Gota tells Wigneswaran You can't order Police

Gota tells Wigneswaran You can't order Police

Gota tells Wigneswaran You can’t order Police  

Saturday, 26 Oct 2013

Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, clearly stated that maintaining law and order in the Northern Province is the responsibility of the Chief Minister, C.V. Wigneswaran, but added that the Chief Minister has no power to issue orders to the police. He said the Leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R. Sampanthan, has to establish peace and unity instead of making meaningless statements.

Wigneswaran begs to differ

by Lakshmi Jayakody-Saturday, 26 Oct 2013

Northern Province Chief Minister, C. V. Wigneswaran, said police and land powers will come under the purview of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), in due time, in accordance with the Constitution.

Gota Tells Wigneswaran You Can't Order Police by nelvely

VIDEO: WINDS OF CHANGE IN THE NORTH…

October 25, 2013 

The inaugural session of the Northern Provincial Council was held today (25) following the opening of the new building for the Council in Kaithady, Jaffna. The Governor of the Province Major General (retd) G.A. Chandrasiri and the Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran declared open the new building which will house the Council. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan and MP M.A. Sumanthiran were also present during the ceremony.  

 

NPC Chief Minister considering legal action

Friday, 25 October 2013 

Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran is currently considering initiating legal action against the move to take over Tamil civilian land in Navatkuli, Jaffna.

Wigneswaran has said the matter is a legal issue and would therefore need to be dealt with it through courts.

According to reports from the area, Sinhalese families are being settled in the area and Tamil families who live close by are being moved out.

The Chief Minister has pointed out that while Sinhala families are being given land there are Tamil families yet to be resettled in the area.

Wigneswaran has added that the central government has a duty to develop the north like it does in other parts of the country.

SL military schemes Sinhalicisation of Vaakarai coast in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 October 2013, 20:59 GMT]
Increasing number of Sinhala fishermen from Moratuwa, Negombo, Chilaapam (Chilaw) and Puththa’lam are being brought to Koa'ra'laip-pattu North (Vaakarai) DS division in Batticaloa by the occupying Sri Lankan military, complain Tamil fishermen from Vakkarai division. The intruding fishermen are being provided military protection at several coastal pockets. 

The SL military has seized all the significant coastal fishing hamlets in Vaakarai since the end of war in Batticaloa in 2007. 

The illegal fishing methods deployed by the Southern fishermen have also affected the fishing resources within the last 5 years.

ARMY PRESENCE IN THE NORTH CANNOT BE CONDONED - VIGNESHWARAN

October 25, 2013 

The newly appointed Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Vigneshwaran stated today (October 25) that he cannot condone the army’s presence in the North based on national security.

He said that the army has to stop acquiring land for their own use and return it to its rightful owners while mechanisms must be in place to ensure that this happens.

He promised to focus on resettling those who were driven from their homes in the North during the 1990s.

The Chief Minister also revealed that it was wrong to act without understanding the language, culture and civilization of the Tamil community while he added that police had become an obstacle to the people of the North in their daily affairs. He added that it would therefore be wise to recruit people of the North to the police force in the area.

He assured the people that he will not allow corruption within his time as Chief Minister and will work to rehabilitate those who are disrespectful to public service.

Vigneshwaran stressed that the people of the South should not consider the people of the North as separatists but he condemned the army’s alleged involvement in illegal resettlement in the North.

He also added that the Northern harbour must be re-established in order to help develop the country.

New Sri Lanka CM calls for army withdrawal

Colombo, Oct 25 (IANS) The new chief minister of Sri Lanka's Tamil-dominated Northern Province Friday called for the withdrawal of the military from the area.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the Northern Provincial Council in northern Jaffna town, C.V. Wigneswaran said the army must be confined to its barracks in the post-war environment, Xinhua reported.

This part of Sri Lanka has been battered by war between the army and Tamil Tiger rebels for 30 years in which thousands were killed.

The first provincial council elections held in the area last month saw Wigneswaran's Tamil National Alliance sweeping to victory.

