A Statement by ‘The ‘Socialist Vanguard Party for the Restoration of a United and Sovereign Sri Lanka’ 

On the 06^th of January 2022, an illegal and unsanctioned compact was made by some representatives of the people of Sri Lanka, leasing out 99 oil tanks and thousands of acres of land in the vicinity of the Trincomalee port to the Indians; not one of the 6.9 million people, who elected this bunch of representatives, gave any one of them the authority to lease-out this strategic piece of land or the oil tanks, for even a day, let alone fifty years.

The people decry this as an act of downright treachery and demand that the perpetrators of this treachery – Basil Rajapakse, Attygala, Olga, Athula Kumara, Wijesinghe, Mahiyahewa, Paragahagoda and others – be arrested immediately and put on trial; the people also demand that all assets of these persons and their families be put on freeze till the completion of the trial.

The Trinco oil-tank deal was done secretly behind the backs of the people. Many allege that money, under the table, was a strong motivating factor.

Political analysts, drawing an allegory, say that this treacherous act is not dissimilar to an estate watcher, employed on a contract for 4 years, selling the estate to avaricious buyers, behind the back of the owners.

The previous watchers, Sirisena and Wickramasinghe, engaging in similar perfidy, were summarily sacked by the people who expected the betrayal undone and justice served.

To fill Sirisena’s vacancy, the incumbent watcher, Nandasena, was selected, after a close scrutiny of his credentials -boosted in large measure by the charisma of MR, the Sri Lankan Rajapakse -.

It did not take long for the people to realise that Nandasena was an imposter and had duped them; watcher Nandasena began where watcher Sirisena ended.

The misfit in the army has now become an embarrassing misfit to the country and is more than a burden for her. 

If the treacherous representatives of the people were to mitigate, in their defence, that the Trinco deal was for the purpose of bringing in money to the cash-strapped country, they have failed the country miserably, in that respect too; no international investors were invited to bid, thus depriving the country of a very much better deal.

If international bids were called for, the Chinese, for example, would surely have outbid the Indians. 

The million-dollar question is ‘Why did the seedy American-Rajapakses act outside the mandate given by the 6.9 million people?’

The Americans, for long, had been coveting the Trinco port, the oil tanks and the land; indeed, Sri Lanka battled 30 years, with the American sponsored terrorists who had made known their intention to make Trincomalee their Capital.

The Americans attempted to brainwash Sri Lanka to believe that the terrorist ‘war’ was unwinnable; employing a carrot and stick strategy through their ‘Donor Co-chair-Group’ mechanism, the Americans did almost succeed in establishing an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) in the North and the East; Ashley Wills’ treacherous twins – Peiris and Moragoda – were the agents promoting the American idea. 

So confident were the Americans, of Sri Lanka’s defeat in the conflict, they hinged their foreign policy in the region on that assumption.

When Sri Lanka did the unthinkable and defeated the terrorists, American foreign policy in the region, collapsed like a pack of cards.

To fill the void, fix the vulnerability and hide their embarrassment caused by the stunning and unexpected turn of events, the Americans were compelled to go back to the drawing board to come up with a new strategy; this strategy is chalked out in the Kerry Report of 07 December 2009, captioned ‘SRI LANKA: RECHARTING U.S. STRATEGY AFTER THE WAR’. (https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SRI.pdf

SRI LANKA: RECHARTING U.S. STRATEGY AFTER THE WAR – United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, Washington, DC, December 7, 2009. DEAR COLLEAGUES: The administration is currently evaluating U.S. policy toward Sri Lanka in the wake of the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), one of the world’s www.foreign.senate.gov

)

 Pray, how does America benefit by Sri Lanka handing over the Trincomalee Port to the Indians?

Based on their new strategy, the Americans took practical measures to fill the void, by directly extending their overt military presence in the Pacific Ocean to now include the Indian Ocean; their ‘Pacific Ocean’ military command, responsible for the security of all US interests in the Pacific region, was renamed the ‘Indo-Pacific Command’; this independent Military Command was tasked with the added responsibility of ensuring the security of all US interests in the ‘Indian Ocean’ region.  

The Commander of the 400,000 strong Indo-Pacific Army Group is directly responsible to the President of the US; he reports directly to the US President and gets his orders and instructions, directly from the latter (and not through the commanders of the Army, Navy or Air Force).

Proceeding in tandem with the extension of responsibility of the US Pacific Army Group, were the reassignment of military assets; a majority of the US Naval assets were moved into the Indo-Pacific theatre.  

To beef-up American military capability in the region, the US established a ‘Southern NATO’, a powerful military alliance named Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue), marshalling the combined military power of India, Japan and Australia.  

Trincomalee is strategic to the US; Nandikadal is an elegy to the valour, heroism and sacrifice of the Sri Lankan people in defeating the Americans and denying them Trincomalee.

The secret deal by Basil Rajapakse and Co in surrendering Trincomalee is a reversal of the epical victory at Nandikadal and a gross betrayal of the Sri Lankan people. Giving Trincomalee to the Indians is tantamount to the Americans being given the strategic Port on a platter.

It is indeed, heart-breaking. Did the Sri Lankan people shed their blood in vain to be betrayed in this fashion by an American within their ranks?

/ to be contd

Garvin Karunaratne Ph.D.Michigan State University

The former PrimeMinister Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe sings praise of the IMF:

US dollar will hit Rs 300 in near future

By Methmalie Dissanayake

UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday (16), warned the US dollar would reach Rs 300 before the end of the year.

In a statement, he said the economy is deteriorating, while both the dollar deficit and the rupee deficit have not been resolved yet. 

Today, the real value of the rupee is actually Rs 250 to the dollar. Even more so, this way it can go up to Rs 275. If we do not stop there, it will reach Rs 300 before the end of the year,” he said. 

The middle class is facing hardship, many are being pushed down the economic ladder. The agriculture sector has been destroyed. Small and big businessmen are unable to procure goods to do their work. This is the problem faced by the citizens. By June and July, we will have to repay foreign loans again. We have a total of US$ 6 billion to repay this year. We have not yet discussed the situation with the IMF. So we have to find the money to repay the loans in June and July. New problems are continuing to arise and this is why the banking system has been abandoned, Wickremesinghe said.

Under Article 4 of the IMF’s Constitution, each member state is required to discuss and report on its economic situation once a year. The IMF team arrived in Sri Lanka last December. We know that the report will be presented next week. As soon as the Government receives that report they have to present it to Parliament. Once it is presented to Parliament we must hold a debate on it. The proposals put forth in the report must be discussed. From there, we will see if we can come to a consensus and agree to basic principles. It is our duty,” he said.

Speaking further, the UNP Leader said, Our country just has a single resource and that  is the younger generation which comprise Millennials and Generation Zs. We need to think about that group. They want to create a future, but they have lost faith. The Government has broken its trust.”

(Extracted from Ceylon Today}

The former Hon Prime Minister has not read my book: How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development, a manuscript of which was submitted to him by former Ambassador Nanda Godage in early 2017, even before the book was published in 2017 by Godages. 

When ever I step into Sri Lanka I make it a point to meet friends and specially officers who once worked under me, if I can find them.  Once in early 2017, I handed over a copy in manuscript form to Nanda Godage.  A day later I was  at a shop in Nawala when my phone rang. It was a strange voice I had never heard earlier. It was Maitripala Sirisena our President. I had never met him. He accosted me:”You have written a book about our country and the IMF and have given a copy to the Prime Minister. Why have you not sent me a copy.” I explained that I have never given a copy to the Prime Minister but added that I will send him a copy. Back at home I made a copy and submitted to him. 

Later on speaking to Nanda Godage he confided in me that he thought of the worth of the book and submitted it to the Prime Minister whom he knew well..

I would like the former Prime Minister to kindly read that book and also my earlier published  book: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternative Programs of Success,  published by Godages in 2006. These books prove that it was our following the neolibearl economics of the Structural Adjustment program that  made a country that did not owe a single  dollar to anyone in 1977 come to the point where we are in debt to the tume of $ 56 billion.

The economic rule is clear even to a peddler on the streets that if one lives on loans without being able to pay back, one will be in real trouble before long.  However advised by the Ph.D. pundits in our Central bank- (they sang praises of the IMF’s St Adj. in their Annual Reports) and our book worm dons at all our universities, President Jayawardena as well as my close associate Ronnie de Mel were fooled to accept loans and live on loans and allow the rich in the country to go on pilgrimage , to go cruising, to send off their progeny to study abroad all funded by loans. To entice our leaders to accept the loans the IMF even gave grace periods of 5 to 10 years when the loans need not get serviced, enticing the leaders to enjoy and put off the payment onto the shoulders of a future leader.

That is the process that has led to the build up of the foreign debt. 

Our former Prime Minister is kindly requested to read that book. Another book of mine: How the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Destroyed Sri Lanka has just been published in 2022 by Godages.

Our Mother land has been taken for a ride by the IMF who fooled President Jayawardena and how to get back will never be done by pleading to the IMF.

Hark back to the United National Party policies of Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake when he ruled in 1965 to 1970 when every dollar that came in was collected very strictly and used to fund essentials first and small allocations were given to get down cars and other necessaries. Then there were no grants for foreign studies abroad.   That is a blue print to follow- the only blue print that will take our country out of this morass.

Garvin Karunaratne

Ph.D.Michigan State University

It may be of interest to note that in 2015, our foreigndebt was at 

ජයන්ත හේරත්

චීනයේ  අවුරුදු පතා ඉංජිනේරුවෝ ලක්ෂ 6 ක් උපාධි ලබා විශ්ව විද්යාල වලින් පිටවෙති. 

චීනයට කිට්ටුවීමට නම් අපේ ඉංජිනේරු උපාධි නිෂ්පාදනය අවුරුදු පතා 8000 දක්වා වත් වැඩි කල යුතුය පුද්ගලීකරණ සහ මිලිටරීකරණ ක්‍රම ඇතුලත්ව.

2016 දී චීනයේ Science Technology Engineering Mathematics  උපාධිධාරීන් මිලියන 4.7 ක් ද, ඉන්දියාවේ STEM උපාධිධාරීන් මිලියන 2.6 ක් ද  එක්සත් ජනපදයේ 568,000 ක් ය. ලංකාණු සංඛ්‍යා දන්නේ නැත.

ච්ලි වල Gabriel Boric දිනුවාය. වයස අවුරුදු 35 ය. Boric ඊයේ පෙරේදා දීනුවාට jvp-npp ලාට දිනන්නට බෑය. එන්නට බෑ ය. කොරන්නත් බෑය. 2000 මුල් දශකයේ ආසන 38-40ක් ගත්තාට කල බම්බුවක් නැත. අන්තිමේදී දමලා ගහලා ගියේය. මුන්ට ප්‍රශ්න වලට විසදුම් නැත. වැරදුන තැනට reverse ගිහින් හදන්නට බැරිය.

ආණ්ඩු එනවාය. යනවාය. ඒක හොඳය. නිකම් දුන්නාට දිනන්නට බැරි බව ආණ්ඩු දැන ගත යුතුය. ආණ්ඩු වර්ජන මර්දනය කල යුතුය. මර්දනය නොකලාට දිනන්නේ නැත. අද කලයුතු දේ අද කල යුතුය. හෙට නොවේ. අදය.

පසුගිය දශක හය  තුළ විශ්ව විද්‍යාල ප්‍රවේශයට සුදුසුකම් ලත් තරුණයින් සියයට 80 කට වැඩි පිරිසකට ඔවුන්ගේ උසස් අධ්‍යාපනය දිගටම කරගෙන යාමට අවස්ථාව ලබා දී නොමැත. JVP කාරයා ඇතුළු උසස් අධ්‍යාපන විරෝදී කණ්ඩායම් මීට වග කිව යුතුය. උන්ට උත්තර නැත.

තරුණ පරම්පරා 50 කට  උසස් අධ්‍යාපනය දිගටම කරගෙන යාමට ඇති අයිතිය අහිමි කිරීම ගැන වග කිව යුත්තේ  JVP කාරයාය. රටේ වටිනාම  සම්පත් විනාශ කල කණ්ඩායම JVP එක බව අවිවාදයෙන් පිළිගත යුතුය.

රටේ අනවශ්‍ය වර්ජන රැලි මහෙය වූයේ උන්ය. විශ්ව විද්‍යාල සිසුන් ඉගෙනීම නවතා වර්ජන වලට යැව්වේ උන්ය. එහෙම කිරීමෙන් උන්ට තරුණයන් වහලුන් වශයෙන් ජීවිත කාලය පුරාම තබා ගත හැකි යයි සිතුවා විය  හැක.

සියලුම සංවර්ධිත රටවල් මානව ශ්‍රමය ඔවුන්ගේ ප්‍රධාන සම්පත ලෙස පිළිගන්නා නිසා, ඔවුන් උගත් මිනිසුන් බිහි කරයි.

බොහෝ රටවල අධ්‍යාපනය විශාල ව්‍යාපාරයකි. විශ්ව විද්‍යාල යනු උගත්, ඉහළ දක්ෂතා ඇති, නිර්මාණශීලී පුද්ගලයින් බිහිකරන කර්මාන්තශාලාය. විශ්ව විද්‍යාලවලට යන සිසුන් උසස් අධ්‍යාපනය ලැබීමට සහ ඔවුන්ගේ කුසලතා වැඩි දියුණු කිරීමට උපකාරක පන්ති සහ ගාස්තු ගෙවයි. මෙම මුදල් ආර්ථික වර්ධනයට දායක වන අතරම සුදුසුකම් ලත් පීඨ, කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය සහ පරිපාලනය සඳහා නව විශ්වවිද්‍යාල සහ රැකියා අවස්ථා නිර්මාණය කළ හැක.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, සියලුම සිසුන්ට තමන් කැමති විෂයකින් උසස් අධ්‍යාපනය හැදෑරීමට අවස්ථාව සැලසීම රජයක  පරම යුතුකමකි බැඳීමකි.

ලංකා ජනගහණයෙන් 98-100%කට දැන් විදුලිය ඇත. 98-100%කට Smart phone, Computer, Internet ඇත. එය 1970 ගණන්වල තනි ඉලක්කම්වලට  සාපේක්ෂව දැවැන්ත ප්රගතියකි.

අධ්යාපනය සඳහා එම  සංඛ්යාව 20% කි. අධ්යාපනය සඳහා 98-100%  ඉලක්කය  සාක්ෂාත් කර ගැනීම  වැදගත්ය.

ලංකාවේ කොතලාවල ආරක්ෂක විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය  මොරටුව විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය වැනි ප්‍රමුඛ පෙලේ ආයතන  රටපුරා Replicae  කල යුතුය. මෙවැනි ව්‍යාපෘති කරනවාට විරුද්ධ කණ්ඩායම් දේශපාලන භූමිකාවෙන් ඉවත් කල යුතුය, ස්වේච්චාවෙන් ඉවත් විය යුතුය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

රටවල් අතර තිබෙන මිත්‍රත්වයෙන් සහ ස්ව ශක්තියෙන් නැගී සිටි චීනය නිසා අද සමස්ත ආසියාවම වෙනසකට ලක්වෙලා තිබෙනවා යැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පැවසීය.

චීන-ශ්‍රී ලංකා තානාපති සබඳතා සඳහා වසර 65ක් පිරීම  සහ රබර්-සහල් ගිවිසුමට වසර 70ක් පිරීම නිමිත්තෙන් නෙළුම් පොකුණ රඟහලේ දී අද (17) පස්වරුවේ පැවැති සමරු උත්සවයට එක්වෙමින් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා මේ බව පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

වසර 65 සපිරෙන චීන-ශ්‍රී ලංකා තානාපති සබඳතා වෙනුවෙන් නිකුත් කළ සමරු සාර සංග්‍රහය ශ්‍රී ලංකා කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයේ වැඩ බලන සභාපති පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී වීරසුමන වීරසිංහ මහතා විසින් මෙහිදී අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ, හිටපු ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන, හිටපු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහත්වරු ඇතුළු පක්ෂ නායකයන්ට පිළිගන්වන ලදි. 

චීන-ශ්‍රී ලංකා තානාපති සබඳතා සඳහා වසර 65ක් පිරීම  සහ රබර්-සහල් ගිවිසුමට වසර 70ක් පිරීම නිමිත්තෙන් පැවති සමරු උත්සවයේ දී අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා කළ සම්පූර්ණ කතාව මෙසේය.

මම මගේ දේශනය කිරීමට පෙර, සියලු කාරුණික වචන සහ ඒ වචන පිටුපස ඇති ක්‍රියාවට චීනයේ අතිගරු ජනාධිපති ෂී ජින් පින්ග් මහතාට ස්තුතිවන්ත වෙනවා. අපගේ ජාතීන් අතර ඇති ශක්තිමත් බැඳීම් අපගේ ජනතාව අතර බෙදාහදා ගන්නා ගැඹුරින් මුල් බැසගත් මිත්‍රත්වය මගින් තවදුරටත් ස්ථිරව තහවුරු වී ඇති බව මට විශ්වාසයි. 

