kurunegala. Without fully paying any of the original owners, the company has already obtained advances from buyers after partitioninig the lands. Last weekend, newspapers carried a full page attractive advertisement about a proposed ‘Blue Mountain Apartments’, asking prospective buyers to pay advances to own a property.
Such tycoons, knowing that Sri Lanka has no strong legal mechanism to monitor the mushrooming businesses of this nature are making maximum use of the situation.