Wigneswaran called on the Tamil diaspora to support the Tamils in the north to rebuild their lives and expressed hope of working closely with south India.

"Our people will not work in a way which makes it necessary for the army to remain in full strength in the north," he said.

The army has maintained that troops will need to continue to operate in the north as there is a threat of extremists supporting the cause of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The rebels were defeated by the army in May 2009 but the government says rebel supporters are still fully active overseas.

Wigneswaran attempts bailing out genocidal military of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 October 2013, 12:21 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, speaking at the inaugural session of the council on Friday, urged Colombo to confine the SL military in Jaffna to the barracks and suggested that Colombo should consider deputing its military to UN peace-keeping missions abroad. NPC will give full support for Colombo getting international assistance for the rehabilitation of the SL military into civilian life, he further said, linking the process with the rehabilitation of the LTTE cadres. In addition to usurping the right of forfeiting the independence claim of Eezham Tamils, Wigneswaran also went on record in vesting the security of the nation of Eezham Tamils with the military of Colombo. 



‘National defence’ and ‘foreign policy’ are affairs entirely left to Colombo in a united Sri Lanka, which Tamils have now agreed upon to workout, Wigneswaran said.

In December 2009, the US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake had a plan to involve the military of Sri Lanka in the international arena and thus absolve its genocidal crimes perpetrated by an international design architected chiefly by the USA. 

In a meeting that took place in Colombo on 8th December 2009 with SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, “Blake raised the possibility of Sri Lanka contributing to U.S.-led coalition operations in Afghanistan, noting that would be a significant step in support of improving military-to-military engagement,” briefed a Wikileaks classified cable of the US embassy in Colombo.

The “military to military engagement” was later taken up by New Delhi.

The former justice Wigneswaran hijacking the mandate of hapless Eezham Tamils now fulfils the agenda of absolving international crimes without any substantial and internationally guaranteed returns for Eezham Tamils, political observers in Jaffna said.

The former justice also uses his entire legal prowess to ‘legalise’ a surrender and forfeit of the national claim of the nation of Eezham Tamils, which the LTTE refused to surrender or forfeit, the observers further said.

The inauguration of the NPC session took place in a building at Kaithadi that was newly built for the purpose of housing the council. 

According to an earlier schedule, opening the building was to be presided over by SL minister Douglas Devananda. Invitation cards were also printed to this effect. However, the Chief Minister protested to the schedule and on Friday the building was opened jointly by him and by the Sinhala military Governor occupying the North. The inaugural session of the council took place after the opening ceremony.

Resort to prostitution a result of militarisation - Ananthy Sasitharan

24 October 2013
Recently elected Northern Provincial Councillor and civil society activist Ananthy Sasitharan has criticised many claims in an IRIN article on why more and more women are turning to sex work in the Northeast. Ananthy criticised the article for trivialising Tamil women turning to prostitution as purely finance-driven, arguing instead that in reality militarisation in the Northeast has created a culture where abuse, harassment and rape of Tamil women at the hands of the Sri Lankan Army has become commonplace.

Writing on globaltamilnews.net (in Tamil) Ananthy blamed the regime in Colombo and its associates for repeatedly “dragging through the mud” the women trying to recover from the horrors of Mullivaaykkal.

Ananthy disputed the IRIN article’s reasoning that seasonal demand has encouraged the increase in Tamil women turning to sex work. Instead, Ananthy says that the resort to prostitution is not a last resort decision based on financial desperation, but one that vulnerable Tamil women are in the end reduced to, after widespread experience of abuse at the hands of the Sri Lankan army.


Ananthy slammed the claim that “increased number of Sri Lankan-born Tamils from the diaspora visiting their place of origin since fighting ended four years ago has also increased demand for commercial sex”, saying that such statements were made to portray the Tamil diaspora as alienated and foreign to the Tamils of the Northeast and as hindering the post-war recovery process. Such claims, Ananthy said, attempt to undermine the crucial post-war support that diaspora individuals provide to relatives and organisations provide on a wider scale. She also said that the credibility of all civil society and community workers could not be guaranteed.