චීනය දීර්ඝ ඉතිහාසයකට උරුමකම් කියන රටක්. ඒ වගේම ඒක ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ ඉතිහාසයක්. එම ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ ඉතිහාසය පෝෂණය වන්නට කොන්ෆියුසියස් දර්ශනයත් ඉවහල් වන්න ඇතියි කියලා මම හිතනවා.

චීන ඉතිහාසයට තවත් වැදගත් තැනක් හිමි වන්නේ චීනය විශාල රටක් වුවත් කවදාවත් කිසිම රටක් ආක්‍රමණය නොකිරීමයි.ඒ වගේම තමන්ගේ මාතෘ භූමිය මොනම විදෙස් බලවේගයකටවත් යටත් කරන්න ඉඩ දීලත් නැහැ.

අතීතයේ ලෝක බලවතුන් චීනය අල්ලන්නට ගත් සෑම උත්සාහයක්ම අසාර්ථක වුණා. චීනය අඛණ්ඩව එක්සත් රාජ්‍යයක් හැටියට පවත්වාගෙන ඒමට අද වෙනකල් හැකි වී තිබෙනවා.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවත් චීනයත් අතර සබඳතා ආරම්භ වන්නේ වසර 2000 කට පෙර ඉඳන් බවයි ඉතිහාසයේ සඳහන් වන්නේ. බෞද්ධාගම, ජාත්‍යන්තර වෙළඳාම, සංස්කෘතික සබඳතා, හරහා දෙරටේ ජනතාව අතර මිත්‍රත්වය වර්ධනය වී තිබෙනවා.

විවිධ ආක්‍රමණවලට මුහුණ දෙමින් නව චීනය බිහි වන්නේ 1949 දී.

දේශපාලන වශයෙන් චීන නායකයින් සමඟ සබඳතා පැවැත්වීමට දොස්තර සුගීශ්වර වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා කටයුතු කර තිබෙනවා . ඔහු 1945 දී ලෝක කම්කරු සමිති සම්මේලනය පිහිටුවීමේ ආරම්භක උත්සවයට සහභාගී වුණා. එය පැවැත්වුනේ පැරිස් නුවර. චීන නායකයින්ද එයට සහභාගී වුණා. එහිදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව හා චීනය අතර දේශපාලන සබඳතා ගොඩනැඟීම ආරම්භ වෙනවා.

චීනයට ගිය පළමු දේශපාලන නියෝජිත පිරිසට පිලිප් ගුණවර්ධන, එස්.ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක, එඩ්මන් සමරක්කොඩි සහ එස්.ජී.එස්.රත්නවීර ඇතුලත් වී තිබෙනවා.

ඊට පසු ශ්‍රී ලංකා – චීන මිත්‍ර සංගමය පිහිටුවනු ලැබුවා. එහි මූලිකත්වය ගත්තේ පූජ්‍ය උඩකැන්දවල සිරි සරණංකර හිමි, කුසුමා ගුණවර්ධන, තේජා ගුණවර්ධන, පීටර් කෙන්මන්, එස්.ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක ඇතුළු කණ්ඩායමක්.

රබර් සහල් ගිවිසුම (1952) මිත්‍රත්වයේ තවත් සන්ධිස්ථානයක් ලෙස හඳුන්වන්න පුළුවන්. ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම මිත්‍රත්වයට හොඳ පදනමක් දැම්මේ 1‍956 මහජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණ රජය කාලයේදී යි. දිවංගත බණ්ඩාරනායක මහතා විදේශ ප්‍රතිපත්තියේ පැහැදිලි වෙනසක් ඇති කළා.සමාජවාදී රාජ්‍යයන් සමඟ සබඳතා ගොඩනැඟුවා.

චීනය පිළිගැනීමට සහ චීනය සමඟ රාජතාන්ත්‍රික සබඳතා ගොඩ නැඟීම වෙනුවෙන් වමේ ව්‍යාපාරය, වෘත්තීය සමිති ව්‍යාපාරය, තරුණ ශිෂ්‍ය ව්‍යාපාරය  දැවැන්ත අරගල කරගෙන ගියා. මා තර්ස්ටන් විද්‍යාලයේ ශිෂ්‍යයෙකු වශයෙන් සිටියදී එම පෙළපාලිවලට සහභාගී වුණා.

මට මතකයි චීනයේ පළමු තානාපති වුනේ විල්මට් ඒ පෙරේරා මහතායි. ඔහු සූරිය මල් ව්‍යාපාරයේ පුරෝගාමියෙක්. ඉන් පසු ඒ.බී. පෙරේරා, රොබට් ගුණවර්ධන, විලියම් ගොපල්ලව දෙරටේ මිත්‍රත්වය ශක්තිමත් කළා.මෙහිදී විශේෂ කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටු කළේ ටී.බී. සුබසිංහයන්.

1978 න් පස්සේ චීනය නව ආර්ථික උපාය මාර්ගවලට පිවිසුනා. 1978 හා 2010 අතර ඉතා වේගවත් සංවර්ධනයක් ඇති කළා. ගත වූ දශකය තුළ චීනය නව ආර්ථික වැඩ සටහන් දෙකක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කළා. පළමුව ක්‍රියාත්මක කළේ නව සේද මාවත ව්‍යාපෘතිය. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවත් එහි ආරම්භක සාමාජිකයෙක්. දෙවන ව්‍යාපෘතිය වුනේ අන්ත දරිද්‍රතාවය අහෝසි කිරීමයි. මිලියන 800 ක ජනතාවක් අන්ත දරිද්‍රතාවයෙන් මුදා ගැනීමට එහිදී හැකි වුණා. ලෝක ඉතිහාසයේ මෙතෙක් නොඇසූ ජයග්‍රහණයක් ඒක.

චීනය අද ලොව විශාලතම වෙළඳපොළක්. ඒ නිසාම විදේශ විනිමය ගලා එනවා. ලෝකයේ දෙවන ආර්ථික  බලවතා බවට චීනය මේ වන විටත් පත්වෙලා අවසන්. චීනය නිසාම සමස්ත ආසියාවම වෙනසකට ලක් වෙලා තිබෙනවා. චීනය නැඟී සිටියේ ස්ව ශක්තියෙන්. ඒ වගේම රටවල් අතර තිබෙන මිත්‍රත්වයෙන්. චීනය අපගේ ඓතිහාසික මිත්‍රයෙක්. ඒ වගේම අව්‍යාජ  මිත්‍රයෙක් බවත් කියන්න ඕනෙ. ඒ බව මා මෙහිදී විශේෂයෙන්ම සඳහන් කරන්න ඕනෙ.

චීනයේ වත්මන් ජනාධිපති ෂී ජින් පින්ග් මැතිතුමා අපගේ පෞද්ගලික මිතුරෙක් වගේම ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙත් හොඳ මිතුරෙක්.  ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතිවලට එතුමා අපට උදව් කරනවා.

ෂී ජින් පින්ග් ජනාධිපතිතුමාගේ ශක්තිමත් නායකත්වය යටතේ 2012 වසරෙන් පසුව චීනය නව යුගයකට පා තැබූ බව සඳහන් කරන්න ඕනෙ.

චීනයේ දෛවය වෙනස් කරමින් අද අත්දකින චීන සාර්ථකත්වය ලබා දීමට එතුමාගේ නායකත්වය ප්‍රධාන සාධකයක් වූ බව සඳහන් කරන්න කැමතියි. එසේ නොවුනානම් අද අපි දකින චීනය බිහි වන්නේ නැහැ.

චීන කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයට වසර 100 ක් සම්පූර්ණ වන අවස්ථාවේ එම සංවත්සරය සඳහා මම ද අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ සහභාගී වුණා. චීන කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයේ 20 වන ජාතික කොන්ග්‍රස් සමුළුව 2022 වසරේදී පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත අතර එම සමුළුව සාර්ථක වේවායි සුභ පැතීමටත් මා මෙය අවස්ථාවක් කර ගන්නවා.

චීන ශ්‍රී ලංකා රාජතාන්ත්‍රික සබඳතාවලට වසර 65 ක් පිරීම නිමිත්තෙන් අපි සමරු කාසියකුත් නිකුත් කළා. එය අපි කළේ අපගේ මිත්‍රත්වයේ සංකේතයක් ලෙසයි.

චීනය, තීරණාත්මක  සෑම අවස්ථාවකම ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සමඟ මිත්‍රත්වයෙන් සිටියා. චීනයත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවත් අතර තිබෙන මිත්‍රත්වය ඉදිරියටත් ශක්තිමත්ව පවත්වාගෙන යාම අපගේ අපේක්ෂාව  හා වගකීමයි. ඔබ සැමට                            තෙරුවන් සරණයි! යැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා පැවසීය.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට ශ්‍රීලනිප සභාපති හිටපු ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන, එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ නායක හිටපු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ, මහජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණේ නායක අමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන, ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී වාමාංශික පෙරමුණේ නායක අමාත්‍ය වාසුදේව නානායක්කාර, ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නායක අමාත්‍ය විමල් වීරවංශ, පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය නායක අමාත්‍ය උදය ගම්මන්පිල, , ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ චීන තානාපති චී.ෂෙන්හොංග්, ශ්‍රී ලංකා කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයේ වැඩ බලන සභාපති පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී වීරසුමන වීරසිංහ,  ලංකා සම සමාජ පක්ෂයේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී මහාචාර්ය තිස්ස විතාරණ, ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහජන පක්ෂයේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී අසංක නවරත්න, ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ මධ්‍යම කාරක සභික වසන්ත සමරසිංහ, ශ්‍රී ලංකා කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයේ හිටපු ප්‍රධාන ලේකම් ඩිව් ගුණසේකර, ශ්‍රී ලංකා කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයේ ප්‍රධාන ලේකම් විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය ජී.වීරසිංහ, සංවත්සර කමිටුවේ ලේකම් මහාචාර්ය කේ.ඩී.එන්. වීරසිංහ මහත්වරු ඇතුළු පිරිසක් එක්ව සිටියහ.

ලංකා ගුරු සේවා සංගමය.

ගරු ජනාධිපති
ගෝඨාභය රාජපක‍ෂ මැතිතුමා,
ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය,
කොළඹ 01.

ජනාධිපතිතුමනි,

අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශය යටතේ පුරප්පාඩු වී ඇති අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක‍ෂ හා කොමසාරිස් තනතුරු 18 ක් ස`දහා සිදු කිරීමට නියමිත පත්වීම් සම්බන්ධවයි.

රාජ්‍ය සේවා කොමිෂන් සභාවේ අධ්‍යාපන සේවා කමිටුවේ අනුමැතියට යටත්ව අධ්‍යාපන ලේකම්වරයා විසින් අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශයේ පුරප්පාඩු වී පවතින අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක‍ෂ හා කොමසාරිස් තනතුරු 18 ක් සදහා 2021.09.13 දිනැතිව අධ්‍යාපන පරිපාලන සේවයේ 1 පන්තියේ නිලධාරීන්ගෙන් අයදුම්පත් කැදවා පවත්වන ලද සම්මුඛ පරීක‍ෂණ හා එහි නිර්දේශයන්ට අනුව ලබාදීමට නියමිත පත්වීම් සම්බන්ධව ඔබගේ දැඩි අවධානය යොමු කරමු.

02ග මෙම පුරප්පාඩු තනතුරුවල පත්වීම්වලට පෙර ජාතික පාසල් 31 ක් ස`දහා සිදු කළ සම්මුඛ පරීක‍ෂණ හා ලබාදුන් පත්විම් සම්බන්ධව මේ වනවිට එල්ලවී ඇති බරපතළ විවේචන හේතුවෙන් අදාළ පත්වීම් වහාම අත්හිටුවමින් අපක‍ෂපාති විධිමත් පරීක‍ෂණයක් අරඹන ලෙස මගේ අංක ල.ගු.සේ.ස./ජනාධිපති/02 හා 2022.01.24 දිනැති ලිපිය මගින් ඔබගේ අවධානය යොමු කිරීමට ද කටයුතු කළ බව අවධාරණය කරමු.

03ග විශේෂයෙන් උක්ත තනතුරු අධ්‍යාපන පරිපාලන සේවයට අයත් තනතුරු වන අතර රාජ්‍ය සේවය තුළ ශ්‍රී ලංකා පරිපාලන සේවයක් තිබියදී අධ්‍යාපන ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ පරිපාලනය සදහා අධ්‍යාපන පරිපාලන සේවයක් ස්ථාපිත කරනුයේ මෙරට අධ්‍යාපනයේ සුව්ශේෂීව හදුනාගත් කාර්යභායක් ඊට පැවරී තිබීමත් ඒ සදහා ව්‍යවස්ථානුකූල පළපුරුද්දක් ඇති සුදුස්සන් තෝරාපත් කර ගැනීමට බවත් පෙන්වා දිය යුතු නැත. තවදුරටත් ශී්‍ර ලංකා අධ්‍යාපන පරිපාලන සේවය තුළ ද ව්‍යවස්ථානුකූලව නිශ්චිත සුදුසුකම් ඇතිව තරග විභාග මගින් බදවා ගැනීමේ ක්‍රමවේදයක් හදුන්වාදී ඇත්තේ ද අධ්‍යාපනයේ අරමුණු වඩා ඵලදායීව ඉටු කර ගැනීමේ අරමුණිනි.

04ග නමුත් රාජ්‍ය සේවා කොමිෂන් සභාව හෝ අධ්‍යාපන ලේකම්වරයා ඇතුඵ සම්මුඛ පරික‍ෂණ මණ්ඩලය එවැනි අරමුණකින් කටයුතු කර මෙම බදවා ගැනීම් සිදු කළේ ද යන බරපතළ විවේචනය මේ වනවිට අදාළ විදුහල්පතිවරුන් පත්කිරීමේදී පැන නැගී ඇත. එපරිදිම අදාළ සම්මුඛ පරීක‍ෂණ මගින් අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක‍ෂ හා කොමසාරිස් තනතුරු ස`දහා ද තෝරා පත් කර ගැනීම් සිදු කර ඇති අතර උක්ත අක්‍රමිකතාම මෙහිදී ද සිදුව ඇති බවට තොරතුරු අප සංගමය වෙත වාර්තා වේ.

එහෙයින් මෙම සියලූ බදවා ගැනීම් සම්බන්ධව රාජ්‍ය සේවා කොමිෂන් සභාව ද ඇතුඵව අපක‍ෂපාති විධිමත් පරීක‍ෂණයකට යොමු කරන ලෙසත් සේවා ව්‍යවස්ථාවන් හා අදාළ තනතුරුවල පැවරෙන රාජකාරි හා වගකීම් නිවැරදිව අර්ථනිරූපණය කරමින් ඊට අදාළ අධ්‍යාපන හා වෘත්තීය සුදුසුකම් මෙන්ම ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨතාවය හා පළපුරුද්ද ඇති නිලධාරීන් පමණක් මෙම වගකිව යුතු තනතුරුවලට පත්කිරීමට පියවර ගත යුතුව ඇත. එසේ නොවන්නේ නම් අධ්‍යාපනයේ අනාගත අභිවෘද්ධිය වෙනුවෙන් මේ වනවිට අපගේ දැනුවත් කිරීම්වලට අනුව තවදුරටත් ඔබගේ ද අනුදැනුම ඇතිව සිදුවන මෙම අක්‍රමිකතාවලට එරෙහිව ඉදිරි ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීමට ලංකා ගුරුසේවා සංගමය ලෙසත් අධ්‍යාපන ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ සෙසු සංගම් ඒකාබද්ධවත් කටයුතු කිරීමට සිදුවන බව අවධාරණය කරමු.

මෙයට,
විධායක සභාව වෙනුවෙන්,

මහින්ද ජයසිංහ,
ප්‍රධාන ලේකම්,
ලංකා ගුරු සේවා සංගමය.

සම්බන්ධීකරණය – 0718297022/0777685038

පිටපත් – 01. ගරු අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා

2. ලේකම් – රාජ්‍ය සේවා කොමිෂන් සභාව 03. ලේකම් – අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශය
   4. සහකාර ලේකම් (අධ්‍යාපන සේවා) – අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශය

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Feb 17 (LonelyPlanet) – Sri Lanka’s tropical beaches are unanimously adored. Crafted from a 1340km (833-mile) coastline, its countless topographically varied beaches, coves, and bays attract sun-seekers, fun lovers, and surfers throughout the year. Wildlife plays its part too – beaches are vital nesting grounds for endangered marine turtles, while blue whales are sighted at sea.

Sri Lanka is a year-round destination, but it’s influenced by two opposing monsoons that affect the weather, ocean currents, and when and where you should visit. Generally speaking, the southwest coast is best between November and April, and the east from May to September. These are the best beaches in Sri Lanka.

