By Kanbawza Win Courtesy Asian Tribune

In a landmark verdict, the United Nation’s highest court has ruled that it has the authority to consider a genocide case against Burma and ordered the country to prevent irreparable harm from being committed again, signalling that the sensational news has vanquished the conflict resolutions.

But my research indicates otherwise, of how in the 18th century, the Colonial British in construing Burma to be part of the British Indian empire encouraged the Chittagonians labourers from India to work in the fertile fields of northern Arakan making Burma the rice bowl of Asia”.

The Origin of the Rohingyas In fact some of the Kalar (meaning dark complexion) were already there living in a large village, even before the British annexed the country in 1824. These people considered themselves to be genuine Muslims, strictly adhering to their traditional cultures and the new comers admired them and wanted to live with them. However, the old village people said Even if you speak the same language and of the same religion, you are not an authentic Muslims and we will not welcome in our village, but if you want to reside here you can stay in the outskirts of our village.” Hence those new comers reside there and were label as Ywathitthar, (in Burmese meaning people from the new village) while from the old village continue to call themselves as Ywahaughthar (people of the old village).

But as more and more Chttagonians came over, it overwhelmed the old village and everybody now called themselves as Ywahaoungtha. However, to a new Chittagonians who just arrived having little or no knowledge about Arakanese or Burmese languages heard the word of Ywahaungthar or rather the Arakanese word as Rwahaungtha, somewhat akin to the Bengali word Rohin. Hence, the name of Rohingya.

So, compelling Burma to recognize the word Rohingya tantamount to enforcing as the most sinister form of religion-cultural imperialism on a small independent nation which is bound to be resisted by every person residing in Burma, Why the tyranny of the majority?

Genocide of the Arakanese Buddhist

With the fall of Singapore in 1942, the British withdrew to India and organized all these Kales in Burma to fight the Japanese, (the Burmese were allied with the Japanese, just to gain independence from Britain).

However these Arakanese Kales taking advantage turned their guns on the locals, not only exterminating everyone, including women and children but also destroying their religious edifies, digging up Pagodas and religious shrines, only very few Arakanese managed to escape to India or to other parts of Abakan.

In Maungdaw townships alone they exterminated more than 30,000 known as Maungdaw Massacre, which were still remembered and clearly written in Burmese which can still be seen in the archives of Rangoon. Obviously, all the locals Arakanese deeply hated these Kales compelling the world to be perplexed or comprehend the raisons d’être of the hatred.

Chunk of the Motherland.

After World War II, at the prospect of Burma gaining independence (1947) these Kalar, now calling themselves as Mujtahids (meaning founder and defender of Islamic law) unable to reconcile residing under the infidels, led by its political party Jami-atoll Lemma-e Islam went over to Muhammad Ali Jinnah (founder of Pakistan) to take these three Arakanese townships of Buthidaung Maungdaw and Rathedaung which they renamed as Dar al-Islam (meaning the region under Muslim sovereignty where the Islamic law prevails), into the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh),

Similar to what, Congressman Bradley Sherman, chairman of the Sub-committee on Asia Pacific, proposed. Rebuffed, these Mujahids fought the newly Independent Union of Burma under the civilian government of U Nu, who had no choice but to send his able commander General Smith Dun (at that time there was no Ne Win nor the now existing racist Myanmar Tatmadaw). These Mujahids were beaten and its leaders ran away to East Pakistan promising that they or their ancestors will never speak Burmese. So, when the incumbent Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasinavisited the Rohingya refugees she can speak in Bangali but when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visited them she has to call the interpreter.

Bangladesh Liberation War

In 1971 Muktijuddho war when the West Pakistani Pahtans army launched an all-out war on the Bengali dominated East Pakistan, more than 10 million of Bengali crossed into Burma as refugees. But when the war was over not all of them went back. Seeing, that the inhabitants speak the same language adhering to the Bengali customs and having a fertile soil about half a million opted to remain in these three townships, so much so that Bangladesh ambassador has to admit to the British ambassador as seen in the London archives.

Burmese Socialist Programme Party

The late General Ne Win abhorred the word Burmese Junta” refer by the international media and started creating his proxy the Burmese Socialist Programme Party asking all the people to write political proposal to him. All the people responded except the Rohingya who called a conference of its own in the Burma-Bangladesh border, with the aim of another Dar al-Islam. To this Ne Win replied with Operation Dragon King” driving out the first batch of Rohingya, but later as the UN intervened, they were accepted back, but it was discovered that more came in, then went out because e.g. A Rohingya youth ran away to Bangladesh, but when he was repatriated back he came in with 30 or more people because he already had four wives (Muslims can marry four wives) and each wife was a widow with five to six children of the previous marriage. This is galling to the locals.

The Most Persecuted People of the World.

In the Bangladesh Liberation War of the 70s, these Rohingya sided with the Pakistan army of Phatans acting as scouts and spies and so when the War of liberation was over they were hated by the local Bengali and naturally Bangladesh or India nor the Arab world. It is the brain child of Bengali Diaspora residing in West.

Are they one of Burma’s ethnic nationalities?

In the 72 years (1948-2020) existence of the Union of Burma, every non-Myanmar ethnic rebelled against the central government but none of them attempted to take the chunk of the motherland to join a foreign country. Furthermore in 1976 the opposition of all the non-Myanmar ethnic group was formed at Manerplaw known as the National Democratic Front, but Rohingya refused to take part. Even when the ethnic cleansing became more intensified after the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, many of the Burmese Muslims were persecuted and fled to the Thailand-Burma border area.

Human Rights Watch reported that a disproportionately high number of Muslims joined ethnic Karen because the Burmese army had destroyed their mosques and schools while ordering them to convert to Buddhism or leave the country.” Hence the All Burma Muslim Union was formed and fought side by side with the Karen known as K’Nyaw Thoo” and yet not a single Rohingya took part. If these are the facts and figures perhaps, I am insane to hear the call, that these Bengali Kalas insisting to be a bona fide citizens of Burma with equal rights.

Evil Genius

In this crisis the marauding Myanmar army (Tatmadaw) were caught red handed, because the Rohingyas ran away under the glare of the news media proving true to the Burmese omen of when Bama shout nobody hears but when Kalar shout everybody hears.” Lamentably, the international world was unable to comprehend that Burma’s 2008 Nargis Constitution that sets apart the army from, the civilian administration, and instead blamed the civilian government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The serpentine brood of Generals has clearly outwitted the international community driving the country into the arms of China, whose head just visited the country bringing in the year of the Rat infested with Wuhan virus (coronavirus) and raking away 33 projects for easy access to the Indian Ocean avoiding the Malacca strait.

Crux of the Problem

If the ICJ is not cockeye and view, that Burma is a fragile state, where power is control by the men in green, the UN solemn oath of never again” should be better served and improves the ICJ record of one out of eleven cases comply with its measures. Now it seems, that any large-scale repatriation of Rohingya is out of question. The simple logic of Demography seems to be missing when Bangladesh population is 165 million (8th largest in the world) residing in an area of only 147 thousand square miles can easily march into Burma, which has a population of only 55 million and an area of 676 sq. kilometres.

This is what every people in Burma is afraid of. As for the IOC we pray that it would be a real champion of the Muslims instead of the Organization of Interference in the internal affairs of other Countries to prevent the ever-rising Islamophobia.

Kanbawza Win, former Foreign Affairs Secretary to the Prime Minister of the then Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma is now a permanent Burmese exile.