Writing of the everyday struggle faced by female-run households to simultaneously provide for, protect and raise families, Ananthy urged the Northern Provincial Council, Tamil parliamentarians and diaspora organisations to work on empowering Tamil women in the Northeast to live and work with safety and dignity.

The Story Of An Imagined Conflict: Development Versus Dignity

By Mahesan Niranjan -October 25, 2013 |

Prof Mahesan Niranjan

I am at my local pub in Bridgetown UK. My usual drinking partner, the Sri Lankan Tamil fellow Sivapuranam Thevaram is away this week. So I have come here with another buddy, Polgahawela Aarachchige Don Junius Rathmana Thanthiriya Bandarawela. We will call him Pol for short. Astute readers will observe that this friend is also a Sri Lankan and comes from the Sinhala tribe — not that this particular piece of information matters when friends are out drinking.

Pol and I are keen followers of the politics in Sri Lanka, and have recently read much about the elections to the Northern Provincial Council. We have been intrigued by the often repeated slogan “We did not vote for your development, we voted for our dignity.” That the further you are from that part of the world, the stronger is the preference for dignity over development, did not escape our notice. We recognized that if three members of the Tamil tribe were to engage in a discussion about the mandate given to the TNA by the Northern electorate, they will have four views between them on what precisely that mandate was. We have been amused by the post-election tug of war over ministerial appointments: one fellow wanting his brother appointed, one fellow threatening to resign from the party he is head of and several fellows boycotting the oath-taking event and threatening to take oath in Mullivaikkaal. Pol and I are agreed that the inverse relationships between the strength of their outbursts and the time constants with which they quietened down afterwards amply qualify them to become occupants of the new zoo that is being created in Battaramulla.               Read More

What’s Wrong With Packer And His Casino ?

By Kusal Perera -October 25, 2013 |

Kusal Perera

This land of Gauthama Buddha, as the saffron clad owners of Buddhist “religion” claim, is not without organised and legal gambling. Last August, the National Lotteries Board celebrated 50 years of State organised gambling with the launch of a new lottery they call, “Mega Fifty”. Fifty years after, there are over a dozen State owned lotteries in the streets every where, sold especially to the poor.

There was much resentment in then Ceylon too, when the first State owned lottery was launched, that replaced the “Hospital Lottery” by an Act passed in parliament. In the absence of internet and social networking in cyber world, in the absence of TV, FM radio channels,  smart phones and android tabs, protests against initiating a State owned lottery in then Ceylon, probably did not have the colour, the vogue and the hype as in present day Sri Lanka. Nevertheless in its own way, the government was pressured by Buddhist clergy and some sections of the puritanical Sinhala middle class society to “stop official gambling” as they called it.

Arguments were not very different. Buddhism does not approve and allow gambling they said. Its a bad example for children, poor people are those who get lured in to buying lotteries and they would get addicted going in search of big money, were popular arguments against the lottery. There was a political argument too that said, the government being inefficient in raising money for services and development, is trying to ‘pick the pockets’ of the poor to collect money indirectly, with an extremely high probability of winning the lottery. Since then, accepted without any grumbling it is the poor Sinhala Buddhists in millions who buy the larger number of these lotteries.Read More

‘Diaspora Diaries’: Exploring Connections and Interactions with Sri Lanka

• by International Alert
• - on 10/24/2013

In recent years, the prevailing image of the Sri Lankan diaspora in the media has been dominated by Tamil community activists’ human rights campaign, calling for investigations into the Sri Lankan Government’s actions in 2009 during the last phases of the 26 year war with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).