Unawatuna

Unawatuna, 6km (3.7 miles) from history-laden Galle Fort, is still one of the most sought-after swimming beaches in Sri Lanka, despite encroaching development. Thanks to an offshore reef, its azure water is relatively calm for most of the year. Sunbeds line the beach, Jet Skis buzz around the bay and although it gets busy during peak season, it never feels crowded. Unawatuna’s dining scene is sophisticated, and there are regular weekend beach parties.

Dalawella

Just east of Unawatuna, much-photographed Frog Rock presides over Dalawella’s slender champagne sands. Otherwise known as Wijeya Beach after its most popular restaurant, its idyllic aqua-blue lagoon is protected by a reef, so you can swim or paddle here for much of the year. It’s a super spot for families, particularly as curious turtles often make an appearance.

READ: Sri Lanka listed as one of the best countries to travel as voted by Condé Nast Traveller’s readers

Weligama

Weligama’s smiling 2km (1.2-mile) bay has emerged as one of the best surfing beaches in Sri Lanka for beginners, thanks to a forgiving sandy-bottomed break. Rent boards and book lessons from the surf outfits to the west of the bay – most are run by young surfers with first-hand knowledge of the local breaks. Weligama’s fine sand attracts families too, and there are plenty of places to eat, drink and sleep in every price range.

Kabalana

Forming part of laid-back Ahangama’s hip surf-and-yoga scene, Kabalana feels like a quieter, more intimate alternative to Weligama or Unawatuna. Arrange surf lessons from beachfront restaurants, or rent a board for riding local breaks – the A-frame known as the Rock is rumored to be Sri Lanka’s best deep-reef break. After dark, the focus shifts to the foodie restaurants flanking busy Galle-Matara road.

Mirissa

Many of those descending upon Mirissa’s gentle moon-shaped bay is here for the blue whales; boats depart daily during the season for half-day cruises, and sightings are good. Yet its appeal runs much deeper – you can snorkel in the bay east of Parrot Rock or surf its western reef break, take a yoga class or enjoy a scenic ramble, such as Mirissa’s (not so) Secret Beach. Restaurants are plentiful, and evenings can be lively.

Hiriketiya

Flanked by a pair of jungle-tangled headlands, Hiriketiya’s deep bay is a real showstopper. Discovered by sun-kissed surfers, this dramatic setting, low-key atmosphere, and year-round swimming now hold universal appeal. Hidden beneath coconut palms, the bay houses a chic collection of timber-frame restaurants, coffee shops, guesthouses, and villas, stretching up and over the western hill en route to neighboring Dikwella’s vast sandy bay.

Bentota

Sri Lanka’s west coast is dominated by large package-holiday hotels basking over fine stretches of sand. The best is Bentota, where the long honey-hued beach ends in a spit of sand separating the Indian Ocean from a big lagoon. A combination of water sports, decent swimming, and lifeguards attract families, though there are no independent restaurants on the beach itself.

Arugam Bay Beach

East coast A-Bay is Sri Lanka’s surfing trump. Best between May and September, it has a variety of evocatively named breaks – Whiskey Point, Peanut Farm, Crocodile Rock – in wild, unspoiled, and sometimes hard-to-reach locations. Once the preserve of die-hard surfers and fishermen, Arugam Bay attracts budget-conscious sun-seekers looking to combine surfing with visits to deserted beaches, historic temples, and remote national parks (Kumana and Lahugala Kitulana).

Kalkudah Beach

If you’re craving wild and deserted beaches, Kalkudah’s vast stretch is as close to Crusoe-like perfection as you’ll find in Sri Lanka. A profusion of coconut estates and gnarled cashew plantations back this idyllic east-coast beach, and though swimming is possible here, it can be treacherous out of season as the sea shelves deeply. Sleep in one of Karpaha Sands’ chic tents or day trip from the upmarket resort-lined bay of Passekudah, 2km (1.2 miles) to the north.

Nilaveli

Nilaveli, 13km (8 miles) north of Trincomalee, is a 4km-long (2.5-mile) east-coast beach characterized by wide ivory sands, palmyra palms, and roaming cattle. Between May and September, when the shallow ocean laps gently onto the beach, Nilaveli becomes Sri Lanka’s deep-sea diving and whale-watching hub. Just offshore lies Pigeon Island’s protected marine park – home to turtles and blacktip reef sharks, it’s one of the best sites for snorkeling and diving in the country.  

Casuarina Beach

Make it as far as the northernmost Jaffna peninsula and the beaches become barren, windswept, and remote. Many are deserted and offer little shade, so it’s no wonder that idyllic Casuarina Beach – named after the variety of trees fringing the sand – is so popular, despite the adventurous 40-minute cross-island drive from Jaffna. Casuarina tends to be busiest at weekends, with day-tripping family groups frolicking in the warm, shallow sea.

Kalpitiya Beach

Kalpitiya is a 35km (22-mile) peninsula that juts out from the northwest coast near Puttalam. Firs flank a beach that extends almost uninterrupted to the very tip of the peninsula, where there’s a ruined Dutch Fort. To the east lies the vast Puttalam Lagoon, where the dancing sails of kite-surfers color the skies during the windier, off-season months of May to September. 

Mawella

Mawella is a mesmerizing yet little-known south coast beach. Its 2km (1.2 mile) crescent-shaped bay is backed by just a handful of boutique hotels, villas, and simple bungalows, basking in vast palm-shaded grounds. Despite being just 7km (4.3 miles) from Tangalla, those in the know come here for a rare taste of southern escapism and plan to do very little at all. That said, the rolling waves are fun for body-boarding, and the long beach is super for break-of-dawn runs. 

by Nermina Kulovic Courtesy Offshore Energy

A drillship owned by Aquadrill Offshore, formerly known as Seadrill Partners, has caught fire while docked at a port in Sri Lanka.

The Hambantota International Port Emergency Response Unit (ERU) together with the port’s Quality, Health, Safety & Environment Dept. (QHSE), and Port Control, responded to a fire that occurred onboard the drillship Polaris, on Tuesday evening, 15 February 2022.

According to the Hambantota International Port, the ship’s crew had alerted Port Control for assistance in dousing the sudden fire that had broken out in the ship’s emergency generator room.

The ERU’s fire trucks arrived on the scene within minutes of being notified, assisting the crew to quickly contain the fire with charged fire hoses. The respective ERU teams brought the fire fully under control within 33 minutes of their arrival. They were able to prevent serious damage to the drillship or its surrounding area, the port said in the statement.

The joint effort of this venture reflects professionalism and assurance to HIP port users and stakeholders of optimum safety and proactive response to unforeseen events related in maritime operations,” said Tissa Wickramasinghe, COO of HIPG.

The 14-year-old drillship called at the Hambantota Port for a layup on 11 January 2021 and was at Berth 6 when the fire occurred. The ship is expected to remain in port until June 2022.

Seadrill Partners became Aquadrill last year following an exit from bankruptcy. As part of the plan, new management services agreements were entered into for the management of the company’s offshore drilling units. As a result, Aquadrill’s 2008-built Polaris drillship, previously known as West Polaris, is managed by Vantage Drilling, which is actively bidding the rig for new employment.

Offshore Energy has reached out to Aquadrill and Vantage, seeking confirmation and further details about the incident but we are yet to receive a response.

Earlier this year, Aquadrill and Vantage reached an agreement for Vantage to manage and market another rig, the Aquarius. The 2009-built rig was previously managed by Odfjell Drilling.

Courtesy The New Indian Express

The ganja seized on Tuesday night is valued at Rs 1.25 crore, and with the vehicles used to smuggle which included a mini-lorry, two cars, and a scooter, the total value of seizure is Rs 2 crore.

By Express News Service

THANJAVUR: Ganja packets weighing 250 kg and bound for Sri Lanka were seized by a special team of police in Thanjavur on Tuesday night. A total of 14 persons were arrested in connection with the incident.

On the orders of DIG A Kayalvizhi, special teams were constituted to prevent smuggling and sales of ganja in the delta districts.

One such team, on Tuesday night, intercepted a mini lorry in Thanjavur and found equipment from a thermal power plant in Bihar being transported for repair.

On suspicion, the police conducted an intense search in the lorry and found ganja packets weighing 250 kg inside the equipment.

On interrogation, those in the mini lorry told the police that the ganja packets were being smuggled for onward despatch to Sri Lanka. Police sources further said the ganja packets used to be smuggled from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh into Tamil Nadu via Vellore and taken to places like Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district and Jambuvanodai in Tiruvarur district for smuggling to Sri Lanka through boats.

It is further said the ganja bought at Rs 3,000 per kg at Visakhapatnam is being sold at a rate of Rs 20,000 per kg to intermediaries from Sri Lanka who, in turn, sell the same at Rs 50,000 per kg in retail. Hence the ganja seized on Tuesday night is valued at Rs 1.25 crore, and with the vehicles used to smuggle which included a mini-lorry, two cars, and a scooter, the total value of seizure is Rs 2 crore, sources added.

Based on investigations the police arrested 14 persons, including 11 from Tamil Nadu — R SugaPerumal (42), Muthulingam (31), M Vellaiyan (29), M Sakthivel (38), J George Fernandes (27), Murugan (28), R Raja (43), S Veeraganesan (28), K Senthil (27), S Uma Maheswaran (51), and Raman (36), and three persons from Andhra: Pradesh K Srinivasalu (30), Govinda (27), and V Soya Nagarajan (31).

Meanwhile, A Kayalvizhi inspected the ganja seized by the special team. Thanjavur ASP V Jayachandran was present.

Courtesy superyachtnews

However, questions remain over the project’s tangible yachting benefit given current procedures and processes…

The Sri Lanka Port Authority (SPLA) has announced that nearly 100 acres of landmass will be added to the Galle Harbour. The Cabinet of Ministers has cleared a proposal to call for Expressions of Interest from investors to develop the Galle Port as a regional commercial port with additional services including tourism. However, with a focus on commercial shipping, as well as prohibitive customs and immigration procedures, even local stakeholders have doubts over whether or not this with yield any benefit for the local superyacht market.

Extensive studies have been conducted with the assistance of a sufficient spectrum of data and the design is robust and economical. Environmental Impact Assessment has also been completed and validity of the development permit is being renewed up to date,” comments Sri Lanka’s sports minister. We will be officially calling for global expressions of interest at the end of February and we expect the project to be completed in three years.”

The project involves deepening the port from the current 10m to 20m parallel to the construction of the two breakwaters. A 45-hectare land area will be reclaimed from the sea as a Port City in which shopping malls, leisure parks, community centres, hotels and many other facilities will be available. The first phase of the project, including the construction of the two breakwaters and land reclamation, is estimated to cost approximately $175m.

This is a significant incentive in attracting superyachts wanting to explore and enjoy Sri Lanka’s cruising and on-land attractions,” says Priyantha Perera, who heads up Asia Pacific Superyachts Sri Lanka. The main cruising destinations consist of the North-East coast and the South coast which boasts of some of the most pristine beaches in the world.”

Pristine beaches or not, Sri Lanka is not currently a popular superyacht destination. While superyachts undeniably visit the nation, they do so in order to provision, fuel and complete security on route to more established yachting destinations in Asia. Being a superyacht stopover or provisioning destination, however, can still be incredibly beneficial to regions, but Sri Lanka is not currently reaping the benefits of this because for the most part crews will remain on board because arriving by superyacht to one of the country’s two major ports is not considered a legitimate way for visitors to enter the country unless they are willing to wade through significant amounts of red tape that has been designed for the commercial shipping industries.

The above graph provides a snapshot of superyacht migratory data in Sri Lanka over two years. It is clear from the two hotspots that all of the superyacht activity in Sri Lanka is focused on its two major commercial ports in Colombo and Galle.

According to a stakeholder who wishes to remain anonymous, Sri Lanka is in its superyachting infancy. While the various government departments and authorities have long since expressed interest in growing the superyacht market, little action has been taken to update the various policies and processes that would allow superyachts to visit the region with any sufficient degree of freedom. They also expressed that they doubt that there will be any significant change to these policies in the short term. It must be said at this juncture that Sri Lanka is not unique in this sense.

The superyacht market often paints itself out to be global and limitless, and while the opportunities for superyachts are without doubt exceptional, they are not without their limits. In order to be a truly global market and benefit economies beyond the tried and tested yachting stomping grounds, a number of governments need to reassess their policies. Indeed, even major economies like Australia have only recently amended their systems to allow the visitation of foreign-flagged superyachts, so it would be overly harsh to point the finger at Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, if the region wishes its newest proposed development to have any significant yachting impact, it will first need to amend its policies.

Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 

Question: Will China meet Sri Lanka’s request for debt relief? Some people also believe that part of why Sri Lanka is struggling economically is due to expensive joint Chinese investments that are not profitable. What’s your response to that? 

Spokesperson: During the visit in Sri Lanka, State Councilor Wang Yi joined Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in attending the launching ceremony of celebrations to mark the 65th anniversary of China-Sri Lanka diplomatic relations and the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Rubber-Rice Pact. He also met separately with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris. Wang said that China-Sri Lanka friendship enjoys a long history, and the Rubber-Rice Pact demonstrates the two countries’ national character in the fight against hegemony and power politics. President Xi Jinping’s historic state visit to Sri Lanka in 2014 opened a new chapter in bilateral friendly cooperation. China firmly supports Sri Lanka in safeguarding national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. As we celebrate the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Sri Lanka and the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Rubber-Rice Pact, China is ready to work with Sri Lanka to carry forward the spirit of the Rubber-Rice Pact characterized by independence, self-reliance, unity and mutual support, further deepen political mutual trust, fight against the epidemic together, synergize development strategies, promote multilateralism and consolidate and expand the bilateral strategic cooperative partnership. We will make good use of the two flagship projects of Colombo Port City and Hambantota Port to help Sri Lanka realize its Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour”, and better deliver benefit to the two countries and peoples.

The Sri Lankan side said that China, as a great friend of Sri Lanka, never interferes in its internal affairs and always comes forward and extends a helping hand when Sri Lanka faces difficulties, which Sri Lanka will always remember. Sri Lanka will continue to be firmly committed to the one-China policy and staunchly support China’s just proposals on international occasions. Sri Lanka is ready to work with China to hold successful activities to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries and the 70th anniversary of the Rubber-Rice Pact, and strengthen cooperation in economy, trade, finance, tourism and infrastructure construction to bring more benefits to the two peoples.

During his visit, State Councilor Wang Yi also said that island countries in the Indian Ocean have similar experiences and common needs, boasts similar natural endowments and share similar development goals. They have favorable conditions and full potential for strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation. The Chinese side proposes that a forum on the development of island countries in the Indian Ocean can be held at an appropriate time to pool consensus and form synergy for common development.

As you can tell from what I have just said, it is untrue to say that joint Chinese investments are expensive and not profitable. China-Sri Lanka cooperation is mutually beneficial and has been warmly welcomed by all sectors in Sri Lanka.

Now, coming back to the debt issue you raised, since the establishment of diplomatic ties, China and Sri Lanka have been showing each other understanding and support. China has been providing assistance to Sri Lanka’s economic and social development to the best of its capacity and will continue to do so in the future. It is believed that with the concerted efforts of the Sri Lankan government and people, the country will surely overcome the temporary difficulties as soon as possible and usher in renewed and greater development.

Courtesy Adaderana

Former Member of Parliament Ranjan Ramanayake, who is currently incarcerated, has been brought to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) probing the incidents of political victimization.

He was escorted to the said commission’s police unit by the prison officials at around 9.30 a.m. today (February 17).

In January 2020, a three-member Presidential Commission of Inquiry was appointed to inquire into political victimizations that have taken place from 2015 to 2019. Ramanayake served as a state minister during this period.

This special commission was tasked with submitting a final report or interim report within three months after conducting investigations and imposing the necessary conclusions and recommendations.

The term of this commission was set to expire on October 29, however, it was given an extension of six more months until April 28, 2022.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has instructed relevant officials to take steps to grant the nurses’ trade union demands while considering the financial situation of the country and without affecting the overall government services. 

“Health care services, including medicine and nursing, are highly valued. Understanding the financial situation in the country, take steps to provide approved nurses’ issues in a manner that does not affect the entire public service.”

This was stated by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at a discussion held at the Presidential Secretariat, today (17) at the request of the Public Service United Nurses’ Association.

Establishment of the Nursing University, promotion of Nursing Officers from Grade Il to Grade I with retrospective effect by backdating the promotion, 36 hours of duty to be treated as 30 hours duty of 5 days a week, providing of Rs. 10,000 allowance proportionate to the DTA allowance of Rs. 35,000 to medical professionals, the issuance of the Uniform Allowance Circular and the Additional Service Allowance at the rate of 1/100 of the basic salary were discussed during the meeting.

The President instructed the University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Senior Professor Sampath Amaratunga, to amend the Higher Education Act and present it to the Parliament expeditiously, and to take further necessary steps to merge nursing colleges in order to create a national university. 