– Asian Tribune –

උපුටා ගැන්ම –මට කියලදෙන්න ප්‍රවෘති-

රුහුණ විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ මේ වන විට පවතින අර්බුදකාරී වාතාවරණය විසඳා ගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් ඉදිරිපත් වූ සිසුන් පිරිසකට අමාත්‍ය විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා මැදිහත් වී විසඳුම් ලබා දී ඇති බව වාර්තා වේ. කළමනාකරණ පීඨයේ සිසුන් නව දෙනෙකුට ජීවිතාන්තය දක්වා ලබාදී තිබූ පන්ති තහනම් ඉවත්කිරීම පිළිබඳව මෙම සාකච්ඡුා පැවති අතර ඒ අනුව එහිදී කරගන්නා ලද එකඟතා අනුව මෙම පන්ති තහනම් ඉවත් කිරීමට ඉදිරියේදී කටයුතු සිදුවනු ඇත.
සිසුන් විසින් මෙතෙක් සරසවිය තුල සිදුකළ නවකවදය හා වෙනත් වැරදි වෙනුවෙන් සිය කණගාටුව ප‍්‍රකාශ කරන අතරම මින් පසු ආණ්ඩුවේ නවකවදය නැවැත්වීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළ වෙනුවෙන් උපරිම දායකත්වය ලබාදීමටද අදහස් පලකර තිබේ. ඒ අනුව මෙම පෙබරවාරි මස මැදදී පත්වන නව ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමය නවකවද විරෝධී ආණ්ඩුවේ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය වෙනුවෙන් කටයුතු කරන බවත් එහි දේශපාලන අතපෙවීම් වැනි සිදුවීම් සඳහා ඉඩක් නොදෙන බවත් අමාත්‍යවරයා හමුවේ සිසුන් අවධාරණය කර තිබුණි.

තවද වීරවංශ අමාත්‍යවරයාගේ මගපෙන්වීම යටතේ කළමනාකරණ පීඨය විසින් ඉදිරියේදී වැඩසටහන් කිහිපයක් සංවිධානය කිරීමටද කටයුතු යොදා ඇති බවටද සඳහන් වේ.

වාර කිහිපයකදීම පැවති මෙම සාකච්ඡුාවල අවසන් සාකච්ඡුාව ජනවාරි මස පළමුවන දින පැවැත්විණි. මේ සඳහා සම්බන්ධීකරණය රුහුුණ කළමනාකරණ පීඨයේ ආදි සිසුවකු වූ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී නිරෝෂන් පේ‍්‍රමරත්න මහතා විසින් සිදුකර තිබේ තවද ඒ සඳහා අමාත්‍ය බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා ද කිහිපවිටක් සම්බන්ධ විය. සිසුන්ගේ පාර්ශවයෙන් මේ සදහා සුදර්ශන බණ්ඩාර, ලහිරු මධුසංඛ හා සංජීව ගයාන් යන ශිෂ්‍ය නියෝජිතයන් ඇතුළු තවත් කිහිදෙනෙකු සම්බන්ධ වී තිබුණි.

By Craig Welch Courtesy National Geographic

Scientists have found large natural stores of the toxin in the Arctic. It’s not clear how much will get into food webs as the planet warms.

Scientists have uncovered another hidden threat buried in the icy frozen north—massive natural reserves of mercury, a toxic heavy metal that in some forms can build up in fish and other animals and cause serious health problems in humans.

A study published Monday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters reports that the amount of natural mercury bound up in Arctic permafrost may be 10 times greater than all the mercury humans have pumped into the atmosphere from coal-burning and other pollution sources over the last 30 years. As climate change warms the land, this thawing permafrost could release significant quantities of mercury back into the environment, potentially allowing far more of the pollutant to build up in the atmosphere and the food web.

“Prior to the start of the study, people assumed permafrost contained little to no mercury,” says study co-author Kevin Schaefer of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. “But it turns out that not only is there mercury in permafrost, it’s also the biggest pool of mercury on the planet.”

Put another way, says lead author Paul Schuster, a U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist, “This is a complete game-changer for mercury. It’s a natural source, but some of it will be released through what we’re doing with climate change.”

What’s not yet clear, however, is how much mercury could be released, or when, in a form that is toxic to humans.

A Natural Poison

Mercury is found naturally in the environment and is released by forest fires, volcanic eruptions, and the weathering of rock. But roughly two-thirds of the mercury in the air at any one time is released by humans, primarily through the burning of coal or medical waste or some types of mining. Once airborne, mercury eventually falls back to Earth, winding up in water or on land. There it’s picked up by fish and animals, accumulating in ever-higher amounts as it works its way up the food web. Today’sPopular Stories

In some forms, mercury is a powerful neurotoxin, and in children it can harm brain development, affecting cognition, memory, language and even motor and visual skills. Even in adults, excessive amounts can hamper vision, speech and muscle movements, compromise the reproductive and immune systems, and cause cardiovascular problems. That’s why there are often fish advisories for mercury near polluted rivers and streams, and why children and pregnant women are urged to avoid eating tuna or other long-lived fish such as swordfish.

Thanks to complex atmospheric and ocean processes, more mercury winds up in the high northern latitudes than anywhere else. It’s already known to build up there in birds, fish, seals, walrus, polar bears and some whales, even in areas thousands of miles from pollution sources. As a result of this long-distance pollution, indigenous people across the Arctic who rely on subsistence hunting for food have some of the highest levels of mercury in their blood.

The same winds and currents that send mercury north today have been at work for tens of thousands of years, depositing natural mercury in high concentrations across the Arctic. Since that mercury has been trapped in frozen ground for millennia, it hasn’t done damage to wildlife or humans. But now Arctic permafrost, which accounts for 24 percent of all land in the Northern Hemisphere, is thawing and threatening to release this massive store. And, until recently, we didn’t have any idea how much was there.

A Decade-long Study

At USGS Schuster has been studying mercury in the atmosphere for several decades. In the 1990s he collected ice core samples from a glacier in Wyoming’s Wind River Range and developed a record of mercury deposition dating back to before the Industrial Revolution. That work, he says, eventually played a role in convincing federal regulators that human sources of mercury had risen so much that that the U.S. should start requiring coal-burning facilities to use scrubbers to cut mercury from their emissions.

Eventually, Schuster found his way to Alaska’s Yukon River basin and realized that no one had ever attempted to quantify how much mercury might be stored in permafrost. In fact, not every expert was convinced there would be much there at all.

Between 2004 and 2012, Schuster and his team collected more than 13 ice core samples from around Alaska. They chose their sites—and spent years perfecting models—in such a way that the results from Alaska could be extrapolated to permafrost all over the Arctic.

The results show that Arctic permafrost holds roughly 15 million gallons of mercury—at least twice the amount contained in the oceans, atmosphere and all other land combined. “The concentrations were huge—a lot higher than we expected them to be,” Schuster says. “That was a big surprise.”

The big question is: What’s going to happen to that mercury?

It’s unlikely that all of it will stay sequestered in permafrost. Once the ground begins to thaw, plants will grow in it, taking up mercury, and the microbes that decompose the plants will release some amount of methylmercury, a more toxic form. Some portion of that will spread through water or air into the ecosystem and eventually into animals.

“That’s the vector, the avenue into the food chain,” Schuster says.

How Much Gets Into Food?

But determining how significant a risk that will pose is a challenge.

First off, how much temperatures warm depends on how quickly—or not—humans limit emissions of greenhouse gases. That will determine how much permafrost thaws, which will influence how much mercury gets released. But even that is only part of the equation.

“How much winds up in the food web, and where? That’s the $100,000 question,” Schuster says. “When you jump over to the food chain in this research, things get gray.”

Mercury releases initially would pose increased risks to Arctic people and wildlife, “but what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic,” Schaefer says. “Eventually it would be dispersed throughout the Earth. It moves around.”

The bottom line is there will almost certainly be some impact to humans.

“We know permafrost is going to thaw and we know some portion of the mercury will be released,” Schaefer says. “At this point we don’t have specific estimates about how much or when—that’s the next phase of our research.”

CDC, America’s front line public health agency, has partnered with Manipal Centre for Virus Research (MCVR) to carry out illness surveillance across India.Hindustan Times, New Delhi

India has asked the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop funding research in India without government approval after the agency appeared to have helped an under-qualified Indian laboratory to work on the Nipah virus, a pathogen that is considered a potential bio-weapon, according to officials and government documents accessed by HT.