Dr Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam

Nikini Jayatunga

Paul Sathianesan

Amjad Mohamed-Saleem

Akneeswaran Jeganathapillai

‘Diaspora Diaries’ Exploring Connections and Interactions with Sri Lanka by nelvely

Theft of children’s cancer drug: Company blacklisted

October 24, 2013, 9:35 pm 

by Don Asoka Wijewardena

The Health Ministry has blacklisted Omaxs Healthcare (Pvt) Ltd. and interdicted five pharmacists attached to the Maharagama Cancer Institute (MCI) following the discovery of a major cancer drug racket.

Health Secretary Dr. Nihal Jayathilaka said that the Investigation, ordered by Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena, had revealed that the local agents of Omaxs Healthcare (Pvt) Ltd., with the assistance of the five pharmacists, had, after selling the cancer drug, known as ‘Oncasper’, which came in phials, pilfered and resold it to the Cancer Institute.

‘Oncasper’, is a drug injected into children suffering from cancer, especially leukemia, and a phial costs around Rs. 237,000.

Dr. Jayathilaka added that due to the fraud the government had incurred a loss of around Rs. 948,000, but action had been taken to recover that amount from the five pharmacists.

He said that "pegylated Asparagines" (Oncasper) was a highly expensive drug. The said company had been supplying the drug for a long time. The probe, conducted by the Health Ministry Investigation Unit, had found that the company, along with its local agents had been involved in wrong doings. Dr. Jayathilaka said: "On the instructions of Minister Sirisena I have already instructed the Drug Technical Consultative Committee to blacklist the particular company and the case will be handed over to the CID for further investigations. At the same time the injection phials will be sent to the Government Analyst for testing."

UNDP leads multilateral organizations in global aid transparency

23 Oct 2013

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the top-ranked multilateral organization in aid transparency according to a leading global ranking released today.

Publish What You Fund’s 2013 Aid Transparency Index recognized UNDP for its “ambitious” efforts to publish information beyond international standards this year, placing it fourth overall out of 67 major donors evaluated worldwide.

“UNDP should be congratulated for making significant improvements to its International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) publication and for updating its implementation schedule to be more ambitious – including plans to publish 88 percent of IATI fields,” the authors of the report said.

The IATI sets a common global benchmark for more timely, accurate and comprehensive aid information. Financial flows, budgets, results, location, timelines and project documents are published into an online database that tracks how aid is spent. This not only increases the accountability of donor countries, but also allows developing countries to better align donor assistance with their national priorities and budgets, ultimately maximizing aid effectiveness.

More than 170 countries, UN agencies, multilateral banks and NGOs covering 76 percent of official development assistance input their information to IATI, and more than 20 recipient countries have endorsed the initiative.

As an original IATI signatory, UNDP began publishing to global standards in November 2011. Since, it has consistently met and even surpassed international transparency standards, recently launching an online portal (open.undp.org) that details more than 6,000 of its development projects across 177 countries and territories, and publishes over US$5.8 billion in project data.

“Transparency is at the heart of the way we work,” said Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator. “UNDP has a longstanding commitment to accountability, and is committed to making the most effective and transparent use of the resources for development entrusted to it.”

This continued commitment to openness was recognized by the recent UNDP appointment to head of the IATI Secretariat this September. Leading a consortium of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Ghana, Sweden and UK-based NGO Development Initiatives, UNDP will use its considerable reach across 177 countries and territories to continue to improve the transparency of international aid. The Secretariat is already undertaking pilot initiatives in developing countries to test the benefits of IATI on the ground.

“This new role puts UNDP at the forefront of global efforts to increase transparency in development cooperation, including through efforts to develop further the IATI common standard for publishing information about aid spending,” Helen Clark said.

In 2013, UNDP began disclosing its internal audit reports, and moved from annual budget reporting to publishing on-going quarterly reports, which detail activities and result frameworks using sub-national geographical data.

By updating its Information Disclosure Policy, UNDP together with the European Investment Bank are leading multilateral organizations listed on the Aid Transparency Index for following best disclosure practices.

Contact Information

Mark Cardwell, mark.cardwell@undp.org; Tel.: +1 212 906 5385

Britain and Sri Lanka: best friends forever?