Mr. Amaratunga stated that the Higher Education Act would be presented to the Parliament within April and the Nursing University would be established before the end of May.

The President instructed the Secretaries of Health and Finance to make arrangements to backdate the promotions from Grade II to Grade 1 and grant the uniform allowance.

Despite the difficulties, steps were taken to pay an allowance of Rs. 5,000 to all public sector employees from January, the President said. When delivering the requests of one group, another group makes a request again.”

However, it is important for everyone to understand that not all demands can be considered in the midst of the current financial crisis, he emphasized. 

Therefore, the President instructed the officials to discuss with the Ministry of Finance and other institutions and pay attention to the requests of nurses in a manner that does not affect the entire public service.

The President of the Public Service United Nurses Union, Ven. Muruththettuwe Ananda Thera, Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella, Secretary to the President Gamini Senarath, Finance Secretary S. R. Attygalle, Health Secretary Major General Sanjeewa Munasinghe, Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena, Director General of the National Budget Jude Nilukshan, Director General of the Public Service Commission Hiransa Kaluthanthri, Secretary of the National Salaries Commission Chandrani Senaratne and members of Public Service United Nurses Association were present at the occasion.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Health Ministry says that another 1,235 persons have tested positive for the novel coronavirus today (17).

This brings the tally of Covid-19 cases registered within the country thus far to 633,051.

Meanwhile over 20,000 patients infected with the virus are currently undergoing treatment island-wide. 

The Director-General of Health Services has confirmed 27 new coronavirus-related fatalities for February 15, moving the death toll in the country from the virus to 15,926.

This includes 17 males and 10 females, according to the Department of Government Information.

Eight of the deceased were in the age group of 30-59 years. The remaining 19 victims were aged 60 years and above

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Ottawa . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada

15 February 2022

Mr. R. Sampanthan MP
President, Tamil National Alliance (TNA)
16 (30), Martin Road 
Jaffna
Sri Lanka

Dead Mr. Sampanthan (Sam):

the sunday morning of February 3, 2022, bylined Aazam Ameen said,’Sampanthan writes to UNHRC Mission in Geneva saying Sri Lanka has not addressed post war commitments”

Oops….! That’s a bit nasty, isn’t it, Sam?  Not sure why!  So you complained as you always did, about all this crap again to the unsavoury Human Rights Police which was called by US’s Nikki Haley as The Human Rights Council based in Geneva, which for a long time was a protector of Human Rights abusers, is a cesspool of political bias.”

Sam, if you hadn’t heard the strains of the song sung by me for the UN Human Rights Council, here it is again.  This is part of it…

It won’t be easy.

Don’t cry for my Sri Lanka

Human Rights Council in Geneva.

We are not a member of your cesspool

of political bias,

bias for the Tamil separatist liars.

So get off my Mother Lanka’s back,

she won’t hold the bucket for the cesspool

that supports Sampanthan’s Tamils.

Who are you trying to fool…..?”

Sam, you complained ….Sri Lanka reiterated its strongest commitment to the

Promotion and protection of Human Rights.”

So You, Sam, delivered all that as the ‘Tamil Fact’, but here is the ‘Tamil Truth’.

I hate to burst  your lying ‘Tamil Fact’ bubble, but I will do it anyway. 

Yes…yes…yes…Sri Lanka has done it in a Big Way…Promoted and protected

the Human Rights of your Tamil Clan..and here is the ‘Tamil Truth’.

The ‘Tamil Truth’ that will make you uncomfortable as it will prove positive

that you happen to be one of the unsavoury bunch of ‘Eelamist-Humbugs’.

Did you not know Sam, that the Sri Lankan personnel of the Armed Forces were

the God’s gift for your Tamil Clan who protected their Human Rights, including

that of Yours.  That Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority are 100-times better off than India’s

Minority, Dalits and America’s minority of Harlem Blacks.  

So what the heck are you belly aching about,  Sam?

You with a crown of Silver ‘Wiseman’s Hair’ on the top of your head, and a  face of wrinkles

of wisdom, you seem to be losing your conscience of truth, honesty, wisdom, grace and dignity,

and your memory.  All these are symptoms of a cunning old Tamil politician,  Most certainly not

of a patient of Dementia. But of a white-vettied old Tamil man spoiling for another long-drawn fight 

for the want to dissect yours and my beautiful island into two.

Sam, you cannot cut a country in two any more than you can cut a human in two.  If you do, you do

not have two human beings; you have a corpse.

Here’s  my problem with an elderly Senior Tamil politician like you. If you are that concerned about

Human RIghts in Sri Lanka, then you should have acknowledged and recognized

The Classic Textbook Example of an Amazing Act of  defending Human Rights in a War Zone.

But you were not able to, like hundreds of other Global Human Rights Policing Humbugs like the

UNHRC Rodeo of Moon, Pillai, Sooka,  Bachelet, Darusman, Radner and so forth.. 

This amazing Humane Act didn’t show up in your radar monitor screen., nor in any other monitor of the

Rodeo.  Why?  Was it purposely blocked out from the cunning minds? Do I smell  a sick, bloated rat here?

This is bizarre…it is Hokey-pokey, contemptible antiquated rococo, Halloween, Boooo…stuff… 

It is a nauseating cruel joke on the Sri Lankan Armed Forces personnel who did what they were trained

to do, safeguard their sovereign Nation’s territory and its peoples, from invading enemy forces, and in

this case it were the India trained, serial killer Tamil Tiger terrorists fighting with a sophisticated military armoury aided and abetted  by foreign nations.  Especially by Sri Lanka’s  very friendly neighbour. And, of course, also Canada, my adopted country.  They were fighting to claim what they thought were theirs which ended on 19 May 2009, when the last Tamil Terrorist, their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran was shot dead through his forehead, on the sands of the Nandikadal lagoon in the east of Sri Lanka, and that ended a 30-year long sophisticated war.

Fought not with bows and arrows, catapults and stones and Indian police bamboo-sticks.  They fought with millions of live bullets, Kalashnikovs, Claymore mines, handgrenades M16a, SAM, rocket launchers,etc.  

Sam, let’s get this right.  With this annihilation the Sri Lankan Armed Forces gave back to 20 million of their people (you and your family included) the most paramount Human Right, their Right-to-Life which had been hijacked by your Tamil Tigers, the most ruthless terrorists in the world’s military-history, for 30 bloodying years. 

So what the heck are you crying about to your surrogate guardian  the UNHRC, that US’s Nikki Halety called it is a cesspool of political bias!”.  Go, tell it to your UNHRC, your surrogate guardian!  If you haven’t, why did you hide this TAMIL TRUTH from them? What was the reason, Sam?

Sam, let’s get this right.  With this annihilation, the Sri Lankan Armed Forces gave back 2-hour of their lives to every school going child’s Mother from Monday to Friday (between 1:30 and 2:30 in the afternoon). They now didn’t have to stand at the threshold of their front door anymore, looking deep at the approaching road to their house, to sight her child coming from school, as a  heart-pulsing whole, and not as a puzzle of a head, limbs, heart and pieces of ketchup bloody flesh in a plywood box, having been bombed by a claymore mine set up by theTamil Tigers.   These cowards were ruthless. Go tell it to the UNHRC, your surrogate guardian.  The one that US’s Nikki Haley called it a cesspool of political bias.”  If you haven’t, why did you hide this TAMIL TRUTH from them? There must be a good reason.  Why,  Do I smell a rotting rat here, Sam?

Sam, let me see you getting down on your knees, placing your palms together tilting your face up to the sky saying, as the old Tamil Granny who was carried like a baby in the arms of a young Sinhalese soldier, running dodging Tamil Tiger bullets, taking her to safety, who kissed his cheek and said, Puthata Theruwan saranai” (Son, may you be blessed by Buddha’s Triple Gem.”).  That video-clip must be in a TV reporter’s archives somewhere.

Sam, these are the same khaki uniformed Sri Lankan soldiers who risked their lives to rescue 295,873 Tamil refugees of yours from the clutches of the most ruthless terrorists in the world, Your Tamil Tigers.

 Every soldier who rescued the 295,873 Tamil refugees from the Tamil Tigers deserves a kiss on his cheek with Blessings of Gratitude – saying Puthata/Ayyata/Mallita, Theruwan saranai.”   That is not much to ask for, is it not?   Sam, you should find means to have every rescued Tamil release their testosterone hormones of class and decency to plant a Kiss of Gratitude on the cheek of every Sri Lankan soldier,   Come on Sam, do it and show me that you have a grain of decency and honesty to do that honour who saved the lives of 295,873 Tamil refugees.

You know what Sam, let  me massage your sleeping brain cells to bring back your memory, because you quite well knew it, because you are hiding the Tamil Truth from the world of those who are supporting your Eelamcause.  You all have quite cleverly made your Eelam supporters evolve into Jaffna-Sinnathamby’s village Circus clowns.

These 295,873 Tamils were used as a  Human Shield by your Tamil Tigers for six long months and frog-marched them under a scorching Jaffna-Kilinochchi sun like unwashed cattle from the west coast to the east coast by your Tamil Tigers. These are the Tamil Serial killers who you and the  rest of the TNA’s bowed and did your hosannas as Saviours of the Tamil tribe in Sri Lanka.  What crap..what strings of masala-wade with a curled chilli-rubbed hrimp fried on top to garland your necks.

My gavel has come down hard and heavy on you TNA  politicians as “Guilty” for Not exposing or discussing this amazing Classic Textbook Example of an Amazing Act of Human Rights in a war theatre.  Sam, my Heroes, the Sri Lakan Armed Forces  personnel did it. Stop playing Hide and Seek with the Tamil Truth. My Heroes in khaki did it.

So Sam, with that Classic textbook rescue Mission, the Sri Lankan Government created a  Himalayan problem for themselves.  They now had 295,873 breathing bodies, all Tamil refugees to look after,

Sam, this is not a trick question.  Let’s have your answer straight from the horse’s mouth,  straight as a travelling bullet shot from a Kalashnikov by your Tamil Tribe Saviour, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Why was this amazing Classic Textbook example of Human Rights,  a clever, brilliant, humane act  by my Khaki uniformed  Sri Lankan soldiers, defenders of Human Rights based on the International declarations and covenants that set out the Rights and all Freedoms of all human beings not recognized.  In this case it was Sri Lanka’s Northern Tamils that were the concerned humans which were.never  identified and acknowledged by your UNHRC, your TNA or any other Human Rights Policing Global  Institution.

This is where I categorize all you singly or collectively as  Human Rights Humbugs, and Good for nothing Liars.  

Well… an extension of Nikki Haley’s christening them all at  the UNHRC, your surrogate family as a
Cesspool of political bias.”

So these Sri Lanka soldiers did not bump off the 295,873 Tamils, as the Tamil Tigers did to the 700 brave police officers  on 11th June 1990.   Go let your Surrogate Mother Madam Michelle Bachelet know what happened.

Sam, tell her how these 700 soldiers of the eastern police stations surrendered  to Tamil Tigers on the promise that they would be sent South, unharmed as agreed with President Premadasa.

Tell your surrogate Mother Madam Bachelet, that your Tamil Tigers did not send the 700 policemen South, but blind folded them, tied their hands behind their backs, made them kneel down and shot everyone dead through the back of their skulls.

Compared to what happened  to the policemen, the 295,873 Tamil Refugees were fortunate to have just met forthe first time Sri Lankan Khaki clad Angels who saved their lives, You bet,.  Angels they were!

These Sinhalese khaki clad Angels not only rescued them from the clutches of the Tamil Tiger,  they were housed in temporary clean- white refugee camps in a Refugee Camp City but were also fed three hearty meals a day -breakfast, lunch and dinner. I repeat three hearty meals a day – not kanji for breakfast, two ulundu wades with some sambar and a cup of water for lunch, , and three dosas with sambar for dinner.  Note they prepared, and some soldiers turned cooks prepared a million- nourishing Dietician monitored meals-a-day to sustain theseTamil refugees.

And the kids ‘ meals included a glass  of fresh  milk.  

Don’t hide these TAMIL TRUTHS from the World, Sam, it is time that you go to your surrogate guardian’s UNHRC Headquarters in Geneva and using a bull-horn and announce these amazing Classic Textbook Examples how this puny island of ours defended the paramount Human Right, the Right-to Life, of 20 million people of theirs by brave khaki-clad-soldier-Angels.  Don’t act like a senile-stupid, Sam. Be honourable, be  a decent Tamil human beings. Acknowledge what these brave Khaki-angels did to your Tamil people which Includes you and your family. They gave all of  you a second chance to live.  Make it a Class Act. Speak honourably!

And you R. Sampanthan had the gall and temerity to write to UNHRC MIssion in Geneva saying Sri Lanka has not addressed post war commitments.”  Sadly enough, let me tell you Sam, you certainly won’t receive a greeting card with Blessings next Sinhalese and Tamil New Year,  from me or on your Diwali celebrations .No damn way.

R. Sampanthan,

and I want you to know that

Sri Lanka is my country

the land of ancient people

who happen to be my ancestors.

and of elephants and court jesters,

lotuses, moonstones, hills and waterfalls.

This is a magical country and nice

often called ;The Island of Paradise

grown on red kabook earth

and lately nourished with blood

by people at war.

This is where village mothers I saw

in thatched roofed adobe huts

poor and in patchwork rags

did not seek permission to weep

when their soldier sons

who had gone to war with a will

to save their country from dissection

by marauding separatist Tamil terrorists

returned home dead in plywood caskets.’

Sri Lanka, This is my country

and I say Back-off’ to anyone

who tries to hurt my Mother unfairly.

You heard me..Just “Back Off.”

Sincerely

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)

(born at 54 Mount Mary,Colombo)

and an Old Nalandian)

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

කොවිඩ් වසංගතයේ විනාශකාරී ප්‍රතිවිපාකවලින් පසු රට යථා තත්ත්වයට පත්වන විට අපි සියලු දෙනාටම ජාතිය යළි ගොඩනැගීම සඳහා යුතුකමක් ඇතැයි තමන් විශ්වාස කරන බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පැවසීය.

කොළඹ බණ්ඩාරනායක අනුස්මරණ ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලාවේ ඊයේ (15) පස්වරුවේ පැවැති ඔක්ස්ෆර්ඩ් කොලේජ් ඔෆ් බිස්නස්”හි වාර්ෂික උපාධි ප්‍රදානෝත්සවය – 2022 ට එක්වෙමින් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා මේ බව අවධාරණය කළේය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් පැවති මෙම උපාධි ප්‍රදානෝත්සවයේ දී ව්‍යාපාර කළමනාකරණය සහ ව්‍යාපාර පරිපාලනය විෂය ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ උපාධි හා පශ්චාත් උපාධි ලැබූ උපාධිධාරීන් 507 දෙනෙකුට උපාධි පිරිනැමිණි.

මෙම උපාධි පාඨමාලාවන්හි විශේෂ කුසලතා දැක්වූ එස්.එල්.ජී. විජේරත්න, එස්.එල්.එම්.එම්. මෙල්වානි, ඕ.ජී.විදුරංග සේනානායක අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගේ සුරතින් මෙහි දී විශේෂ සම්මාන ලබාගත්හ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ඔක්ස්ෆර්ඩ් කොලේජ් ඔෆ් බිස්නස්”හි වාර්ෂික උපාධි ප්‍රදානෝත්සවය 2022 අමතා කළ සම්පූර්ණ කතාව මෙසේය.

ඔබේ ජීවිතයේ ඉතා වැදගත් ජයග්‍රහණයක් සනිටුහන් කරන මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්වීමට ලැබීම ඉතා අගය කොට සළකනවා.

කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගතය හේතුවෙන් පසුගිය වසර දෙක තුළ බොහෝ උපාධිධාරීන්ට ඔවුන්ගේ උපාධි ප්‍රදානෝත්සවයට මේ අයුරින් සහභාගීවීමට හැකිවූයේ නැහැ.

ජීවිතයේ ඉතා වැදගත් හා වටිනා අවස්ථාවන් සැමරීම කොවිඩ් වසංගතය විසින් අහිම කර තිබුණා. ඒ නිසා ඔබ වැනි උපාධිධාරීන්ට ඔවුන්ගේ සාර්ථකත්වය ඔවුන්ගේ මහාචාර්යවරුන්, විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ සඟයන් සහ දෙමාපියන් සමඟ සැමරීමට නොහැකි වුණා.

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ඒ අනුව බලන විට ඔබ ඔබගේ උපාධි ප්‍රදානෝත්සවයට සහභාගි වීමට භාග්‍යවන්ත වී තිබෙනවා. වසංගත තත්ත්වයට මුහුණ දෙමින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව යම් සාමාන්‍ය තත්ත්වයකට පැමිණෙමින් සිටින බවට මෙය කදිම නිදසුනක්.

ආදරණීය උපාධිධාරීනි,

අද ඔබට ඔබේ ජීවිතයේ ඉතා වැදගත් සන්ධිස්ථානයක් සනිටුහන් කරනවා.