CDC, America’s front line public health agency, has partnered with Manipal Centre for Virus Research (MCVR) to carry out illness surveillance across India, and government officials who asked not to be named said the agency seems to have helped MCVR study the Nipah virus, a pathogen that belongs to Risk Group 4 (RG4) classification.

RG4 viruses are considered lethal and their handling is heavily controlled since they can be turned into biological weapons, requiring labs that have biological safety level 4 (BSL4) certification to study it. MCVR does not meet the criteria.

MCVR carried out tests on the Nipah virus of which there was an outbreak in Kerala in 2018 and 2019, said one of the government officials cited above, asking not to be named.

Our apprehension is that the lab was being used to map the Nipah virus, which can be used to develop a vaccine, the intellectual property right of which will not be with India. Importantly, understanding how the human body reacted to the virus will also produce a more virulent form of virus for biological warfare,” said a second government official who did not want to be named.

To be sure, MCVR was designated by the government of Kerala as one of the testing agencies for the Nipah virus during the outbreak.

The concern at present, the two officials cited above said, were related to more detailed studies of the virus and of funding that was not approved by the government.

The government has now asked both agencies to stop the disease surveillance project – technically called AFI surveillance that tracks mystery diseases in key government hospitals – and for MCVR to store only BSL-2 grade pathogen. It has also asked CDC to comply with Indian rules and ensure all funding has been approved by the government.

The ministry has taken serious view of in the entire matter, MCVR (Manipal Centre for Virus Research) directed [to store] samples of pathogens specific to BSL-2 facilities only and should immediately stop AFI surveillance undertaken by it in other states also,” said an internal government memo titled Unapproved, US-funded Indian Laboratory stored samples of Nipah Virus – a bioterrorism agent”. The memo was reviewed by Hindustan Times.

According to the first official, the action came after the coronavirus outbreak triggered a review of all research into biological weapons grade pathogens in India. Researches without prior approval have sent alarm bells across the government, the first official added.

The memo quoted above also adds that the foreigners division of the home ministry is inquiring into how CDC and MCVR were working on the virus. All foreign funding needs to be cleared by MHA. The memo adds that while the health ministry has no specific comments” on the nature of action that MHA should take under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act

2010, but — considering the seriousness of the matter” – it said MHA may take action as seen appropriate”.

Home ministry officials did not respond to queries on what action was being contemplated.

In a separate communication to CDC, also accessed by HT, the health ministry said: It has been brought to this ministry’s notice that CDC has trained MCVR for diagnosis of Nipah virus disease in spite of the known fact that Nipah virus is BSL-4 level pathogen whereas MCVR is a BSL 2+ laboratory. Prior to this training to MCVR, CDC had not consulted any government agency as per norm.”

The note added: Since Nipah is a high-risk pathogen with a potential of being used as Agent of bio-terrorism the samples were to be handled more carefully and tested in a BSL-IV laboratory and not in MCVR… The lapse on part of MCVR in handling Nipah virus samples with active support from CDC has been viewed separately by the ministry of health and family welfare … Therefore, CDC is advised to stop all funding of MCVR/Manipal University …Similarly, funding for any other research activity in the country that is not approved by the ICMR should be stopped immediately.”

CDC country director, Dr Meghna Desai, said that the agency did not commission research on Nipah in India, and that the project was part of a multi-nation partnership. Through the Global Health Security Agenda, we provided training to strengthen laboratory systems in India which allowed for detection of Nipah virus,” she said.

Replying to whether CDC has been asked to stop all funding of ongoing research not been cleared by ICMR, Dr Desai said: CDC works closely with the ministry of health and family welfare and the Indian Council of Medical Research on projects that help address Government of India priorities in public health. CDC will continue to work with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.”

MCVR denied that it had carried out research into the virus, saying it had carried out detection tests when the outbreak took place and had been asked by the health ministry to stop doing so when the outbreak was deemed over in 2018.

No virus isolation was done at MIV (Manipal Institute of Virology). Samples were sent to ICMR-NIV Pune for virus isolation work at their BSL-4 laboratory. We have observed/implemented all safety precautions while processing the samples,” said a statement from the office of the Vice Chancellor of Manipal University.

The university said that its work related to risky viruses conform to World Health Organization diagnostic protocols, which includes the pathogens being inactivated by lysis buffer” before being processed.

Experts said that labs with BSL-3 rating can carry out some tests but not advanced studies. A biosafety level-3 (BSL 3) lab is good enough for conducting polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that is used to know the genetic material of a microorganism. Advance research such as virus isolation from living cells needs more advanced BSL-4 laboratory,” said Dr Shobha Broor, professor, department of microbiology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi.

(With inputs from Rhythma Kaul)

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකාසීනිවුස්

පසුගිය යහපාලනය රජය විසින් මැතිඇමැතිවරුන් සඳහා පමණක් වාහන ගෙන්වීමට රුපියල් බිලියන 28 ක මුදලක් වැය කර ඇති බව ඊයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී හෙළි විය.

ඇමැති ජොන්ස්ටන් ප්‍රනාන්දු මහතා විසින් සභාගත කරන ද පිළිතුරක මෙම තොරතුරු දීර්ඝ තොරතුරු දැක්වෙයි.

එමගින් වැඩිම මුදලක් වෙන්කර ඇත්තේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලෙස කටයුතු කළ මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා වෙනුවෙන් වාහන ගැනීමටයි.

ඔහු ගෙන්වා ඇති වාහන ගණන 09ක් වන අතර එ් සදහා වැය කර ඇති මුදල ලක්ෂ 3,289කි.

මේ අතර ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතාගේ හිටපු සම්බන්ධීකරණ ලේකම් වරයෙකු වන ඔ්ෂල හේරත් විසින් තම ෆේස්බුක් ගිණුමේ සටහන් කර ඇත්තේ එම වාහන වලින් හිටපු ජනපති දියණිය චතුරිකා ලෙක්සස් වර්ගයේ මෝටර් රථයද, පුත් දහම් සිරිසේන වෙනුවෙන් BMW x5 වර්ගයේදී ජීප් රථද ගෙන්වා ඇති බවයි

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකාසීනිවුස්

යහපාලන රජය සමයේ මැති ඇමතිවරුන් සඳහා ගෙන්වන ලද වාහන ප්‍රමාණය ගැන හෙළි වීමෙන් පසුව එකල ආණ්ඩුවේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ හා ජනමාධ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් ලෙස කටයුතු කළ නිමල් බෝපගේ මහතා විසින් ශේෂ හෙළිදරව්වක් කර ඇත.

නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් ඔහු සඳහන් කරන්නේ වාහන ලබා වාහන ගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් වූ යෝජනාවකට තමන් විරෝධය පළ කළ විට එකල අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා තමන්ට තර්ජණය කළ බවයි.

මේ බව සඳහන් කරමින් ඔවුන් විසින් නිකුත් කර ඇති සම්පූර්ණ නිවේදනය මෙසේය.

යහපාලන” ආණ්ඩුවේ වාහන මිල දී ගැනීමේ ක‍්‍රියාවලිය පිළිබඳ විශේෂ හෙළිදරව්ව

රුපියල් බිලියන 2.8ක් හෙවත් රුපියල් කෝටි 280ක වටිනාකමින් යුත් අධිසුඛෝපභෝගී වාහන 78ක් පසුගිය යහපාලන” ආණ්ඩුවේ කැබිනට්/රාජ්‍ය/නියෝජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරුන් වෙනුවෙන් මිල දී ගෙන ඇති බව ඊයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ දී අනාවරණය වූ අතර එය මේ වන විට ඉමහත් ආන්දෝලනයකට ලක්වෙමින් තිබේ. එහෙත් එම අනාවරණයේම දිගුවක් ලෙස ඔවුන්ගේ විශේෂ අවධානයට ලක්විය යුතුව තිබූ එවැනිම සුවිශේෂ කරුණක් ඒ මොහොතේ ඔවුන්ට මගහැරුණු බැවින් ඒ පිළිබඳව ඔවුන්ගේ ද සමස්ත රටවැසියන්ගේ ද අවධානයට යොමු කරවීම සඳහා මෙම විශේෂ මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය නිකුත් කරමි.