25 October 2013

Amidst mounting criticism from an array of voices, the British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary continue to insist that they will be attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo next month, with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office going to extensive lengths to defend this decision. Calls for a boycott are gathering momentum, including an explicit promise of support from Douglas Alexander, the Shadow Foreign Secretary. Meanwhile the Indian Prime Minister is said to be reconsidering his attendance as protest grows in Tamil Nadu, including protests against Britain. But Britain’s decision to stand apart from a growing swell of domestic and international opinion on CHOGM is not unexpected. Over the past four years, and despite the now incontrovertible evidence of Sri Lanka’s grave and persistent crimes against the Tamil population, Britain’s relations with Colombo have remained remarkably affable and cosy. The Foreign Affairs Select Committee has rightly criticised this soft peddling as both ‘timid’ and ‘inconsistent.’  In short unless there is a decisive shift in engagement with Sri Lanka, not only will the UK continue to lose standing internationally, but it creeps towards joining China, as an unimposing and dependable ally of Sri Lanka.

The Prime Minister, the former Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt and the British High Commissioner in Colombo John Rankin have repeatedly stated that the summit would be used to send ‘strong messages’ to Sri Lanka. The Foreign Office meanwhile claims that constructive engagement with Sri Lanka is the only way to address its brutal treatment of the Tamils. For Sri Lanka however, hosting the CHOGM and then taking over as Chair of the Commonwealth are not opportunities for ‘constructive engagement’ or listening to ‘strong messages.’ Quite the reverse. As several Sri Lankan leaders and officials have made repeatedly clear, Sri Lanka intends to use the Commonwealth to counter growing international focus on its war crimes and on-going repression in the Tamil homeland. Hosting CHOGM and its subsequent role as Chair will allow Colombo to strut about the international stage, silencing its international and domestic critics as it does so. Whatever the British Prime Minster says or doesn’t say during CHOGM, his attendance itself is a boon to the Sri Lankan state, gifting it the international legitimacy and diplomatic recognition it so desperately needs.

Alistair Burt and others have also suggested that Britain had to attend the summit in Colombo to avoid causing a split in the Commonwealth, particularly one perceived as pitting the ‘white Colonial powers’ against an ex-colony. However, these considerations did not prevent Britain from taking a strong ethical stand on Zimbabwe, also an ex colony, and clashing with several African states whilst doing so. In this context it is worth noting, that during the early 1980’s one of Sri Lanka’s foremost allies in its war against the LTTE was Apartheid South Africa. Sri Lanka received extensive military training and equipment from the Apartheid regime, including the infamous Buffel armoured personnel carriers that are still in use today. Perhaps British and other delegates to CHOGM will see these emblems of Apartheid while on Sinhala military led ‘tours’ of the Tamil areas. Meanwhile given that Prime Minister Singh’s attendance is still uncertain and reports that several African states led by Kenya may boycott, it would appear that only Britain is anxious to avoid a ‘black’ and ‘white’ Commonwealth split on Sri Lanka.

Yet alongside this fastidious commitment to the Commonwealth’s unity, Britain also revealed a cut in Commonwealth funding. This follows Canada’s decision to review its financial contribution. But Canada’s position is clear and consistent. It is of a piece with Prime Minister Harper’s commendable stance to boycott CHOGM because of Sri Lanka’s clear violation of Commonwealth values. In contrast Britain is hopelessly muddled. On the one hand Britain wants to deliver a stern warning to Sri Lanka, but on the other hand it will not follow Prime Minister Harper’s example and send the strongest possible message by boycotting the summit. Then Britain claims it must attend the CHOGM in Colombo because it wants to maintain the unity of the Commonwealth, but is nevertheless happy to undermine the Commonwealth by cutting its funding. Inconsistent and timid indeed!