ඔක්ස්ෆර්ඩ් කොලේජ් ඔෆ් බිස්නස් මගින් ලබාගත් ලෝක මට්ටමේ උපාධිය සමඟ ඔබ ලෝකයේ ඕනෑම තැනක තරගකාරීව මුහුණ දිය හැකි නවීන කුසලතාවන්ගෙන් හෙබි අධ්‍යාපනයක් ලබා තිබෙනවා.

මෙම අධ්‍යාපනය සමඟ ඔබට විශාල වගකීමක් ද පැවරෙනවා. අධ්‍යාපනය යනු ලෝකය වෙනස් කිරීමට යොදාගත හැකි බලගතුම අවියයි” කියලා ලොව පිළිගත් විශිෂ්ට නායකයකු වූ නෙල්සන් මැන්ඩෙලා මහතා වරක් ප්‍රකාශ කළා.

ඒ අයුරින් ගත්තම ඔබේ අධ්‍යාපනයෙන් ප්‍රයෝජන ගෙන යහපත් රටක් සහ යහපත් ලෝකයක් සඳහා දායක වීමට ඔබට දැන් කාලය උදාවී තිබෙනවා.

ඔබ වෘත්තීය ජීවිතයේ ඊළඟ අදියර කරා ගමන් කරන විට ලොව පුරා ඇති ඉඩ ප්‍රස්ථා ප්‍රයෝජනයට ගනිමින් වෘත්තිය දියුණුව කරා යොමුවන්නැයි ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.

කෙසේ නමුත් අවසානයේ එම දැනුම, ප්‍රවීණත්වය සහ අත්දැකීම් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ගෙන එමින් අපේ සමාජයට වටිනා දායකත්වයක් ඔබ විසින් ලබා දෙනු ඇතැයි මා විශ්වාස කරනවා.

ඔබ දන්නා පරිදි ඉහළ සාක්ෂරතාවයකින් හෙබි රටක් විදියට ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන් වන අපි හැමෝටම ආඩම්බර විය හැකියි. ඒ වගේම ඔබත් දැන් උගත් සහ නිපුණ ශ්‍රම බලකායක කොටස්කරුවන් වීමට සුදානමින් සිටිනවා.

කොවිඩ් වසංගතයේ විනාශකාරී ප්‍රතිවිපාකවලින් පසු අපේ රට යථා තත්ත්වයට පත් වන විට අපි සියලු දෙනාටම ජාතිය යළි ගොඩනැගීම සඳහා යුතුකමක් ඇතැයි මා විශ්වාස කරනවා.

පශ්චාත් වසංගත යුගයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නැවතත් ආර්ථිකමය වශයෙන් ප්‍රකෘතිමත් වීමේ මාවතට පැමිණීම සඳහා උපකාර කිරීමේ දී ඔබ ලබා ගත් මෙම ලෝක මට්ටමේ අධ්‍යාපනයට තීරණාත්මක කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටු කළ හැකියි.

ව්‍යාපාරික උපාධි සහිත උපාධිධාරීන්ගේ සාම්ප්‍රදායික වෘත්තීය මාර්ගය බොහෝ විට විධායක තනතුරු හෝ කළමනාකරුවන් ලෙස රැකියාවක් ලබා ගැනීමයි. කෙසේ වෙතත් එම සම්ප්‍රදායික වෘත්තිය මාර්ගවලින් ඔබ්බට සිතීමට කාලය පැමිණ ඇති බවයි මා විශ්වාස කරන්නෙ.

අපගේ ආර්ථික ප්‍රකෘතිය ඉලක්ක කර ගනිමින් ගෝලීය වශයෙන් තරග කිරීමට නම් පශ්චාත් වසංගතය තුළ ආර්ථික ප්‍රකෘතිය මෙහෙයවිය හැකි ව්‍යවසායකයින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට අවශ්‍යවෙනවා.

එම නිසා ඔබේ නව්‍ය අදහස් නව ව්‍යවසාය බවට පරිවර්තනය කළ යුතුයි. එවිට සෙසු ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන් සඳහා ඔබට රැකියා ඇතුළුව සැළකිය යුතු ආර්ථික ක්‍රියාකාරකම් උත්පාදනය කරමින් ඒවා විශාල ව්‍යාපාරික ආයතන බවට පුළුල් කළ හැකියි.

රජයක් ලෙස අප තරුණ තරුණියන්ගේ නව ව්‍යවසාය සඳහා බොහෝ අවස්ථා නිර්මාණය කරමින් සිටියි. වඩා හොඳ අනාගතයක් නිර්මාණය කිරීම සහ අනෙකුත් ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයින්ට අවස්ථාවන් හිමිකර දීමට මෙම අවස්ථා ප්‍රයෝජනයට ගන්නා ලෙස ඔබට ආරාධනා කරනවා.

එවිට අපේ රටේ ආර්ථික ප්‍රකෘතියට දායකවෙමින් සාර්ථක ව්‍යවසායකයෙකු ලෙස ඔබට ඔබේ අධ්‍යාපනයෙන් ප්‍රයෝජන ගනිමින් තිරසාර ආදායම් මාර්ගයක් ගොඩනගා ගත හැකි වෙනවා.

උපාධිය සම්පූර්ණ කිරීම දක්වා ඔබට මෙම සාර්ථකත්වය ළඟා කර ගැනීමට උපකාර කළ පුද්ගලයින්ට හදවතේ උපහාරය පුද කිරීමටත් ඔබ මෙය අවස්ථාවක් කර ගත යුතුයි.

පළමුව සහ ප්‍රධාන වශයෙන් ඔබගේ සාර්ථකත්වය වෙනුවෙන් ඔබගේ දෙමාපියන් කරන ලද කැපකිරීම් ඔබ සැමවිටම සිහිපත් කළ යුතුයි.අද ඔබේ ජයග්‍රහණයේ නොසැලෙන වීරයන් වන්නේ ඔබේ දෙමාපියන්. ඔබේ දෙවන දෙමාපියන් ඔබේ ගුරුවරුන්. ඔවුන් ඔබව දැනුමෙන් සන්නද්ධ කරමින් යහපත් පුරවැසියෙකු වීමට ඔබට මඟ පෙන්වා තිබෙනවා. ඔබ අද උපාධිය ලබා ගන්නා විට,ඔබේ ජීවිතයේ ගුරුවරුන් ඔබට ලබා දුන් දැනුම සහ මග පෙන්වීම සිහිකරමින් අපි සැවොම ඊට ස්තූතිවන්ත විය යුතුයි. 

මා ඔබට දෙන අවසාන අවවාදය නම් ඔබ තෝරාගන්නා වෘත්තීය මාර්ගය කුමක් වුවත් ඔබ ඒ වෙනුවෙන් විශිෂ්ට ලෙස කැපවෙන්න. ඉගෙනීම කියන්නෙ ජීවිත කාලය පුරාම පවතින ක්‍රියාවලියක්. නිසා කවදාවත් ඉගෙනීම නවත්වන්න එපා. ඔබ සැමවිටම ඉහළ අපේක්ෂාවන් ඉෂ්ට කර ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කරන්න.

අවසන් වශයෙන් ඔබ සැම ලබා ගත් සාර්ථකත්වයට සුබ පැතීමට මෙය අවස්ථාවක් කර ගන්නවා. ඔබ සැමට සුබ අනාගතයක් වේවා! යැයි ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරනවා යැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා පැවසීය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ඕස්ට්‍රේලියානු මහ කොමසාරිස් ඩේවිඩ් හොලි, ජෙනරාල් සර් ජෝන් කොතලාවල ආරක්ෂක විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ කුලපති විශ්‍රාමික ජෙනරාල් ජී.එච්. ද සිල්වා, ඔක්ස්ෆර්ඩ් කොලේජ් ඔෆ් බිස්නස් අධ්‍යක්ෂ ආචාර්ය පෙනෙලොප් හුඩ්, එක්සත් රාජධානිය හා ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ විශ්වවිද්‍යාල කිහිපයක උප කුලපතිවරුන් ඇතුළු අධ්‍යන කාර්ය මණ්ඩල ප්‍රධානීන්, දෙමාපියන් සහ උපාධිධාරීහු ඇතුළු පිරිසක් මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්ව සිටියහ.

නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col)

නීතීඥවරුන්ට අධිකරණ භාෂාවෙන් නොවන භාෂාවකින් ඇගයීම් සිදුකරමින් විදෙස් නීති ආයතන අයුතු ලෙස ධනවත් කිරීමට ගන්නා උත්සාහය පරදවමු…!

“සංස්ථාගත නීති අධ්‍යයන සභාවේ අධිකරණ භාෂා විරෝධය පාලනය කරමු…!

2020.12.30 දිනැති අංක 2208/13 අතිවිශේෂ ගැසට්ටුවේ අධිකරණ භාෂා තහනම නිවැරදි කරමු…!

භාෂාව මත වෙනස්කම් කරන ඇගයීම් ක්‍රම හඳුන්වා දී නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනයේ නීතීඥවරුන්, නීතීඥ වෘත්තියෙන් ඉවත් කිරීමට ක්‍රියා කරයිනම් එයට එරෙහිව ක්‍රියා කළ යුත්තේ ඇයි?

1) 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය අනුව අධිකරණ ඇමතිවරයා ලෙස පත්වී සිටින ජනාධිපති නීතීඥ අලි සබ්‍රි සහ ජනාධිපති නීති විශාරදයන් කිහිප දෙනෙකු ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාව අවභාව්ත කරමින් සහ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් විදෙස් රටවල අන්තවාදී නීති රටට ගෙන ඒමට ගත් උත්සාහය සිංහල භාෂාවෙන් නීති තර්ක ඉදිරිපත් කර පරාජය කිරීමට හැකි වීම ප්‍රසිද්ධ කරුණකි. ( SC/SD/24/2021 ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණය ඇති 2021 ජූලි 06 පාර්ලිමේන්තු හැන්සාඩ් වාර්තාවේ 1387-1449 දක්වා පිටුවල ඇත)

2) සිංහල භාෂාවෙන් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය සහ අභියාචනාධිකරණය අමතා නඩු ජයගත නොහැකිය යන තර්කය නීතිය නොදන්නවුන්ගේ බලය රැක ගැනීමට කරන තර්කයක් බවට මේ වනවිට පත් වී ඇත.

3)  ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන් කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කරමින්
ගෙනෙන වැරදි නීති තර්ක සිංහල භාෂාවෙන් නිවැරදි නීති තර්ක ගෙනවිත් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේදී පවා පැරදවිය හැකි බව මේ වන විට නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනය ලැබූ නීතීඥයන් තහවුරු කර ඇත.

4) එවන් තත්ත්වයක් තුළ නීතිඥවරුන්ට ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂා පරීක්ෂණයකට පෙනී සිටිය යුතු බවට අගවිනිසුරු, අධිකරණ අමාත්‍යාංශය සහ නීතීඥ සංගමයේ කිහිප දෙනෙකු තීරණය කරන්නේ නම් එයට එකග විය නොහැක්කේ නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා ඇති නීතීඥවරු විදෙස් නීති අධ්‍යාපන ආයතනවල සහ පෞද්ගලික නීති ආයතනවල යැපෙන්නන් බවට ඉන් පත් කරන නිසා පමණක් නොවේ.

5) සෑම නීතීඥවරයෙකුම වසර 3කට වරක් අතිරේක නීති විභාගයකට පෙනී සිටිය යුතු බවට අදහසක් අධිකරණ අමාත්‍යාශය විසින් යෝජනා කර ඇති අතර එය ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ දැක්වෙන පරිදි අධිකරණ භාෂාවෙන් පවත්වන විභාගයක් මිස අධිකරණ භාෂාවක් නොවන ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් පවත්වන විභාගයක් නොවිය යුතු වන්නේ මේ වනවිට 2020.12.30 දිනැති අංක 2208/13 අතිවිශේෂ ගැසට්ටුව මගින් අධිකරණ භාෂාවෙන් නීති ශිෂ්‍යන්ට විභාග පැවැත්වීම වළක්වා ඇති හෙයිනි.

6) අධිකරණ භාෂාව නොවන භාෂාවකින් නීතිඥවරුන්ට සහ නීති ශිෂ්‍යයන්ට විභාගයකට පෙනී සිටීමට යමෙක් නියම කරයි නම් එවැනි අය නිවැරදි නොවන අතර එය ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ නියම කර ඇති අධිකරණ භාෂාවට එරෙහිව කරන වැරදි පෙළඹවීමක් වනවා මෙන්ම විදෙස් නීති උපාධි ආයතන අයුතු ලෙස ධනවත් කරවීමක්ද වේ.

7) ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් නීති තර්ක ගෙනෙන අයව සිංහලෙන් නීති තර්ක ගෙනවිත් පරජය කිරීමට සමත් නීතීඥවරු නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනය ලැබූවන් අතරින් බිහිවී සිටියදී නීතීඥවරුන්ට හෝ නීති ශිෂ්‍යයන්ට ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් පමණක් විභාග පැවැත්වීම සාධාරණ නොවනවා මෙන්ම යුක්තියටද, ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ අධිකරණ භාෂා විධිවිධානයටද, නීතිගරුක සමාජයක් බිහිකිරීමටද, තිරසර සංවර්ධනයටද පටහැනි තත්වයක් වේ.

8) භාෂාව මත වෙනස්කම් සිදුකර අධිකරණ භාෂාවෙන් නොවන භාෂාවකින් ඇගයීම් පවත්වා නීතීඥවරුන් නීතීඥ වෘත්තියෙන් ඉවත් කිරීමට ක්‍රියා කරයිනම් එයට එරෙහිව අඛණ්ඩව ජනතාව දැනුවත් කරන ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීම සමාජ වගකීමක් මෙන්ම යුතුකමක් වන්නේ මෙයට එරෙහිව අධිකරණ ක්‍රියා මාර්ග ගැනීම ඵලදායක නොවන හෙයිනි.

9) ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ අධිකරණ භාෂා විධිවිධානය ආරක්ෂා කරන ලෙසත් අගවිනිසුරු, අධිකරණ අමාත්‍යාංශය, නීතිපති ඇතුලු සංස්ථාගත නීති අධ්‍යයන සභාවේ සහ ජනාධිපති නීති විශාරදයන් කිහිප දෙනෙකුගේ  අධිකරණ භාෂා විරෝධය පාලනය කරන ලෙසත් ජනාධිපති ඇතුලු බලධාරීන්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිම නීතිගරුක පුරවැසියන්ගේ යුතුකමකි.

නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col)
නීති ග්‍රන්ථ කර්තෘ,
සමායෝජක, වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යයන වැඩසටහන
දුරකථන 0712063394

By Dr.Tilak S. Fernando Courtesy Ceylon Today

“Young Love Is a Flame; Very Pretty, Often Very Hot and Fierce ” – Henry Ward Beecher

When Henry Ward Beecher scribbled two sentences: “Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce and light and flickering; the love of the older becomes disciplined as coals, deep-burning, unquenchable,” he would never imagined these quotes would become world-famous one day and slot into a specific day on 14 February, as Valentine’s Day. 

The modern world celebrates the 14 of February as Valentine’s Day, which has transformed into what is known as ‘ lovers’ day! Usually, this day fills with a series of events, predominantly for those in love. It is a day filled with fun and punctuated by sending Valentine’s cards to their admirers. Valentine’s Day is not complete unless it ends with a party or dance. Meanwhile, it’s a sad day for eligible bachelors and damsels when they find a marriage proposal is not even on the cards in the predictable future.

 Henry Ward Beecher was a social reformer, speaker, and author. He published over two hundred and seventy books, and dozens of beautiful quotes that appear on the Internet. He always said, God’s love is above everything else:  It’s easier to go down a hill than up, but the view is much better at the top.”

From time immemorial  

Steadfast lovers consistently celebrate Valentine’s Day from time immemorial. Valentine’s Day becomes Cupid (Venus) day or the child-like winged deity of the Roman Goddess’s son of love. Valentine’s Day relates to the conjoint exchange of flattery through greeting cards. Usually, Valentine’s Day relates to red roses and the red heart-shaped contours with Cupid’s figure. It usually resembles a single rose, candlelit dinners, dancing in a star hotel, and exchanging expensive trinkets or real gold rings as tokens of love. Such feelings are impossible to view even under a microscope of human reaction. It certainly is an internal emotional state in every individual’s experience. 

History 

Valentine’s Day has its different views and opinions. Some believe that Valentine’s Day originated from the Roman martyr who refused Christianity. Others believe it is the day devoted to the ‘Love Lottery’.  Emperor Claudius II, banned marriages because he thought ‘married men were substandard soldiers.’ The Roman martyr Valentine felt that was unfair and broke the rules to promote arranged marriages secretly. When Claudius II found out about valentine’s secret moves, the Emperor sent Valentine to jail and sentenced him to death. In prison, Valentine fell in love with the jailer’s daughter. When the soldiers took Valentine to the gallows, he sent a love letter through them signed ‘from Valentine’.  He died on 14 February 269 AD. Some believe it has some significance to Valentine’s Day. Many think St. Valentine, who served as a priest at a temple, was jailed during Emperor Claudius for defying Pope Gelasius, the third, and the last Bishop of Rome (492-496) in the Catholic Church. 