එනම් 2016 වසර අගභාගයේ ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂය නියෝජනය කළ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන් 58 දෙනෙකුට ඉහත ආකාරයේ අධිසුඛෝපභෝගී වාහන 58ක් පෞද්ගලික සමාගමක් මගින් මාසික කුලියට ලබාදීම සඳහා කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය අනුමත කළ ගණුදෙනුවේ වටිනාකම ද රුපියල් බිලියන 2.43ක් හෙවත් රුපියල් කෝටි 243ක් විය. එහෙත් එම ගණුදෙනුවට අදාළ විෂයභාර අමාත්‍යංශය වූ පාර්ලිමේන්තු ප‍්‍රතිසංස්කරණ හා ජනමාධ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශයේ ලේකම්වරයා වශයෙන් ආරම්භයේ සිටම මා ඊට විරුද්ධ විය. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිමය කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් කැබිනට් තීරණයකට විරුද්ධ වීමට අමාත්‍යංශ ලේකම්වරයෙකුට නෛතික බලයක් නොමැති වුවද එම ගණුදෙනුව ආරම්භයේ සිටම මට නිරීක්ෂණය වූ අතිශය දූෂිත අරමුණ හා ක‍්‍රමවේදය මා දැඩිව ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කළ අතර එය ප‍්‍රසම්පාදන ක‍්‍රියාවලියටද සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම පටහැනිවූ බැවින් එකී පදනම  ඔස්සේ මා ඊට විරුද්ධ විය.

එහෙත් මාගේ එම විරෝධතාවය නොතකා කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය එය අනුමත කළ අතර එම වාහන සපයන පෞද්ගලික සමාගම සමග අදාළ ගිවිසුමට අත්සන් කිරීමේ වගකීම මා වෙත පවරා තිබිණි. ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ආණ්ඩුවේ සහ මුදල් අමාත්‍යංශ ලේකම්වරයාගේ තර්කය වූයේ කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය අනුමත කළ කරුණක් ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීමට අමාත්‍යංශ ලේකම්වරයෙකුට නෛතික බලයක් නොමැති බැවින් විෂයභාර අමාත්‍යංශයේ ලේකම්වරයා වශයෙන් මා ඊට වහා අත්සන් තැබිය යුතු බවයි. එහෙත් ආකාර පහකින්ම එම ගණුදෙනුව නීතියට පටහැනි බව පෙන්වා දෙමින් දිගින් දිගටම මා ඊට අත්සන් තැබීම ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කරමින් සිටි තත්වයක් තුළ හිටපු අග‍්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයාගෙන් සහ හිටපු මුදල් අමාත්‍යවරයාගෙන් මා වෙත එල්ල වූ බරපතල පීඩනය කොතෙක් දරාගත නොහැකි වුවද මා එම ස්ථාවරය වෙනස් කළේ නැත.

අවසානයේ හිටපු අගමැතිවරයාගේ ප‍්‍රධානත්වයෙන් එවකට ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වූ ආර්ථික හා කළමණාකරණ කැබිනට් කමිටුව” වෙත මා කැඳවා  Sign or Resign” යනුවෙන් හිටපු අගමැතිවරයා විසින් ප‍්‍රසිද්ධියේම මා හට තර්ජනය කරනු ලැබීය. කෙසේ වුවද එම තර්ජනයට ද මා කීකරු නොවූ අතර එවකට ඒ පිළිබඳව මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ ලැබුණු පුළුල් ප‍්‍රචාරය හමුවේ යහපාලන” ආණ්ඩුවේ පිරිහීම ආරම්භ වූ බැවින් හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් එම ගණුදෙනුව යළි සමාලෝචනය කිරීම සඳහා සිව්පුද්ගල කමිටුවක් පත් කොට එතෙක් එය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම අත්හිටවනු ලැබීය. එහෙත් ඒ වන විට විපක්ෂ මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන්ද, පෞද්ගලික මාධ්‍ය හා සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ද ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් සෘජුව පෙනීසිටිම හේතුවෙන්  ආණ්ඩුවට එරෙහිව නැගී ආ බරපතළ මහජන විරෝධය හමුවේ එම ව්‍යාපෘතිය ක‍්‍රියත්මක කිරීමට නොහැකි වූ අතර එමගින් රුපියල් කෝටි 243ක් ඉතිරි කරගැනීමට හැකිවිය. එහෙත් ඒ සමගම මා එම තනතුරෙන් ඉවත් කිරීම සඳහා මුදල් අමාත්‍යංශය හා ජනමාධ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශය ඒකාබද්ධ කරමින් නව අමාත්‍යංශයක් නිර්මාණය කොට හිටපු මුදල් අමාත්‍යංශ ලේකම්වරයා එම නව අමාත්‍යංශයේ ලේකම්වරයා ලෙස පත්කරමින් නීති විරෝධීව මාගේ තනතුර අහිමි කරනු ලැබීය. එහිදී මගේ තනතුර අහිමි වුවද රුපියල් කෝටි 243ක් රටට ඉතිරි කරදීමට මට හැකිවිය.

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් නව ජනාධිපතිවරයා බලයට පත් වූ සැණින් නව රජයේ ජනාධිපති ලේකම්වරයාටද එම තොරතුරු ලබා දීමට මා ක්‍රියාකළ අතර මේ කරුණ සම්බන්ධයෙන් හා පසුගිය යහපාලන” ආණ්ඩුව සමයේ රජයට වාහන මිල දී ගැනීමේ දී භාවිතා කළ මෙහෙයුම් කල්බදු ක‍්‍රමය” ආශ‍්‍රිතව සිදුකළ වාහන මිල දී ගැනීම් පිළිබඳවද විශේෂ පරීක්ෂණයක් සිදුකිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවයද අවධාරණය කරමි.

නීතිඥ නිමල් බෝපගේ
හිටපු ලේකම්
පාර්ලිමේන්තු ප‍්‍රතිසංස්කරණ හා ජනමාධ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශය

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

However, it is unlikely that either party will let the Tamil issue affect cooperation in other areas such as economic development and security.

New Delhi, February 8 (newsin.asia): In his media statement after talks with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa here on Saturday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he is confident that the Sri Lankan government will realize the expectations of equality, justice, peace and respect of the Tamil people within a united Sri Lanka.”

But the Lankan Prime Minister did not mention the Tamil question in his media statement. Instead, he spoke of bilateral cooperation in economic, educational and skills development, and defense and intelligence gathering.

The two Prime Ministers deliberated on the entire range of bilateral ties and resolved to further deepen anti-terror cooperation and boost trade and investment.

Stability, security and prosperity in Sri Lanka is in India’s interest, but also in the interest of the entire Indian Ocean Region,” Modi said. India has been a trusted partner” in Sri Lanka’s development and will continue to assist the country in its journey towards peace and development, he added.

Referring to the fishermen issue, Modi said both sides have decided to adopt a humanitarian approach” in dealing with it.

We have decided to deepen cooperation to combat terrorism,” Modi stressed.

In his statement, Mahinda Rajapaksa said: Prime Minister Modi and I discussed several important issues this morning. Our discussions were premised on the outcome of the discussions that Prime Minister Modi held with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa during his very successful State visit to India in November of last year.”

I want to thank Prime Minister Modi for his government’s Neighborhood First policy and the priority that he attaches to relations with Sri Lanka. We agreed that our cooperation is multi-faceted, with priority given to a number of areas, including security, economic, cultural and social sectors.”

Security/Terrorism

A part of our discussions centred on co-operation in regard to the security of our two countries. India has always assisted Sri Lanka to enhance its capabilities in intelligence and counter-terrorism, and we look forward to continued support in this regard,” Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

I would like to reiterate what President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said during his State visit that since our recent experience in April last year, we have had to re-think our national security strategies and assistance from India in this regard would be much appreciated. I thanked Prime Minister Modi for visiting Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. That visit provided us with immense strength to come to terms with the tragedy.”