Colombo’s CHOGM will doubtless be a tamasha of Sinhala triumphalism; a diplomatic spectacle that Sri Lanka hopes will whitewash its heinous crimes and normalise its on-going campaign to secure total Sinhala dominance over the Tamil people and homeland. Having rushed to accept Colombo’s invitation, Prime Minister Cameron and Foreign Secretary Hague must now play their parts in Rajapaksa’s parade. In short while shoring up Sri Lanka’s international prestige, the decision to attend is sure to bring nothing but unease and embarrassment for Britain. But perhaps these are the things good friends and allies suffer for each other?

Mangala is a troublemaker – the President

 Friday, 25 October 2013

 

The President has recently told a few trusted heads of security forces that former Foreign Affairs Minister and UNP Matara District parliamentarian Mangala Samaraweera was a troublemaker as he was instigating quiet opposition MPs into speaking against the government and was discussing with disgruntled government ministers to conspire to topple the government.

The security heads have agreed with the President’s statement. The person who gave us the information said that the security heads are now looking at experimenting with various methods to address the President’s problem in order to score points with him.

The person reminded the fate that befell journalist Richard de Soyza during the end of January in 1990 when he wrote a play – Who is this? What is he doing? (Me kwda? Monavada karanne?). Then President Ranasinghe Premadasa had told then DIG Ronnie Gunasinghe, “Isn’t this fellow a troublemaker Ronnie?” Ronnie Gunasinghe and then Defence Minister Ranjan Wijeratne have at the time agreed with Premadasa’s statement.

Richard was abducted within three weeks after the President’s statement and was killed on February 18, 1990.

The person who gave us the story also said that there’s always a possibility of history repeating itself. However, given that the person who gave the order also died within three years, it is evident that the person who gives the command is also killed eventually.

 * Sri Lanka cabinet approves Witness and Victim Protection Bill

Thu, Oct 24, 2013, 10:08 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Oct 24, Colombo: Sri Lanka's Cabinet has given its approval for the Witness and Victim Protection Bill proposed by Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem to proceed further.
The Bill will now be referred to the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Legislation for its recommendations before it is presented to Parliament.
The law enacted by the Assistance and Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses Bill will create a balance in the Criminal Justice System of Sri Lanka between the rights of accused, the rights and entitlements of victims of crime and the entitlements of witnesses, the government said Thursday following its regular cabinet meeting.
The proposed bill will facilitate the conduct of fair trials and justice being meted out to both victims and accused of crime.
Sri Lanka does not have a witness protection law or program. Many human rights groups have emphasized the need of a mechanism to protect the victims and witnesses to improve the human rights situation of the country.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, in her report to the UN Human Rights Council last month, called for a strong witness and victim protection legislation.
New York based Human Rights Watch in September this year reiterated its call, also made by Pillay, for a strong and effective victim and witness protection program in Sri Lanka.
During her visit to Sri Lanka in August, Pillay met with the Chief Justice, Attorney General and Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem to discuss the government's progress on instituting the victim and witness protection program and offered technical support from her office to prepare the draft legislation.
Under the proposed bill the government will set up a national authority for the protection of victims of crime. The authority will be empowered to "provide assistance and redress to victims of crime upon an application."

Who will blow the whistle?

“Now remember,” said the coach “You must always get behind the ball.”
“Now, how do I do that?” demanded the young cricketer, “Sure it’s the same all the way around!”
To the followers of the local sporting scene, the FIFA imposed life ban on Manilal Fernando, the former big man of Sri Lankan soccer, would be distressing news indeed.
It is not that we have high expectations of our sports administrators. When everything else around is so rotten, to expect superior integrity among a small group of persons vying for office in such bodies will be unrealistic.

Who Will Blow the Whistle by nelvely

‘Problem factories’

Editorial-October 24, 2013, 

Terrorism is a thing of the past and no lives are lost in terror strikes or war. But, there are other dangers people have to live with. At least four or five persons are killed in road accidents daily while dozens of others are injured, and a mystery kidney disease continues to snuff out lives in the North Central Province. It is said to be spreading to other areas. Food items are contaminated with harmful substances. As if these problems were not enough people have grave health risks and dangers posed by factories to contend with.