During the Battle of Agincourt, Duke of Orleans was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1415. From prison, he wrote a few lines to his wife on a Valentine card, which is preserved in the British Library in London, as part of a manuscript collection. Several years later, King Henry V hired John Lydgate to compose a valentine message to Catherine of Valois, who was very pretty and attractive. When King Henry V finally met her, he became smitten with love. She was the daughter of Charles VI of France. She married Henry V of England and gave birth to his heir Henry VI of England.

Britain commenced celebrating Valentine’s Day during the 18 Century. It soon became so popular among lovers and led to handwritten notes. During the 18th Century, the 14 of February became popular among friends and lovers in Britain, which led to handwritten notes to friends. Printing commenced during the 18th Century in Britain that took over the printing of Valentine cards.

Commercialisation

Valentine cards have become commercialised like other popular themes such as Birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Engagements and Weddings. These appear as a mega commercial hysteria throughout the world to make stationery manufacturers, shop keepers and the postal services’ wealthy. Human beings generally get impregnated with emotions. Therefore, humans tend to become sycophants often with an overdose of relationships with others, from time to time. 

One is likely to be jolly on Valentine’s Day after receiving loads of romantic cards, bouquets of red roses or boxes of chocolates, with all kinds of fancy writings on them. Those who take Valentine’s Day seriously become vulnerable and spend lavishly on candle lit dinners in five-star hotels to please their lovers. Or hit the dance floor and enjoy a bit of pelvic thrust in romantic dim lights. But let’s face it, If one focuses oneself to rely on a single day of the year to feel that ‘love is in the air and ‘happy ever after,’ one may instead look at the horizon. Haven’t we all heard of the suggestion, “to love another, one has to love oneself?

Valentine’s Day falls on the 14 of February every year – a day observed to celebrate love and care for someone lovingly. Generally, animals too love each other daily in their way. Still, Valentine’s Day for humans calls for something a little more special. Does anyone find it difficult to figure out how to wish on Valentine’s Day? Then,  pick a piece of blank notepaper and write on it any sentence with ‘fancy’ writing on it, or a Valentine card and send it to your much-loved person. 

Nowadays, it is easier to send Valentine’s Day wishes through a text message from your smartphone or emails to your fiancé and friends. One may write as follows: “I love you like crazy, baby ‘Cuz I’d go crazy without you.” (Pixie Foudre). Instead, one may scribble, there is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.”

tilakfernando@gmail.com

Priyantha Hettige Courtesy Island

Moscow has just been voted the third best city in the world to live in by the UN. But it beats all the competition in having the highest quality of life for its citizens, which includes the best medical care, the best education, attractive public spaces, public safety and, importantly, the best cultural activities.

Moscow alone has 170 concert halls and theatres, with 40 million visits annually, which means Muscovites attend an average of four concerts per year. And this is repeated in towns and cities throughout the Federation of Russia and including even the old Soviet Union.

They are benefited from their legacy of Communist rule with its policies of developing all its people and raising them up, equally as their talents allow. There are hundreds of theatres and stages throughout the towns and cities of the old Soviet Union, not to forget to mention all those great gymnasia used to train young ballet dancers, rhythmic gymnasts and even young circus performers. You can go ice skating in Russia all year round and trampoline-ing, too!

St Petersburg has the Mariinsky theatres (old and new). The old and original Mariinsky theatre is most beautiful, glamorous and historic and is where Europe’s royalty came to be amused in bygone times. Russia’s capital, Moscow has the famous Bolshoi Ballet and now, there is the newly opened hi-tech Zaryadye Park Concert Hall with its spectacular expanse of glass roof and perfect acoustics.

Note that for these many theatres they must require the services of hundreds of performers, costume designers and dress makers; make-up artists, scenery designers, and lighting experts, musicians and scriptwriters. Well, Russians have to spend their long, dreary winter nights somehow – so, why not be involved in these socially approved activities. Participation in choirs, orchestras, gymnastic teams and artistic groups is considered as worthy, Good”. As a result of this legacy from the past, one can choose to develop one’s talents in so many ways. All this expression of art and culture has resulted in both a professional and also a huge, spare-time entertainment industry based on music, dance and drama, and of course, gymnastics.

Schools are very active in this area by organising competitions and annual shows where they display their talented performers. The originality and the inspiration of these productions is amazing, if not actually stunning. Winners of competitions, and those particularly good performances are filmed and then broadcast on TV, thus providing public entertainment of good quality; in a word, uplifting. Then the whole of Russian society can see and enjoy watching this home-grown skill and wonderful talent. Some performances, perhaps the best, are loaded up to the internet, for the whole world to see and be amazed!

At the end of every competition young student participants are awarded medals and certificates and even cuddly toys as a reward. These mementos are collected and students proudly show them to relatives to admire.

Choirs and Choral music

Russia has its patriotic songs arising from their struggle to survive the many madmen and robber invasions they have endured over the centuries. These are stirring songs sung with gusto and feeling with real motivation! The famous Moscow based Gnessin School of Music is active in traditional and cultural music making, and their Moscow Boys Choir is world famous. The choir has recorded The Children’s Prayer.” This is quite heavenly to hear. Also, Igor Donilov of the Moscow Choral School, has sung Motherland” which is of stunning beauty. You have heard nothing until you hear this. These choral pieces are posted on the internet.

Russian Music Composers and

their Music

Professional song and music writing is to a high standard, and of course Tchaikovsky and the Bolshoi Ballet are the pinnacle of all this creative activity. Many Russian composers have created great amounts of good music and now the world has a most wonderful cultural heritage. It is waiting for you to explore! Thank you, Russia!

Priyantha Hettige

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

It’s the duty all parties in Sri Lanka to initiate a dialogue and come to an agreement on the report which the IMF is expected to release on Sri Lanka shortly,, Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said today.

” The IMF according to section 4 of its mandate usually goes for a dialogue with all its member states and issue a statement on each member . A team of IMF officials visited Sri Lanka in December last year. We have received information that it will release a report next week. It essential and the duty of all political parties to come to an agreement on it, it is our duty to initiate such an exercise. We have to think of Millennials and Genz which are the younger population. These groups will blame us if we fail in our duty,” Wickremesinghe said.

” Sri Lanka has failed to resolve it’s FOREX crisis. The dollar is expected to go up to Rs. 270 and even up to Rs. 300. The population of poor in Sri Lanka is expected to increase by 500,000 while the middle class is expected to crash. All transactions pertaining to foreign currency is done according to Hawala system moving away from the banking system. The total foreign debt services Sri Lanka has to settle this year is dollars 6 billion. Sri Lanka is yet to talk to any institution such as IMF with regard to resolving the crisis” he added.(Yohan Perera)

Courtesy Adaderana

The Health Ministry says that another 1,217 persons have tested positive for Covid-19 today, as the daily count of new cases continues to rise in the country.

This brings the tally of Covid-19 cases registered in the country thus far to 631,816. 

According to official figures, 596,042 positive cases have recovered.

Following the new development, the number of virus-infected people who are undergoing treatment moved to 19,875. Meanwhile, the death toll stands at 15,899.

The Director-General of Health Services has confirmed 25 new coronavirus-related fatalities for February 15, moving the death toll in the country from the virus to 15,899.

This includes 20 males and 05 females, according to the Department of Government Information.

Six of the deceased were in the age group of 30-59 years. The remaining 19 victims were aged 60 years and above.

By Garvin Karunaratne

It is on record that the IMF did stall development all over the Third World from the Seventies.

The colonies of the Superpowers were developing fast since they achieved independence. Seeking the help of the United Nations’ organizations- the Food and Agricultural Organization(FAO) for agriculture and livestock development, the UNIDO for industries, the ILO for employment creation- for labour, the UNESCO for education. There was all round development, new programmes were implemented fast bringing employment and incomes to people. This included industries making items that were earlier imported from the colonial masters. In the Forties the shops in Sri Lanka were full of imported food textiles and everything that was required. In order to enable people to have incomes industries were opened up and local production mounted . The Superpowers found that this development in the newly independent countries was causing unemployment and lack of income in their countries. The SAARC Report of the Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation, Meeting the Challenge states that the international countries are for the first time since World War II in need of markets for their products…. So they have put into effect the Structural Adjustment Programme….the Industrialized countries are pressurizing the receipients of Structural Adjustment loans to unilaterally open their economies to goods from them.”

The Structural Adjustment Programme accepted the private sector as the engine of growth and the public sector should not have anything to do with development. The countries had since reaching independence developed various development programmes to enable the march of peasants to be allieviated from poverty and become economically productive. These were all done by Government Departments. It has so happened that my eighteen years’ span in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service was totally spent handling such programmes- in developing the marketing of agricultural produce, in organizing agricultural development, in developing industries and finally, attending to the total development of people. The condition stipulated in structural adjustment loans was that the public sector cannot attend to any commercial undertakings and this meant that all the development programmes that I had laboured in had to be abandoned or deemphasized.

SriLanka had developed a special agricultural marketing scheme where the Government department engaged actively to purchase produce from farmers. Farmers brought their produce to the Fairs and the Department for Development of Agricultural Marketing( Marketing Department-MD) also purchased in competition with traders. The MD purchased vegetables and fruits and sent them direct to their Headquarters in Colombo- called Tripoli Market, where the goods were distributed to a major retail outlet at Tripoli Market and also to over fifty small sales units. The MD was not interested in making a profit. Its aim was to offer a higher price to producers to encourage them to produce more, and simultaneously offer produce at cheap prices to city dwellers-aimed at reducing inflation. The MD had officers in all producer areas who reported the prices at which private traders purchased produce and availability. Private traders that purchased at the Fairs despatched good to the Wholesale Market in Colombo from where retailers purchased goods for sale at their retail outlets. The produce went through three hands which meant three parties keeping a profit. The MD closely followed the availability of produce at the Wholesale Market and the rates at which produce was being bought and sold. The Tripoli Market fixed purchasing prices for produce at a rate higher than what was offered by the traders at the Fairs. The MD sold the produce at rock bottom prices- keeping a margin of only 15% as against a hundred percent margin kept by the private dealers at the purchasing, wholesale and retail units. This system was worked to perfection. The Commissioner of the MD would summon all Assistant Commissioners in the Districts to a conference in he first week of every month where details of produce bought and prices fixed were looked into and we Assistant Commissioners in the Districts were pulled up if we had charged a profit of over 15%. The ideal was to break even. I worked in charge of Tripoli Market controlling the entire Scheme for one full year. This is a system peculiar to Sri Lanka developed by Commissioners RH Basset and later by BLW Fernando. This proved a boon to producers as well as consumers, all achieved by eating into the profit margin kept by the private traders. The MD purchased around ten percent of the total produce but was able, both to ensure that the producers received a high price and simultaneously city dwellers got their requirements at reasonably low prices.

A further development of this was a Cannery which purchased vegetables and fruits and canned them, even building up an export market. With the establishment of the Canning Factory the MD purchased large quantities of Red Pumpking, Ash Pumpkin, Tomatoes and Pineapple that was made into jam, sauce and juice. The MD Cannery was instrumental in making Sri Lanka self sufficient in all fruit products- jam, and juice within the three years 1955 to 1958.

This MD activity was abandoned and the Cannery privatized in 1978 at the advice of the IMF. As a result all jam, sauce and Juice are now imported from as far as Cyprus, the USA and Australia. The producers do not get high prices and the city dwellers have to depend on private traders. Traders have a heyday of high incomes.

The MD also attended to purchase produce in short supply from producers at a high price under the Guaranteed Price Scheme to encourage production. This programme covered paddy, red onions, and various cereals. The purchase of paddy was developed further by handing it over to the Department of Agrarian Services and later to the Paddy Marketing Board. There were rice mills to mill the paddy and this too was the public sector dabbling in commerce and the rice mills were closed down and abandoned. Instead the Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF saw to it that government units that sought to increase production were gradually closed down and abandoned. Consequently imports increased.

In textiles, Sri Lanka developed handlooms, power looms and Textile Mills importing yarn and this scheme, worked with a major Research Unit, called Velona at Moratuwa saw to it that Sri lanka produced all its textiles by the Seventies. This was directed by the Small Industries Department. The textile section of the Small Industries Department was closed down and this entire programme abandoned, resulting in thousands of textile workers losing their jobs and earnings and causing the country to import all textiles all done as dictated by the IMF.

Government departments like agriculture and agrarian services were crippled and the private sector was moved in to attend to agricultural extension.

Sri Lanka had a major industry making all rail coaches, buses and lorries and only chassis were imported. These coach and lorry making units were closed down and lorries and buses were imported. This caused unemployment as well as proved costly due to having to purchase built up vehicles.

This was the situation in other departments and government controlled commercial undertakings. For instance an efficiently run commuter bus organization was totally scrapped, its vast machinery sold for scrap and abandoned and sections privatized.

This effectively stalled development, caused a fall in production, leading to the country importing everything.

The IMF provided loans freely and the loans were used to fund imports- the net result was that loans coming to Sri Lanka were sent back to the multinationals with profits, all done leaving the loans as a debt saddling the country. This is the process that in the period 1977 to today led to the mounting of the foreign debt to as much as $ 56 billion today.

The private sector was also crippled in an indirect but very effective manner by the provision that the country had to follow a high interest rate policy. As detailed by me:

The IMF and the World Bank advises to follow high interest rates. It has meant that producers and manufacturers have to get loans at around 20% to 30% interest. Can they ever compete with manufacturers in Developed Countries that can get loans varying from 2% in Japan to 7% in the USA…. This is engineered to ensure that local production and manufacturing is costly and thereby raw materials we produce( Like rubber) get exported without local processing. By this method, the riches accruing from adding value to the raw product remains with the Developed Country…The high interest policy also helps foreign banks to make fantastic profits through lending in Third World countries”.(How the IMF Ruined Sri lanka033,34)

This meant that private entrepreneurs had to obtain bank loans paying interest at high rates even to the extent of 25%. Speaking to many entrepreneurs known to me, they confided in me that high interest charged on bank loans made them sell or give up their ventures. They said that it was easier to deposit their funds in deposit accounts and draw high interest than having to toil in enterprise development. The imposition of high interest rates killed the commercial enterprises done by the private sector.

This was the scene in every country that followed the IMF”s Structural Adjustment Programme. It was always stalling production and imports taking its place, also causing unemployment and increasing poverty.

The IMF advocates attracting foreign investment which too means stalling local production. One type of foreign investment is for multinationals to bring some funds initially and set up sales outlets, eateries like MacDonalds and Burger King get involved in local trade . However this eats into our foreign reserves when we allow the investors to repatriate their profits.

Another type of foreign investment advocated, detrimental to the countries because resources in the country are exploited to make a profit, where the country only benefits from the employment created is widely prevalent. In Sri Lanka: Noritake came to Sri Lanka on a tax holiday and used ceramic deposits for making porcelineware. When the tax holiday period ended it was extended. It is now realized that the clay deposits are very low. Further working on the tax holiday no taxes are paid in the country of manufacture, but the products are heavily taxed in their own country and further taxes are charged when the goods are sent to Europe and the USA where sales taxes are charged.”(From: Success in Development)

When wheat imports and flour milling was given to Prima from Singapore, Prima fixes the price of flour and profits are repatriated. Earlier the Government imported wheat and flour and no profit was kept as a Government Department attended to the task.

The IMF was not interested in creating local production. Instead the IMF encouraged SafetyNets of hands out to the poor. The aim was not to create production in the countries.

Sri Lanka though one of the countries that provided rubber, depended on the import of tyres and tubes. A Russian grant enabled the establishment of the Tyre Factory. This was the Government dabbling in commerce and the Tyre Factory was privatized. Purchased by an local entrepreneur, now the Tyre factory was purchased by a international magnate CEAT.

Indonesia had developed BULOG a government organization that attended to agricultural development. BULOG was closed down at the instance of the IMF.

.

A further method of the IMf was its advice that the countries should do no development planning. Sri Lanka had to abandon Development Planning.. Development Planning is essential to enable development and production. This was a method of stalling development.

A classic case is Pueto Rico. In my words, Luring foreign investment was the model of development that was tried out by Piuerto Rico in the Fifties. This attracted a million $ worth of investment from outside. It was found that by 1980-1986, for evey single US $ imported $ 2.40 was paid as a return on capital.(Beckford: 1989(61) It was found that companies closed down when the tax exemption period lapsed>”(From How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka)

Following the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme from 1977 crippled all development activity in Sri Lanka and confined the administrators to the barracks.

Next week- Get the Administrators out of the barracks to work again. Can it be done?