I also appreciate Prime Minister Modi’s offer of 400 million dollars as a credit line to enhance the economy of Sri Lanka and another 50 million dollar credit line for our efforts in combating terrorism. We discussed how to follow-up on these offers that were made during President Rajapaksa’s visit in November.”

Another topic of our discussion was the progress of ongoing projects that are being implemented in Sri Lanka with Indian assistance, including housing and community-related projects. I requested Prime Minister Modi to consider further assistance to expand the housing project to all parts of the island. Doing so will provide significant benefits to many Sri Lankans living in rural parts of the country.”

Prime Minister Modi and I also discussed how Sri Lanka and India could work together in economically important matters. As India emerges to be among the world’s growing economies, I discussed with the Prime Minister how Sri Lanka could benefit out of certain economic sectors where India is strongly positioned. I requested for India’s assistance in skills development and capacity building of the civil services.”

Before I conclude, I would like to reiterated our invitation to Prime Minister Modi to visit Sri Lanka in the near future. We in Sri Lanka are looking forward to that visit.”

I am indeed happy to be here because India is our closest neighbor as well as our long-standing friend. The links of history, religion and culture between Sri Lanka and India, which date back more than two millennia, provide a solid foundation for our partnership.”

Finally, I want to express my deepest appreciation to Prime Minister Modi and the Government of India for the outstanding arrangements and gracious hospitality accorded to me and my delegation during this State Visit.”

Jaishankar-Mahinda Talks

India’s Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar called on the Lankan Prime Minister on Saturday morning. At the meeting Jaishankar said: Your visit is a very important opportunity for us to set the course for the next five years.”

The Indian and Sri Lankan delegations discussed the status of ongoing projects in Sri Lanka that are being implemented with Indian assistance. The two sides agreed to expedite a number of projects that have not seen much progress in the past few years.

There is a lot of interest in Sri Lanka in areas like tourism, Minister Jaishankar pointed out and suggested that Sri Lanka should soon send to India a team to market Sri Lanka” as a tourist destination.

Sri Lanka receives the largest number of tourists from India. In 2018, tourist arrivals from India amounted to 424,887. This reduced in 2019 as a result of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks.

Minister Jaishankar further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka shortly after the Easter attacks in 2019 was very intentional”. It was meant to send a message to India and the world that Sri Lanka is safe. Prime Minister Modi was the first world leader to visit Sri Lanka after the Easter attacks.

Prime Minister Rajapaksa briefed the Indian Foreign Minister on the new island-wide housing project that was initiated recently and invited India to consider providing assistance similar to the previous housing projects they have helped fund.

The two delegations also discussed the long-standing concerns of the fishing communities of both countries. Agreeing that this is a problem that benefits neither side, both countries agreed to work more closely together to find a practical solution in a way that benefits all affected fishing communities.

Later in the evening the Lankan Prime Minister called on the Indian President Ramnath Kovind.

Prime Minister Rajapaksa arrived in New Delhi on Friday on a five-day visit, his first overseas tour after being appointed Prime Minister in November last year. He was given an exceptionally warm welcome in New Delhi with gigantic hoardings with his picture and welcome messages in English and Sinhala dotting the road to the city. A troupe of dancers performed for the Prime Minister on his arrival at the airport.

Since Hinduism and Buddhism are both a binding force between India and Sri Lanka, the Lankan Prime Minister will be visiting the Vishwanath temple and the place where the Buddha gave his first sermon, in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. He will also visit Bodh Gaya in Bihar, where the Buddha attained enlightenment; and the shrine for Lord Venkateswara in Tirupathi, in Andhra Pradesh.

Rajapaksa’s visit to New Delhi assumes significance as his second tenure as Lankan President from 2010 to 2014 saw an expansion of China’s footprint in Sri Lanka, raising hackles in India. Following his defeat in the January 2015 Presidential election, Rajapaksa became cold towards India, until Prime Minister Modi visited Sri Lanka. During that visit, a line of communication between India and Rajapaksa was re-established.

However, India did not back Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa when the latter stood for the office of Lankan President in November 2019. New Delhi backed the United National Front (UNF) candidate Sajith Premadasa as the latte was thought to be pro-India and Gotabaya to be pro-China.

However, when Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the election convincingly, India swiftly moved to own him. Indian Foreign Minister S.Jaishankar flew to Colombo and met Gotabaya Rajapaksa and invited him to New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Modi and got him to agree to a specific date for the visit.

The meeting was a resounding success as the two leaders struck rapport. The only issue that divided them was the Lankan Tamil question. Like his younger brother and Prime Minister Mahinda, Gotabaya did not mention reconciliation” with the Tamils in his media statement, while Modi did.

However, it is likely that neither party will let the Tamil issue affect cooperation in other areas such as economic development, and defense and security issues which are of greater importance to India. These are also issues on which Sri Lanka is willing to cooperate with India.

India followed up Gotabaya’s visit with a visit of the Lankan Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena who discussed Indian aid for skills and entrepreneurial development as he is Sri Lanka’s Skills and Entrepreneurial Development Minister also.

Ties between the two countries strengthened by the Lankan leaders’visits to Delhi will be further cemented by Modi’ visit to Sri Lanka which is bound to take place given the Indian Prime Minister’s fondness for travelling to reach out to world leaders.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

New Delhi, February 8 (The Hindu): Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told The Hindu’s Suhasini Haider in New Delhi that the problem of debt repayment is worrying and that it would be helpful if lenders, led by India, could give a three-year moratorium on repayment.

The visiting Lankan PM also said that his government will not implement the 2017 MoUs with India on projects inked by the previous government as these are not his government’s projects and that the Mattala airport, like other national assets, will not be given away to any other country.

On political issues he said that the 19^th.Amendment which created confusion in the distribution of power will have to be repealed and that any discussion on devolution of power to the provinces to meet the Tamils’ demand can take place only after an election to the Northern and Eastern provincial councils throws up a leadership with which the government can talk.

Here are excerpts from an interview given by Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to Suhasini Haider of The Hindu

SH: You have had discussions at some length with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but no agreements were announced, especially on the $400-million Line of Credit offered by India for infrastructure. Tell us about the talks.

MR.We did speak about several agreements and we have agreed to some of the projects that [the Indian side] were interested in. It was a fruitful and successful meet, for both sides, I would say. The housing project is something that is a priority area for us, and we asked for more funding for that. We have a new initiative, to cover the whole country, every village, and we should like to get some support for that. Apart from housing, there were several projects we discussed.

SH: In April 2017, the previous Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had also signed a MoU on economic cooperation for infrastructure projects, including energy and oil projects in Trincomalee that India has been keen on. Were those discussed?

MR.We didn’t discuss the Trinco projects, but we did talks about the Eastern Terminal [in Colombo] which India and Japan are jointly investing in, and the LNG terminal. Whatever was signed [in 2017] was not even pursued by the last government. President [MRS Sirisena] actually rejected all the projects PM [Wickremesinghe] had signed. We are not responsible for those projects. The Mattala [airport] project is also out. Our government has a firm policy on not allowing any national resources to be given to foreign control.

SH: An additional $50 million from the LOC have been earmarked for security cooperation, especially after the Easter Sunday bombings last year. What was decided about that?

MR: We have decided that we must have more intelligence sharing now, and increase the technical assistance [from India], as well as training. On the Easter bombings, we have an ongoing investigation into the conspiracy, and a commission is looking into it. We hope that India will continue to help us on that. In addition, we want to continue our earlier [pre-2015] project for trilateral terror and security cooperation between Maldives-India- Sri Lanka. We might have the meeting for that as soon as possible, possibly in the Maldives and discuss how to take the trilateral idea forward.

SH: Your defense secretary has also spoken of security and intelligence sharing Pakistan. Won’t the balance prove difficult, given India’s concerns about terror emanating from Pakistan, which has also held up the SAARC process?