Tuesday’s gas leak at a detergent manufacturing facility in Piliyandala left 72 hospitalised. Luckily, there were no fatalities and public protests did not get out of hand unlike the ones which ended in disaster at Rathupaswala last August. Strangely, the factory, located in a highly residential area, had been given CEA clearance!

It is common knowledge that there are many such industrial facilities in populous localities; some of them even produce harmful chemicals and asbestos roofing sheets, but nobody in authority seems to care two hoots about environmental pollution they cause and health risks they pose to the public. The environmental authorities tend to slumber blissfully until disasters shake them awake.

Industrialisation is a dream all developing nations cherish and it is simply unattainable without factories to boost national production. But, there is no reason why they should be allowed to be established haphazardly all over the country at a massive environmental cost. The government tells us that it is trying to relocate all casinos to one place so that they could be regulated better. Why can’t it adopt a similar strategy as regards industrial facilities?

The Rathupaswala rubber glove factory is to be relocated on a presidential order. It has provided employment to a considerable number of people and its exports have stood the country’s forex-hungry economy in good stead, but, sadly, it has become the main suspect, where groundwater pollution is concerned, because it has been sitting in the wrong place all these years. Had it been set up in an industrial zone, it would have been able to operate uninterrupted without suffering losses owing to its protracted closure. We hope the findings of the committee that investigated the water issue will be made public and steps taken to ensure that the factory will be able to resume production after its relocation, without further delay.

Following Tuesday’s incident, a decision has been taken to shift the detergent factory in view of public protests. This is a step in the right direction, but the BoI and the CEA will have to ensure that it won’t cause similar problems elsewhere. What is urgently needed is a solution to the mismanagement of hazardous chemicals and not the translocation of the problem, so to speak. When garbage became a problem for Colombo, it was efficiently collected but callously dumped in the suburbs, where people are protesting against environmental pollution. The city is now clean, but areas like Meethotamulla have become uninhabitable due to Colombo’s garbage. The same goes for places like Karadiyanaru, where municipal waste is dumped, regardless of the danger such action poses to the picturesque Bolgoda Lake rich in biodiversity.

It is time laws were made to prevent factories being set up in residential as well as environmentally sensitive areas and to ensure that industrial waste is properly managed. The government should seriously consider commissioning a countrywide survey to find out the factories located in such localities and taking steps to move them to industrial zones. Ill-planned development always comes with a huge environmental cost and does more harm than good.

Sisira falls from the frying pan to the fire

 Friday, 25 October 2013 

Editor in Chief of the Sunday Rivira newspaper, Sisira Paranathanthri is busy interfering with the newspaper company’s administrative work than engaging in editorial work of the newspaper, sources from the newspaper said. Sisira it is also learnt is having disagreements with the new Chief Executive Officer of the newspaper, Chula Ratwatte.

After assuming office as the new CEO, Chula Ratwatte has said at his first meeting with the staff that staff members before carrying tales to people in higher offices, they should first bring such stories to his attention. However, he has added that those who still prefer to carry tales to the people in higher offices would earn his wrath.

The CEO has said that he was comfortable to deal with people in the English language and that people who communicate in English always think of their self respect.

The new CEO has rejected a request made by the Editor in Chief seeking the re-instatement of Sanjaya Pushpakumara who was suspended by Human Resources Manager, Shyamali Thenuwara after making a police complaint that he was threatening employees in the accounts department and Kimbulawela Roshan Deshapriya, Pubudu Senasinghe and Nandana Madahapola who were suspended on disciplinary grounds by former CEO Gairuka Perusinghe. The new CEO has endorsed the decisions of the former CEO.

Sisira has even sidelined the only degree holder in the Sunday Rivira newspaper, Wijeratne by listing him at the eighth position in the seniority list. He has also tried to get his supporter Nayanaka Ranwella as a co-editor. However, Sisira was displeased after the new CEO had criticized the lunch organized by Sisira to promote Nayanaka.

A disgruntled Sisira has told some of his friends that his actions have now pushed him from the frying pan to the fire.