Garvin Karunaratne, Phd Michigan State University,

Aiuthor of

How the IMF Ruined Sri lanka & Alternative Programmes of Success(Godages:2006

How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(Kindle/Godages:2017

Success in Development, (Godages:2011)

Papers on the Economic Development of Sri Lanka(Godages:2012)

Howthe IMF’s Structural Adjustment Destroyed Sri Lanka, Godages; 2022

Selleing the Mother Land& Ideas for Developing Sri Lanka, Godages: 2022

14022022

MD Pathik Hasan Dhaka Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the  India’s largest trade partner in the region. Trade  Volume is increasing day by day. Even, the bilateral trade between the two countries grew at an unprecedented rate of 14 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Media reports said that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, bilateral trade was at an unprecedented rate of 14 per cent from 9.46 billion US dollars in 2019 to 10.78 billion dollars in 2021.

Bangladesh mainly exports products including readymade garments, jute and jute-processed products, leather-processed products, plastic products, fish, soft drinks, copper and edible oil while goods including rice, raw cotton, onion, motor vehicles, boilers, machinery, milk, dairy products, electronic products and iron were imported from India. There is huge potential to increase the trade Volume between Bangladesh and Indian. There is a huge demand of Indian products in Bangladesh. On the other hand, the demand of Bangladeshi products is increasing day be day. Now Indian consumers want to consume Bangladeshi products. Border markets  are the best example to understand it.

 According to media reports,  India exports to Bangladesh was US$7.91 Billion during 2020 (United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade). In the last one year, Bangladesh-India trade has increased by 94%. At the end of the current financial year, Bangladesh’s exports to India are expected to reach 2 billion for the first time. India is keen to take this trade relationship to a new height.

Bangladesh’s stable economic development is creating new opportunities for India’s northeastern states and work on a CEPA trade agreement is ongoing. The two countries are celebrating 50 years of India-Bangladesh friendship and India’s President Ram Nath Kovind completed a successful visit to Bangladesh last year.

2021 marks the golden jubilee of the liberation of Bangladesh and fifty years of India-Bangladesh diplomatic ties. India’s President Ram Nath Kovind is currently on a three-day state visit to Bangladesh from December 15 to 17, 2021; this is his first state visit since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic.

Speaking on the state of bilateral ties in November, India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh affirmed that India Bangladesh relations are going through a golden phase. As Bangladesh attains developing nation” status (upgrading from less developed country” status), India has reiterated its commitment to deepen trade and economic ties with Bangladesh as partners rather than competitors. That Bangladesh is India’s biggest trade partner in South Asia, with a volume of over US$10 billion, is testimony to this commitment. In the same pursuit, both countries are working to finalize a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

Bangladesh’s holistic development is also viewed positively by New Delhi with new opportunities arising along India’s northeast region. Bangladesh and India share a 4096-kilometer-long (2545 miles) international border, the fifth-longest land border in the world, including 262 km (163 mi) in the state of Assam, 856 km (532 mi) in Tripura, 318 km (198 mi) in Mizoram, 443 km (275 mi) in Meghalaya, and 2217 km (1378 mi) in West Bengal.

Economic and commercial partnership between India and Bangladesh

According to various Indian and Bangladeshi media reports, Bangladesh may become India’s fourth largest export destination in FY22, jumping five places in two years. This comes as the economic boom of the eastern neighbour continues to fuel India’s exports growth.

Indian media outlet ‘Business Standard’ wrote last year that the first seven months of FY22, exports to Bangladesh grew 81 per cent over the same period in the preceding year to $7.7 billion. This makes it India’s fourth largest export market behind the US, UAE and China.

Bangladesh is India’s biggest trade partner in South Asia and India is the second biggest trade partner of Bangladesh. Bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh has grown steadily over the last decade and the exports of Bangladesh have tripled over the last decade to cross US$1 billion in 2018-19. In FY 2019-20, India’s exports to Bangladesh were US$8.2 billion and imports were US$1.26 billion.

 The two countries now should concentrate on people-to-people contact, trade, business and connectivity as the issues became increasingly important for the two sides. India could be a major supplier of yarn and cotton to the garment industry in the near future.

A deeper economic and trade engagement becomes all the more relevant, given the success of phenomenal and uninterrupted supply chains during the pandemic. An augmented connectivity infrastructure is imperative to actualize the bilateral trade and investment potential between the two countries. India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has recognized five focus areas to bolster bilateral economic ties – technology, connectivity, entrepreneurship, health, and tourism. Bangladesh is also important for aiding India’s connectivity in the Southeast Asian region through Chittagong and Mongla ports.

Indian and Bangladeshi companies signed agreements worth nearly $10 billion for Indian investment, mainly in the power and energy sectors, during a visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in April 2017.

And with Indian economic zones coming up at Mongla and Mirsarai, the amount of FDIs from the neighbouring nation is bound to increase manifold.

Both India and Bangladesh are also working towards holding the first meeting of the India Bangladesh CEOs Forum to provide policy level inputs in various areas of trade and investment and also to facilitate exchanges among the business communities of both the countries. Additionally, a bilateral textile industry forum has also been constituted to facilitate cooperation in the textile sector.

According to the data of media outlets, With Bangladesh being the central pillar of India’s Neighbourhood First policy, Dhaka is New Delhi’s largest trade partner in South Asia and bilateral trade between the two countries grew at an unprecedented rate of 14 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic. the COVID-19 pandemic, bilateral trade was at an unprecedented rate of 14 per cent from 9.46 billion US dollars in 2019 to 10.78 billion dollars in 2021. Joint energy space is steadily emerging, India and Bangladesh’s electricity grids are interconnected from east and west with more than 1160 megawatts of powers way across from India and Bangladesh.The ₹346 crore Pipeline Project, signed in 2018, will connect Siliguri in West Bengal in India and Parbatipur in Dinajpur district of Bangladesh. The work on the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline, a project that will enable the two countries to integrate their energy needs, is progressing well and could be inaugurated next year. ( The NDTV, the Hindu, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla )

Despite COVID-19 restrictions, the trade between India and Bangladesh crossed $10 billion. . India had sent over one crore COVID-19 vaccines to the country and has extended concessional credit lines of about $8 billion, the highest for any single country. India is also developing two Indian economic zones at Mirsarai and Mongla. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to 50 young entrepreneurs from Bangladesh will further augment our ties. Over 350 Indian companies are now registered in Bangladesh. The India-Bangladesh CEO Forum will meet soon for the first time, even as the two countries work towards finalising a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to deepen trade and economic ties as partners rather than competitors.

India stands shoulder to shoulder” with the country’s leadership and people in their development journey.

Noting that India-Bangladesh supply chains worked uninterrupted through the pandemic, Improving connectivity is imperative” for expanding and realising the potential for bilateral trade and investments. The two countries’ leaders have brought Delhi and Dhaka closer and can together bring economic prosperity to South Asia. ( The Hindu, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal)

India and Bangladesh have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the construction of a high-speed diesel pipeline from Nonmilitary in Assam to Parbatipur in Bangladesh, a joint venture between Numaligarh Refinery Limited and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation. As an indication of goodwill, an initial consignment of 2200 ton of diesel has already been transported from Siliguri in West Bengal to Parbatipur in 50 wagons by the Indian Railways

Furthermore, India-Bangladesh cooperation in the power sector too has become an important aspect in this bilateral relationship. Bangladesh is currently importing 1160 MW of power from India. The Joint Working Group (JWG)/Joint Steering Committee (JSC) on power provides an institutional framework to promote bilateral cooperation in cross border trade of electricity.

How is India aiding Bangladesh as a development partner ?

Presently, Bangladesh remains India’s biggest development partner. Over the past eight years, India has extended three Lines of Credits (LOC) to Bangladesh, amounting to US$8 billion for development of infrastructure in various sectors, including roads, railways, shipping, and ports. Additionally, India has also been providing grant assistance to Bangladesh for various infrastructure projects, including construction of Akhaura-Agartala rail link, dredging of inland waterways in Bangladesh, and construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline.

Further, High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDPs) also form an important part of India’s developmental assistance to Bangladesh, with India having funded 68 HICDPs, including construction of, academic buildings, cultural centers, skill development and training institutes, student hostels, and orphanages etc. in Bangladesh. 16 additional HICDPs are being implemented.

Although there is a huge trade deficit between Bangladesh and India. As a big partner, India has been enjoying the major trade volume but India should consider this with its highest sincere consideration. Bangladesh is a well trusted ally of India. India should give more duty free access of Bangladeshi products.

This growing trade and economic ties are very important for the two fraternal ties. India and Bangladesh are really eternal friends. Their bondage is based on strong neighbourly spirit. However, this growing trade and economic ties will definitely benefit the people of the two countries. India and Bangladesh can benefit from growing trade and economic ties. We hope that thus bilateral growing trade and economic ties reflects better bilateral understanding.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

කොළඹ හුණුපිටිය ගංගාරාම විහාරස්ථානයේ වාර්ෂික නවම් මහා පෙරහැරේ සධාතුක කරඬුව මංගල හස්තිරාජයා මත තැන්පත්කර චාරිත්‍රානුකූලව පෙරහර ආරම්භ කිරීම අද (15) සන්ධ්‍යාවේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් පැවැත්විණි.  

ගංගාරාම විහාරාධිකාරී පුජ්‍ය ආචාර්ය කිරින්දේ අස්සජි ස්වාමීන්වහන්සේ ප්‍රමුඛ මහා සංඝරත්නයේ ආශිර්වාදය ඇතිව ගංගාරාම විහාරස්ථ දායක සභාව මෙවර පෙරහර අති උත්කර්ශවත්ව සංවිධානය කර තිබේ.

පළමුව ගංගාරාම විහාරස්ථානයේ පැවති ආගමික වතාවත්වල නිරත වූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා අනතුරුව මංගල හස්ති රාජයා මත සධාතුක කරඬුව තැන්පත් කොට ඊට මල් ඉසිමින් පුෂ්පෝපහාර දැක්වීය.

පෙරහර ආරම්භයට පෙර අස්ගිරි පාර්ශවයේ අනුනායක ආණමඩුවේ ධම්මදස්සි අනුනාහිමියෝ ගංගාරාම පෙරහර ඉතිහාසය අළලා විශේෂ අනුශාසනාවක් පැවැත්වූහ.

හිටපු අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ, අමාත්‍යවරුන් වන චමල් රාජපක්ෂ, නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ, බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී හර්ෂ ද සිල්වා, මහාභාරකාර තැන්පත් ගනේශ් ධර්මවර්ධන, දායක සභාවේ සභාපති රංජිත් විජේවර්ධන මහත්වරු ඇතුළු පිරිසක් මෙම අවස්ථාවන් හා එක්ව සිටියහ.

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

හේතු නො විමසා ගැටලු විසඳීම බෞද්ධ පිළිවෙත නොවේ. එහෙයින් බෞද්ධ අධිකරණ ක්‍රියාදාමය තුළ විනිශ්චයට පාත්‍රවන ආරවුල්, වියවුල් සහ වැරැදිවලට අදාළ පසුබිම් හේතු විමසීමට ප්‍රමුඛත්වයක් ලබාදිය යුතු බැව් මෙයට පෙර ලිපියෙන් අපි අවධාරණය කළෙමු. මෙම කාර්යයෙහි අරමුණ වන්නේ නැවත නැවතත් එවැනි ආරවුල්, වියවුල් සහ වැරැදි ඇතිවීම වැළැක්වීම ය. එයට අමතරව, විනිශ්චය තුළින් සාධනීය තීන්දු ලබාදීමක් ද අධිකරණ ක්‍රියාදාමය තුළින් සිදුවිය යුත්තේ ය.

රාජ්‍යයේ ස්ථාවරභාවය සහ අනන්‍යතාව ආරක්‍ෂාකිරීම, ජනතාව සුඛිත මුදිතකිරීම, යහපත් සමාජයක් ගොඩනැගීම යන ජාතික අවශ්‍යතා වෙනුවෙන් සහායවීම බෞද්ධ අධිකරණ ක්‍රියාදාමයේ අරමුණු වෙයි.  අධිකරණය විසින් ලබාදෙන තීන්දු සාධනීය ඒවා ලෙසින් සැළැකිය හැක්කේ එමගින් උක්ත අරමුණු සාක්‍ෂාත් කරගැනීමට ලැබෙන පිටුවහල ඇගැයීමෙනි.

තනි තනිව ගත්කල සමාන වශයෙන් පෙනී යා හැකි සිදුවීම් උක්ත අරමුණු සමඟ සසඳන කල්හි එකිනෙකට හාත්පසින් ම වෙනස්වීමේ ඉඩක් ද වෙයි. එහෙයින් විනිශ්චයට ලක්කරනු ලබන කාරණයට පසුබිම් වූ හේතු විමසීම මෙන් ම සාක්‍ෂි විභාගයෙන් අනතුරුව ලබාදෙන තීන්දුවලින් උක්ත ජාතික අරමුණු සාක්‍ෂාත් කරගැනීමට උපස්ථම්භක වන ආකාරය විමසා බැලීම ද ඉතා වැදගත් වෙයි.

දරුවකුගේ හිමිකම පිළිබඳ නඩු තීන්දුවක් ලබාදීමේ දී එම දරුවාගේ අනාගත යහපැවැත්ම පිළිබඳව සළකා බැලීම වර්තමාන අධිකරණ ක්‍රමය තුළ ද සිදුවෙයි. එහෙත් වෙනත් නඩු තීන්දුවල දී මෙවැනි කරුණු සළකා බැලීමක් සිදුවන්නේ නැත. නිදසුනක් වශයෙන් දේපළ නඩුවක් කෙරෙහි අපගේ අවධානය යොමු කළ හැකි ය. යම් දේපළකට උරුමකරුවන් කිහිප දෙනකු සිටින බව තහවුරු වූ විට අධිකරණය තීන්දුකරන්නේ ඒවා ඒ ඒ පාර්ශ්වකරුවන්ගේ උරුමයට ගැලැපෙන පරිදි බෙදාදීම ය. මෙවැනි බෙදීමකින් එම දේපළෙහි අනාගත පැවැත්මට අත්වන ඉරණම ගැන අධිකරණය නොතකයි.

බෙදා වෙන්කළ දේපළක් ආර්ථික වශයෙන් කිසිදු වටිනාකමක් නැති වස්තුවක් බවට පත්විය හැකි ය. මෙවැනි නඩු තීන්දුවක් නිසා කෘෂිකාර්මික ඉඩමක භාවිත වටිනාකම නැතිවන්නේ නම් ජනතාව සුඛිත මුදිතකිරීමේ ජාතික අරමුණට එයින් බාධාවක් එල්ලවෙයි. එවැනි නඩු තීන්දුවක් නිසා රාජ්‍යය සතු වගාකළ හැකි බිම් ප්‍රමාණය අඩු වී යා හැකි ය. ඉඩමක් බෙදීමේ දී ප්‍රවේශ මාර්ග සඳහා කරනු ලබන වෙන්කිරීම්, ජලය ලබාගැනීමට ඇතිවන බාධා වැනි හේතු නිසා බෙදුණු කොටස්වල ඵලදායිතාව හීනවිය හැකි ය.

එහෙයින් උරුමය පමණක් සළකා එවැනි දේපළක් බෙදාදීම සාධනීය කාර්යයක් නොවේ. දරුවකුගේ අනාගතය බලා හිමිකම තීරණය කරනු ලබන අයුරින් ම, අදාළ දේපළෙහි අනාගත භාවිතය සළකමින් තීන්දු ලබාදීම අධිකරණයේ වගකීම වෙයි. අදාළ දේපළ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගම් සභාව වැනි බිම් මට්ටමේ පාලන ආයතන විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කරනු ලබන නිරීක්‍ෂණ වාර්තා, ක්‍ෂේත්‍ර නිරීක්‍ෂකයන්ගේ නිර්දේශ, කෝරළ බුද්ධි මණ්ඩලයේ නීති අංශයේ අදහස් සහ අනෙකුත් ඇගැයීම් මේ සඳහා පාදක කරගත හැකි ය.

දේපළක් හවුලේ භුක්තිවිඳීම සඳහා අනුගමනය කළ හැකි ආර්ථික මාදිලියක් මෙම ප්‍රවාදය තුළින් යෝජනා කර තිබේ. එ මෙන් ම, ජනරජයේ ඉඩම් සහ නිවාස ප්‍රතිපත්තිය සැකැසිය යුතු ආකාරය පිළිබඳ මූලික අදහස් කිහිපයක් ද මෙයින් ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබේ. එවැනි ක්‍රම මත පදනම් වී තීන්දු ලබාදීමෙන් සියලු හිමිකරුවන්ගේ දේපළ අයිතිය තහවුරු කෙරෙන අතර ජනරජයේ ජාතික අරමුණු සාක්‍ෂාත් කරගැනීමේ අවශ්‍යතාව ද සපිරෙයි.