MR: Yes, but we are friendly countries and we have friendly ties with all countries in the region. We are friendly with China too. But the Indian relationship is much stronger and very important for us. I couldn’t discuss the SAARC process with [PM Modi], as I know that India is not very interested in the summit, especially since the next meeting is due to be held in Pakistan. I do believe that we have already gone a considerable distance with building SAARC and that should be continued. Now there is also the BIMSTEC grouping.

SH: Both PM Modi here and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, when he visited Colombo, have made a point to convey their concerns for the Tamil population in Sri Lanka, and the expectations India has from your government. How do you respond?

MR: We have always understood these concerns. Soon after the war ended [in 2009], we had elections, and we allowed the North to select their own Chief Minister. We held those elections despite knowing we would lose them. But nothing moved after that. We are now expecting to hold our parliamentary elections this April, and after that the provincial council elections. We will appoint a team to go to Jaffna to discuss the way forward.

SH:The way forward on devolution of powers, as was promised in the 13th amendment?

MR: Well, it all has to be discussed. We want to go forward, but we need to have someone to discuss, who can take responsibility for the [Tamil] areas. So the best thing is to hold elections, and then ask for their representatives to come and discuss the future with us. At the moment the TNA (Tamil National Alliance) is not interested in talks. They are asking for things, which the majority community in Sri Lanka will not accept.

SH: President Gotabaya has prioritized development over devolution as the way forward. Is there a difference between your positions?

MR: No, no. People need development. They have suffered for 30 years without it. So first they have to develop the area.

SH: There has been a controversy over the decision to drop the National Anthem in Tamil during Sri Lanka’s national day ceremony. How can you reassure Tamils if this is the signal sent out?

MR: But if you look around the world, the national anthem is sung primarily in one language. In India, you have so many languages, yet on your national days, you sing it one language. Our structure is the same. When I go to Jaffna, to a Tamil school, they sing the anthem in Tamil. We have no objection if people want to sing it in their way. Some political figures are raising this issue; the general public is not interested in this issue.

SH: Your biggest challenge this year will be servicing the domestic and foreign debt, which totals about US$ 60 billion. How do you plan to deal with this issue?

MR: Yes, it is a worry. This is something we discussed with the Indian government as well, and have asked if we could get a moratorium on all loan repayments for three years, until we can revive the economy. If the Indian government takes this step, then other governments might agree to do the same thing, including China. The previous government took so many loans, they beggared the economy, and it is a mess. It all depends on the stand India takes.

SH: This year alone, you have to pay about $5 billion to service the debt, the highest in Sri Lankan history. Will you be able to do that?

MR: We have to do it, and we will manage somehow. We don’t want to default on our debt no matter what happens.

SH: At the same time, you have said that you want China to give back its control of Hambantota port. Is that something President Gotabaya will raise when he goes to Beijing?

MR: We are discussing it, but it is difficult, as the previous government had already completed the handover of control. I think China may agree to our request on some terms, and we will keep the negotiations going.

SH: During a visit to Colombo, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China will ensure that there is no outside interference in Sri Lanka…What did he mean? Was it an indication to the US, or to India or some other country?

MR: I don’t know, you will have to ask him that (laughs). We didn’t take the statement too seriously, as no one has yet tried to interfere in our matters… other than during the last elections [2015]. Then, all the countries got involved in [the elections]. But now we would like to have good relations and work with all the countries.

SH: You mentioned upcoming parliamentary elections. Assuming that you win, as the recent Presidential election results indicate, will you move forward on the 19th amendment, that shifts power from the Presidency to the PM and parliament?

MR: First of all, we have to get rid of the 19th amendment. Then we will think about how we will move forward. [Former Law Minister] G.L. Peiris is already studying it, and we will take opinions on what to do. At the moment, neither the President nor the Parliament has clear powers. So we do have to decide on the division of power. The majority of voters in Sri Lanka voted for President Gotabaya, and that means people want him to have some control of the country’s development and governance, and we must respect that.

SH: Given that the President is also your brother, could the tussle over the 19th amendment cause problems between you?

MR: No, no, no. The way the present constitution is structured and the confusion with the 19th amendment, only two brothers like Gota and I can handle this (Laughs). Otherwise no President and PM will ever agree on this issue.

SH: Finally, what does it feel like to be back here as Prime Minister, after five years, when you visited, but were out of power?

MR: Well, I am grateful to PM Modi for inviting me and receiving me both when I was out of power and now. I never felt the difference, in that sense. Whenever he is ready to visit Sri Lanka now, we are ready to welcome him.

Courtesy Ada Derana

The economy of Sri Lanka is recovering from tragic terrorist attacks on Easter Sunday last year, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Gross Domestic Project (GDP) growth is projected to rebound to 3.7 percent in 2020, on the back of the recovery in tourism, and assuming that the Novel Coronavirus will have only limited negative effect on tourism arrivals and other economic activities, the Washington-based organization said further.

The IMF stated this in a statement released following the end of its staff visit to Sri Lanka.

A staff team from the IMF led by Manuela Goretti visited Colombo during January 29 – February 7, 2020 to meet with the new administration and discuss its policy agenda.

At the conclusion of the staff visit, Ms. Goretti issued the following statement:

The IMF staff team had constructive discussions with the Sri Lankan authorities on recent economic developments and the country’s economic reform agenda. Given the high level of public debt and refinancing needs in the country, ensuring macroeconomic stability calls for fiscal consolidation, prudent monetary policy, and sustained efforts to build international reserves. Ambitious structural and institutional reforms remain critical to raise the country’s growth potential and promote inclusiveness.

The economy is gradually recovering from the terrorist attacks last April. Real GDP growth is estimated at 2.6 percent in 2019. The recovery is supported by a solid performance of the manufacturing sector and a rebound in tourism and related services in the second half of the year. High frequency indicators continue to improve and growth is projected to rebound to 3.7 percent in 2020, on the back of the recovery in tourism, and assuming that the Novel Coronavirus will have only limited negative effect on tourism arrivals and other economic activities. Inflation is projected to remain at around 4½ percent, in line with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) target. After a sharp import contraction in 2019, the current account deficit is expected to widen to nearly 3 percent of GDP in 2020.

Preliminary data indicate that the primary surplus target under the program supported by the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) was missed by a sizable margin in 2019 with a recorded deficit of 0.3 percent of GDP, due to weak revenue performance and expenditure overruns. Under current policies, as discussed with the authorities during the visit, the primary deficit could widen further to 1.9 percent of GDP in 2020, due to newly implemented tax cuts and exemptions, clearance of domestic arrears, and backloaded capital spending from 2019. Given risks to debt sustainability and large refinancing needs over the medium term, renewed efforts to advance fiscal consolidation will be essential for macroeconomic stability. Measures to improve efficiency in the public administration and strengthen revenue mobilization can help reduce the high public debt, while preserving space for critical social and investment needs. Advancing relevant legislation to strengthen fiscal rules would anchor policy commitments, restore confidence, and safeguard sustainability over the medium term.

The CBSL should continue to follow a prudent and data-dependent monetary policy and stand ready to adjust rates to evolving macroeconomic conditions. Net International Reserves fell short of the end-December target under the EFF-supported program in 2019 by about $100 million amid market pressures after the Presidential elections and announced tax cuts. However, conditions have since stabilized. Renewed efforts are needed to rebuild reserve buffers to safeguard resilience to shocks, under a flexible exchange rate. Approval of the new Central Bank Law in line with international best practices is a critical step to further strengthen the independence and governance of the CBSL and support the adoption of flexible inflation targeting.

The financial system remains broadly stable, although some pockets of vulnerability remain, especially among non-bank financial institutions. Caps on lending rates and the loan repayment moratorium for small and medium enterprises should be temporary, to avoid unintended distortions and inefficiencies in financial intermediation. Modernizing the Banking Act, with a view to strengthening and harmonizing regulation, supervision, and resolution frameworks for deposit-taking financial institutions would help safeguard financial stability.

The authorities should move ahead with growth-enhancing structural reforms to fully harness Sri Lanka’s economic potential and foster greater social inclusion. The team welcomed the authorities’ plans to enhance the efficiency of state-owned enterprises, enabling them to operate on a sound commercial basis. These plans would need to be supported by a visible commitment to strengthen governance and transparency, notably in the energy sector, and renewed efforts to tackle corruption. Concerted initiatives are needed to foster the business climate, promote trade openness and investment, and strengthen infrastructure sustainably, including to respond to the challenges from climate change. Sri Lanka stands to gain from greater female labor participation, enhancements in social protection, and further investment in education and skills.”

The team met with the Secretary to the President P B Jayasundera, CBSL Governor W D Lakshman, Secretary to the Treasury S R Attygalle, Senior Deputy Governor P N Weerasinghe, other public officials, representatives of the business community, civil society, and international partners.

Courtesy Hiru News

Former secretary to the ministry of parliamentary reforms and media Nimal Bopage says that other than for the ministers efforts were made to provide vehicles to 58 MPs under contract basis during the yahapalana government.

Issuing a release he noted that former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe forced him to sign the deal worth 2.43 billion rupees.

Courtesy Hiru News

Retired DIG Palitha Siriwardena says that if not for the influence of former governor Asath Salley, they would have been able to succeed in the investigation into the attack on Buddha statues in Mawanella.

He made this revelation while giving a statement before the presidential commission to inquire into easter Sunday attacks, yesterday.

The commission made inquiries as to whether the former governor has been questioned regarding the incident.

Responding to this the retired DIG said that the officers were reluctant to question him in this regard due to his political leverage and the connection with the state leader.

>Thereafter the commission inquired as to whether he was aware of another investigations group which was inquiring into the incident.

He responded that he was not aware of it but was later informed that a group of CID officers are carrying out an investigation under the orders of IGP Pujith Jayasundara.

The retired IGP further noted that if the CID and the provincial officers worked together they would have been able to carry out a successful investigation.

He further noted that the names which was given in connection to the easter Sunday attacks by the Indian secret service was revealed in the investigations of the Mawanella attack on Buddha statues and the wanathawilluwa training camp.

Courtesy Hiru News

It has been decided to give access to the voice tapes tabled by Parliamentarian Ranjan Ramanayake to Members of Parliament subsequent to removing content which are a threat to national security and false claims therein.

This decision was made at the Party Leaders’ meeting in Parliament today under the leadership of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya.

The Parliamentary Communications Department said that accordingly, it was decided on this occasion not to issue these tapes to Parliamentarians just yet

The Parliamentary Communications Department said further that subsequent to removing words that are not compatible in these tapes, the Speaker will listen to them again and table them as suitable.

Courtesy Hiru News

The CID informed the court today that it is conducting further investigations into whether the weapon seized from the house of MP Ranjan Ramanayake has been used to commit a crime.

The case was taken before the Nugegoda Magistrate today.

Ramanayake is in remand until February 12th in connection with allegedly influencing the functions of judges.

Meanwhile, the Government’s Analyst collected a voice sample of MP Ranjan Ramanayake today.

>At the same time, the chief inspector who made submissions to the court quoted the Government’s Analyst report as stating that the weapon they seized from Ramanayake’s house is emitting a fresh gunpowder smell.

He therefore said further investigations are continuing to ascertain whether it was used to commit a crime.

Meanwhile, the parliament has decided to table the voice clips provided by MP Ramanayake only after removing the matters threatening the National Defence and false information.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General has directed the Acting IGP to give his explanation before Monday as to why he did not comply with the instruction with regard to the Gihan Pilapitiya judicial process.

/>Earlier, the Attorney General instructed the Acting IGP to obtain a court warrant and arrest High court judge Gihan Pilapitiya in connection with Ranjan Ramanayake’s voice clip scenario.

The Attorney General has further informed the Acting IGP that his inaction to arrest High Court Judge Gihan Pilapitiya has violated the Article 12-01 and 12-02 of the Constitution

By BBC Monitoring Essential Media Insight

The coronavirus outbreak in China has provided fertile ground for conspiracy theories and misinformation on the web everywhere, but in Russia they are being spread on primetime news programmes.

Russian TV is also unique in having a consistent overall thrust: that shadowy Western elites and especially the US are somehow ultimately to blame.

One of main national TV networks, Channel One, has even launched a regular slot devoted to coronavirus conspiracy theories on its main evening news programme, Vremya (“Time”).

The style of the reporting is ambiguous, appearing to debunk the theories while leaving viewers with the impression that they contain a kernel of truth.

One of the wilder ideas aired by Vremya recently is that the presence of the word “corona”, which means crown in both Latin and Russian, in the word coronavirus hints that Donald Trump is somehow involved.

Apparently, this is because he used to preside over beauty pageants, handing the winners their crowns.

In fact, scientists named the virus because of of its crown-like shape, but Vremya’s presenter warns against rejecting the idea all too soon.

“Utter nonsense, you’ll say, and I’d agree with you, if it were not for what’s in our correspondent’s report,” he says.

‘Ethnic bioweapon’

The subsequent video does admit the crown theory is a “strange construct”, but uncritically presents an expert who says that the Chinese coronavirus strain has been artificially created, and that US intelligence agencies or American pharmaceutical companies are behind it.

The report also rehashes old, false claims by Kremlin media and officials that the US ran a laboratory in Georgia where it tested a biological weapon on humans.

The Channel One correspondent then quotes online conspiracy theories that the novel coronavirus strain affects only Asians and could be some kind of “ethnic bioweapon”.

He concedes that there is clear evidence refuting this, but adds suggestively: “Even experts who are cautious in their assessments say that nothing can be ruled out.”

• Anger erupts after virus whistleblower doctor dies
• Nurse describes ‘heartbreaking’ job
• Dozens more catch virus on quarantined cruise ship
• A visual guide to the outbreak

Coronavirus conspiracy theories have also featured heavily on Channel One’s main political talk show, Vremya Pokazhet (Time Will Tell), only more openly than on news programmes.

The gist is to suggest that various Western actors – pharmaceutical companies, the US or its agencies – are somehow involved in helping to create or spread the virus, or at least in spreading panic about it.

The aim is variously said to be – in the case of “Big Pharma” – to profit from creating a vaccine against the coronavirus or, in the case of the US, to hit the Chinese economy in order to weaken a geopolitical competitor.

Blood checks for officials

Away from the TV screens, the coronavirus outbreak appears to be causing serious concern among Russian officials.

Rail and air traffic to China have been curtailed, and Russians evacuated from China have been quarantined for two weeks in a Siberian sanatorium.

A church in Moscow has even held a service to pray for salvation from the coronavirus.

Fear or the virus appears to reach all the way to the top.

Russian daily Vedomosti reports that Kremlin has introduced temperature checks for those attending events with President Vladimir Putin, in what spokesman Dmitry Peskov has called a “precautionary measure”.

BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.

Courtesy Hiru News

The official Chinese death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose on Friday to 638, with the government saying total infections had climbed past 31 thousand 500.

The National Health Commission said the toll was raised by 73 new deaths from the epidemic.

As debates over the origin of the Wuhan coronavirus rage on, new voices join the discussion.

Russian media sources suggest the novel disease, provisionally known as 2019-nCoV, could be an American made bio-weapon designed to sabotage China.

The claims have had significant airtime on mainstream Russian media and could be part of Vladimir Putin’s efforts to discredit U.S interests in the region.