ජනතාවගේ සාමූහික හිමිකම් තහවුරු වන පරිදි නඩු තීන්දු ලබාදීමේ වගකීම ද අධිකරණයට වෙයි. තව ද, ජනරජයේ අනන්‍යතාව තහවුරු කෙරෙන සාමූහික හිමිකම්වලට (බුදුදහම, සිංහල භාෂාව සහ දේශීය දැනුම සඳහා) ප්‍රමුඛතාව පිරිනමා තිබෙන බැවින් එම කරුණු සළකා බලමින් නඩු තීන්දු ලබාදීම අධිකරණය විසින් කළ යුතු වෙයි. බුද්ධ ශාසනය ආරක්‍ෂා කොට පෝෂණයකිරීම ජනරජයේ ප්‍රමුඛ වගකීමක් වන බැවින් එයට අදාළ සංඝාධිකරණ වැනි විනිශ්චය සභා පිහිටුවීම ජාතික ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාව විසින් කළ යුතු වෙයි. ඒ සඳහා අවැසි නිර්දේශ ලබාදීම උත්තරීතර උපදේශක සභාවේ වගකීමකි. ශාසනික ගැටලු සම්බන්ධයෙන් පොදු සමාජ අධිකරණ මැදිහත්විය යුත්තේ සංඝාධිකරණ වැනි අභ්‍යන්තර විනිශ්චය ආයතනවල තීන්දු ලබාගැනීමෙන් අනතුරුව ය.

රාජ්‍ය ආරක්‍ෂාව අරභයා මැදිහත් වන අයට ඒ සඳහා කැපැ වී ක්‍රියාකිරීමේ නිදහස නීතියෙන් තහවුරු කළ යුතු වේ. ඒ වෙනුවෙන් කැපවන අයට මුක්තියක් හිමිවිය යුතු ය. මෙම කාර්යයට අදාළ යම් ක්‍රියාවකට පදනම් වූ හේතු සහ එම ක්‍රියාවෙහි අරමුණු සළකා බලා තීන්දු ලබාදීම අධිකරණයේ වගකීම වෙයි. තම ජීවිත පරදුවට තබමින් සටන්කිරීමට යොමුවන අය දිරිගැන්වීම, එ් සඳහා අනාගත පරපුර සූදානම් කරවීම යන සාධනීය අරමුණු මෙයට අදාළ වෙයි. මුක්තියට ආවරණය වී වැරැදි සිදුකිරීම වැළැක්වීම අනිවාර්යයෙන් ම සිදුවිය යුත්තකි.

බෞද්ධ විනිසුරන් විසින් අනුගමනය කළයුත්තේ මෙම මහෞෂධ පිළිවෙතයි.

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

ලංකා ගුරුසේවා සංගමය

ගරු අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍ය,
දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා,
අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශය,
ඉසුරුපාය,
බත්තරමුල්ල.

අමාත්‍යතුමනි,
2017/2019 අධ්‍යයන වර්ෂවලට අයත් විද්‍යාපීඨ ඩිප්ලෝමාධාරීන්
4000 කගේ ගුරු පත්වීම් ප්‍රමාදවීම සම්බන්ධවයි.

2015 අ.පො.ස. උසස් පෙළ විභාගයට පෙනී සිට 2017/2019 අධ්‍යයන වර්ෂවල විද්‍යාපීඨවලට ඇතුළත්ව අධ්‍යාපන විද්‍යා ශික්ෂණ ඩිප්ලෝමාව හැදෑරු 4000 ක් පමණ වන සිසුන්ගේ අවසන් විභාග ප්‍රතිඵල ද නිකුත් කර ඇති තත්ත්වයක් තුළ එම ගුරු පත්විම් කඩිනම්ව ලබාදීමේ අවශ්‍යතාව කෙරෙහි ඔබගේ දැඩි අවධානය යොමු කරමු.
02ග 2015 අ.පො.ස. උසස් පෙළ විභාගයට පෙනී සිට වසර 07 කට ආසන්න කාලයක් ගතකර ඇති මෙම ඩිප්ලෝමාධාරීන්ගේ පත්වීම් තවදුරටත් ප්‍රමාදවීමත් දිවයින පුරා පුහුණුවලත් ගුරුවරුන්ගේ උග්‍ර ගුරු හිගයක් පැවතීමත් සැළකිල්ලට ගෙන මෙම පත්වීම් කඩිනමින් ලබාදීමට වැඩපිළිවෙලක් සකස් කිරීම අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශය හා ජාතික අධ්‍යාපන ආයතනය ඇතුඵ අදාළ ආයතනවල වගකීමකි.

03ග අ.පො.ස. උසස් පෙළ විභාගය මගින් වාර්ෂිකව අධ්‍යාපන විද්‍යාපීඨවලට සිසුන් ඇතුළත් කර ගැනීමේදී පවතින ප්‍රමාදයේදීත් අභ්‍යන්තරව ඉගෙනුම ලබන සිසුන්ගේ පාඨමාලා කාලය අනවශ්‍ය ලෙස දීර්ඝ වීමේදීත් මේ වනවිට නිර්මාණය වී ඇති ගැටඵ රැසකි. එහිදී විශේෂයෙන් පසුගිය කාලසීමාව තුළ කිසිදු වගවිභාගයකින් තොරව අධ්‍යාපන විද්‍යාපීඨ කොවිඩ්-19 ප්‍රතිකාර මධ්‍යස්ථාන බවට පත්කිරීමෙන් පැවති තත්ත්වය තවත් උග්‍රවීමට හේතු වී ඇත. මෙහිදී අදාළ අධ්‍යයන වර්ෂ සදහා අයදුම්පත් ඉදිරිපත් කළ සිසුන්ගෙන් පැවති සම්මුඛ පරික්ෂණ ස`දහා සහභාගීත්වය අවම මට්ටමක පවතින බවද වාර්තා වේ.
එහෙයින් පාසල් අධ්‍යාපනයේ තීරණාත්මක කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටු කරන මෙම අධ්‍යාපන විද්‍යාපීඨ හා එහි පැවැත්වෙන පාඨමාලා මේ ආකාරයෙන් පිරිහීමට ඉඩ හැරීම 43 ලක‍ෂයක් වත්මන් සිසු දරුවන්ගේ මෙන්ම අනාගත සිසු දරුවන්ගේ ද ගුණාත්මක අධ්‍යාපනයට සිදු කරන බරපතළ හානියක් බැවින් කඩිනමින් මෙම පත්වීම් ලබාදිමට වැඩපිළිවෙලක් සකස් කරන ලෙසත් එය සාධාරණ කාලයක් තුළ සිදු නොවන්නේ නම් ඔවුන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් වෙනුවෙන් ලංකා ගුරුසේවා සංගමයට ඉදිරි ක්‍රියාමාර්ගවලට අවතීර්ණ වීමට සිදුවන බවත් මෙයින් දන්වා සිටිමු.

ස්තූතියි,
මෙයට,

මහින්ද ජයසිංහ
ප්‍රධාන ලේකම්,

Courtesy Adaderana

The health sector trade unions currently on strike have decided to temporarily call off their strike for 14 days from 8.00 a.m. tomorrow (15).

Co-convenor of the Federation of Health Professionals Ravi Kumudesh said that all 18 trade unions have decided to temporarily call of the strike from tomorrow. 

Earlier today, the Federation of Health Professionals had said that the final decision on whether or not to continue their strike action would be taken today (15).

Mr. Kumudesh had said that the minutes of the discussion held with the Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella last evening regarding their demands has been received and that thereby a decision on continuing the strike will be taken. 

The strike action launched by several health sector trade unions had continued for the ninth day today.

The Government Nursing Officers’ Association alone had decided to withdraw from the strike following an enjoining order issued by the Colombo District Court.

However, the remaining 17 trade unions had opted to continue with the strike, which had severely disrupted services and activities at hospitals across the country. 

Eighteen health sector trade unions including those affiliated with nursing, supplementary and paramedical services commenced an indefinite strike from 7.00 a.m. on February 07.

The island-wide strike was staged based on demands including transforming health professional services into closed services, increasing the special duty allowance to Rs. 10,000, eliminating parallel salary anomalies caused by eliminating only teacher salary anomalies, the establishment of a ‘Health Administration Service’ representing all health professionals and the delays in providing solutions to problems that have arisen for health professionals.

However, the strike had not taken place at cancer, maternity and pediatric hospitals, hospitals for treatment of kidney diseases as well as the central blood bank. The strike was also not extended to emergency and lifesaving services.

On February 10, the District Court of Colombo issued two enjoining orders against the Government Nursing Officers’ Association and its chairman Saman Ratnapriya calling for the immediate suspension of their trade union action.

The enjoining orders were issued after taking into account a request made by the Attorney General. He had filed action against the said union and its chairman, seeking an enjoining order from the court to immediately suspend the trade union action of the said association.

The Attorney General also appraised the court of the current deplorable conditions at hospitals due to patient care has been gravely affected.

The Government Nursing Officers’ Association decided to withdraw from the strike following the court order, however the other trade unions had decided to press forward with it.
Meanwhile on February 11, the Presidential Secretariat had issued a special gazette declaring the supply of electricity and provision of healthcare as essential services.

Thereby, electricity supply and provision of healthcare have been identified as essential services for the conduct of ordinary public life.

As per the gazette notification, the supply of electricity” and all service, work or labour, of any description whatsoever, necessary or required to be done in connection with the maintenance, and the reception, care feeding, and treatment, of patients in hospitals, nursing homes, dispensaries, and other similar institution” will now be considered essential services.

Courtesy Adaderana

He said the India-Sri Lanka partnership continues to work towards energy security of Sri Lanka.

India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay today handed over a fuel consignment of 40,000 metric tonnes from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to Sri Lanka’s Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila.

India – a committed partner and a true friend of Sri Lanka. High Commissioner handed over 40,000 MT fuel consignment by @IndianOilcl to Hon’ble Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila today. India-Sri Lanka partnership continues to work towards energy security of Sri Lanka,” the High Commission in Colombo tweeted. 

Steps will be taken to immediately unload the consignment and hand over the fuel to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).

The fuel consignment was delivered by the Oil tanker ’Swarna Pushp’ arriving from India. 

Earlier this month, Sri Lanka signed a $500 million credit line with India to import fuel, as the country seeks to stave off power cuts amid a foreign exchange crisis that has hampered purchases of diesel for power plants.

The Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM) is providing the credit line for purchasing petroleum products. 

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka’s Director General of Health Services has confirmed another 30 coronavirus related deaths for February 14, pushing the country’s death toll due to the virus pandemic to 15,874.

The deaths reported today include 20 males and 10 females, according to the figures released by the Government Information Department.

Eight of the victims are between the ages 30-59 years while the remaining 22 are in the age group of 60 years and above. 

Meanwhile the Health Ministry reported that another 1,252 persons have tested positive for Covid-19 within today (15).

This increases the tally of Covid-19 cases registered in the country thus far to 630,599 while over 19,000 patients infected with the virus are currently undergoing treatment across the island.  

ජයන්ත හේරත්

රන්ජිත්

අප අතරින් වෙන්වී

2/16 ට 

අවුරුද්දකි

ලස්සන ජීවිතයක්

අපූරු.දක්ෂ මිනිහෙක්

බුද්ධිමත් මිනිසෙක්

කිට්ටු මිතුරෙක්

අමතක නොවන ජීවිතයක්

මහාචාර්යවරයෙක්

අවුරුදු 47 කට පෙර

අපි හමුවුණා

කැම්පස් හිදී

මුල් දවස්වලම

නව පරිගණක විද්‍යාගාරය

වාඩිලාගෙන

පස් දෙනෙකුගෙන් යුත් පර්යේෂණ පරිගණක කණ්ඩායම

ඔහු පිහිටුවා ගත්තේය

HYR

ඔහුගේ අවසන් වසරේ

සිසුන් අතලොස්සකට

එකතු වුණා

ශිෂ්‍ය වර්ජන නැතිකරන්නට 

ශිෂ්‍ය සමිති යෝජනාවන්  නොතකා

Power Systems දේශනයකට සහභාගි වුණා

විප්ලවවාදීය

උපාධිය ලැබීමෙන් පසු

අප

CEB

හා

සම්බන්ධ වි

වැඩ කළා

කැලනිතිස්ස

විදුලි බලාගාරය

අපි

දෙන්නම

CEB එකන්

ඉල්ලා අස්වි

උසස් අධ්යයන

සඳහා

ගියා

ඔහු

මොරටුව විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ

තරුන

විදුලි ඉංජිනේරුවන්

බිහි කිරීම

තෝරා ගත්තා

බිහිසුණු සමයකදී 

වරින් වර

කතා කර

ඔහු

හිනාවුනා

මම

හිනා වුණා

අපි

සිනාසුණ

පැය ගණනක්

අවුරුද්දකට  පෙර

අපි ඔහු සමඟ

Zoom

සංවාදයක්

පැවැත්වුව.

අපට

පොදු

පර්යේෂණ

උනන්දුවක් තිබුණ

අධික වේගය

ඔහු අධික

වේගයට ආදරය කළ

මමත්

අධික වේගයට

ආදරය කළා

ඔහු

අධිවේගී

රිය පැදවීම

ප්රිය කළ

අපි

හිස්

ජර්මානු ස්විස්

අධිවේගී

මාර්ගයේ

අධිවේගී රිය

පැදවීම කළ

ලස්සන මතකයන්

ඔහු මා ඉදිරියෙන්

ඉතා ඉක්මනින්

පිටව යනු ඇතැයි

කිසි විටෙකත්

බලාපොරොත්තු නොවීය

සමුගැනීම

එතරම්

පහසු නැත

නිම

නොකළ

වැඩ

ව්යාපාර

කාර්යය භාරය

සෑම

දෙයක්ම පරිපූර්ණ

යූ

ටෝ

පියා

මනෝ රජයේදී 

නැවත

නැවත

හමුවනු ඇත

නිරෝගීව සිටින්න

කරුණාකර

සෞඛ්ය පරීක්ෂණයක්

සඳහා යන්න

දිගු ආයු කාලයක්

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ මාධ්‍යවේදී සුනිල් දයා අල්විස් මහතා  අභාවප්‍රාප්ත වූ පුවත ඇසීමෙන් මම බලවත් සංවේගයට පත්වීමි.

පැරණි ලංකාදීප පුවත්පතෙන් 70 දශකයේ දී  මාධ්‍ය වෘත්තියට පිවිසි  සුනිල් දයා අල්විස් මහතා පුවත්පත් කලාව වෙනුවෙන් දශක පහකට අධික කාලයක් කැපී පෙනෙන මෙහෙවරක නිරත වූවෙකි.

1994 වර්ෂයේ දී ලේක් හවුස් ආයතනයට විශේෂාංග ලේඛකයෙකු ලෙස එක්වන සුනිල් දයා අල්විස් මහතා කලක් සිළුමිණ ප්‍රාදේශීය ප්‍රවෘත්ති කර්තෘවරයා ලෙසත් සම කර්තෘවරයෙකු ලෙසත් ගුණාත්මක මාධ්‍ය කලාවක් වෙනුවෙන් සිය පන්හිඳ මෙහෙයවීය.

ගවේෂණාත්මක මාධ්‍යවේදියෙකු වන සුනිල් දයා අල්විස් මහතා සෞඛ්‍ය ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ පුවත් වාර්තාකරණයට දැක්වූයේ විශේෂ දක්ෂතාවයකි.  මාධ්‍ය වෘත්තිකයන් අතර නොමද ආදරයට හා ගෞරවයට පාත්‍ර වූ සුනිල් දයා අල්විස් මහතා නවක මාධ්‍යවේදීන් රැසකගේ ගුරුවරයෙකි.

දිවයින ආරම්භක සාමාජිකයකු ලෙසත් අමාත්‍යාංශ මාධ්‍ය ලේකම්වරයකු ලෙසත් සිය වෘත්තිය අත්දැකීම් සපුරා ගත් ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ මාධ්‍යවේදී සුනිල් දයා අල්විස් මහතා සිය වෘත්තිය අත්දැකීම් තුළින් මෙරට ජන සමාජය වෙනුවෙන් ඉටු කළ පුවත්පත් කලා මෙහෙවර සදා මතකයේ රැඳෙනු ඇත.

අවුරුදු 75 ක් ආයුවළඳා හදිසියේ අප අතරින් වෙන්ව ගිය ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ මාධ්‍යවේදී   සුනිල් දයා අල්විස්  මහතාට නිවන් සුව ලැබේවා! යැයි  ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරන අතර, එතුමාගේ අභාවයෙන් ශෝකයට පත් ගීතක රවිඳු අල්විස් පුතු , සුචිනි අල්විස් දියණිය ඇතුළු එම පවුලේ සියලු දෙනාටත්, ඥාති හිතමිත්‍රාදීන්ටත් මාගේ බලවත් සංවේගය මෙයින් ප්‍රකාශ කරමි.