By Rohana R. Wasala

Like ‘secularism’, ‘nationalism’ is a much abused term in the vocabulary of the opponents of the unitary status of the Sri Lankan state. A previous article of mine (‘Why secularism is good for Sri Lanka’/Lankaweb/posted January 23, 2020) explained my opinion that the principle of secularism in governance is a good thing for Sri Lanka and that it is not against religion, although it is often attacked as anti-religion, and hence immoral. In the West, USA, UK, and Norway, for example, are accepted as secular democracies while being avowedly ‘Christian’ nations. There is no contradiction here; it only means that a secular democratic government needs to respect the dominant religious culture of the people (nation), but need not accommodate totalitarian dogmatic tenets, if any, like death for apostasy, that go against modern scientific knowledge and secular ethics. The same applies to predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka with relevant adjustments. Considering the current besieged state of the Buddha Sasanaya, despite the age-old Buddhist civilizational  foundation of the Sri Lankan state being its cultural lynchpin, the constitutional recognition of the need to protect it is in the interest of all Sri Lankans. It does not harm the secular credentials of the unitary state.

When we adopt the term nationalism to the Sri Lankan context, it should be similarly disambiguated. While secularism is viewed as a positive principle in Western political discourse, nationalism is treated as being almost identical with racism. That is the meaning that the enemies of the unitary character of the Sri Lankan state – such as the mercenary foreign NGOs battening on the misery of millions in weaker nations, separatists among Tamil expatriates in the West , and communal political survivalists at home who have no plausible reason to justify their existence – attribute to the term. However, nationalism is implicitly accepted as a key element of a country’s development and security by the Western countries on whose deliberately equivocal definitions and double standards they rely.

The Wikipedia provides a short unclear ‘definition’: ‘Nationalism is an ideology and movement that promotes the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people) especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining the nation’s sovereignty (self-governance) over its homeland.’ This nebulous definition seems to equate a nation to a race, or an ethnic group, which is seeking to gain sovereignty over its ‘homeland’. The homeland of a nation is the distinct native country or area where that nation developed its unique civilization with its own language,and culture (way of living, values, arts, moral and spiritual traditions,etc) and over which it can legitimately claim and exercise sovereignty. Google.com dictionary offers the following, which sounds better than the above. It defines ‘nation’ as ‘a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory’. In this sense, the Sinhalese are a nation. They have a common descent, a recorded (written and epigraphic) history of over 2500 years, a language of their own that originated in the Sihela ‘deepe’ (island) and nowhere else, a unique culture fashioned by Theravada Buddhism, and their only homeland, which is their inalienable native land (the same ‘Sihela deepe’). Sinhalese nationalism is well founded and inclusive. A few fast disappearing Tamil racists like Sampanthan and Wigneswaran, a mere handful among the sensible minority Tamils who account for about 15% of the island’s population in terms of the 2011 census (Sri Lankan Tamils 11% + 4% Indian Tamils), are pushing for a separate state by devious means in the name of a Tamil nation and an exclusively Tamil homeland in the North and the East without any scientifically verifiable historical evidence to support them. But Tamils (15%) and Muslim (9.7%)  are dignified members of the single nation that Sri Lankans are, absolutely on par with the members of the majority Sinhalese community.

Tamils’ historical homeland is Tamilnadu or Tamil Land in South India, where they originated and where their unique Tamil Hindu culture evolved. Tamils, like the Muslims, live in every part of the island, mingled with other races, though less than half of all ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka are concentrated in the north and the east provinces. Wherever they live, it is the South Indian Hindu culture that characterises them. There were over 80 million Tamils in Tamilnadu last year (2019). There must be over 20 million more in countries around the world outside Tamilnadu. Ethnic Sinhalese in Sri Lanka and outside number just over 15 million, perhaps, and Sinhalese language speakers come only from Sri Lanka. The Sinhalese have never ever asked the minorities to depart from Sri Lanka because it is their (the Sinhalese’) original native land, and not theirs, the way Wigneswaran is demanding that the Sinhalese leave the North. They have always treated the Tamil minority with kindness, humanity, and equality except when the latter became aggressive instigated by the racist few among the sensible majority of Tamil politicians. 

Nationalists comprise all Sri Lankans irrespective of ethnicity or religious affiliation, though unsurprisingly, the majority of them are from among the Sinhalese. What they say or have been saying to dissenting Tamils is: Why talk about separate homelands? Sri Lanka is the common homeland of all of us. Let’s us remain as the one nation we are, in spite of our ethnic and other differences, occupying the same piece of land and breathing the same air above it and keeping abreast of the positive developments in the fast changing world outside. 

For the Sinhalese there is no difference between nationalism and patriotism. Generally, in the West, both terms are defined rather negatively. The Google.com definition of patriotism runs as follows: (patriotism is) ‘the quality of being patriotic; devotion to and vigorous support for one’s country’.  Among synonyms given are chauvinism and jingoism suggesting that patriotism could degenerate into such evil traits. The Wikipedia offers a more comprehensive and  a bit more positive explanation of the term: ‘Patriotism or national pride is the feeling of love, devotion and sense of attachment to a homeland and alliance with other citizens who share the same sentiment. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings relating to one’s own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects. It encompasses a set of concepts closely related to nationalism’. For the Sinhalese, from their hoary beginnings, nationalism has been identical with patriotism. They have always fought for the motherland, that is, for preserving or regaining lost sovereignty over its territory. The modern nationalist slogan consists of the evocative triad ‘rata, jaatiya, aagama’ (country, nation, religion). The patriotic Sinhala scholar Kumaratunga Munidasa (1887-1944), the founder of the still operative Sinhala language study circle known as ‘Hela Havula’, introduced  the secular ‘triple gem’ of ‘desa, basa, raesa’ (country, language, nation). Not that he neglected the Buddha Sasana; he took that for granted in his personal dedication to the study of the Sinhala language and its literature in those dark days of foreign domination. Actually, at the beginning, he studied Pali and Sanskrit in order to become a Buddhist monk; but he had to give up the idea because of lack of parental assent. The ‘country’ came first in his case, too. Even today, while a handful of racists among Tamil and Muslim politicians talk exclusively about the interests of their own Tamil and Muslim people respectively, without any friendly reference to the majority communty among whom they live without suffering discrimination, the non-racist nationalists among the Sinhalese and minority politicians speak up for the country in the name of all, irrespective of ethnic and other differences. 

The fervent nationalist sentiments – rising with growing awareness among the youth connected through the You Tube about  their inestimable historical heritage – found graphic expression in the form of wall paintings across the country soon after the inauguration of president Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in November 2019. Meanwhile, a young man named Nalaka Senadheera from Dedigama has initiated a voluntary movement for re-cultivating thousands of acres of previous paddy lands left fallow over the years in various parts of the country.  During the disastrous, nation-denying Yahapalanaya, its immoderate neoliberalist economic policies such as selling off invaluable national assets met with the passionate anger and disapproval of the nationalists. For Sri Lanka, this surge of nationalism is a very welcome development. It is independent and non-aggressive.

Not so with the Americans. Wherever they go, American leaders boast that their aim is promoting the American interest. This means they are nationalists, though they never explicitly admit they are. Instead they pretend nationalism in others to be a negative tendency. Our common experience is that their policy is exactly what the Google online dictionary definition says nationalism is, and what critics falsely accuse Sri Lankan nationalists of: ‘identification with one’s own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.’ The Sri Lanka traducers subtly imply that the Tamil minority is another ‘nation’ within island, thereby undermining the country’s communal unity. This demonstrates Americans’ double standards in respect of weaker nations like Sri Lanka that are expected to betray the interests of their own people to accommodate ‘American interests’!.

Linguist, philosopher, social critic, and political activist Noam Chomsky (‘Who Rules the World?’/Penguin Books, 2017) traces the source of the Americans’ current national security policy to the administration of president George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s. It was a new national security strategy formulated in reaction to the fall of America’s global enemy the Soviet Union. Though the threat from Russia was fast becoming a thing of the past at the time, they  wanted to maintain ‘a military establishment almost as great as the rest of the world combined and far more advanced in technical sophistication…’, as Chomsky says, to defend against the growing technological sophistication of Third World powers! Chomsky adds in an aside: ‘Disciplined intellectuals understood that it would have been improper to collapse in ridicule, so they maintained a proper silence’.

The new policy, the writer further explains, insisted on the US maintaining its defense industrial base”. The phrase is a euphemism, according to Chomsky, for high-tech industry which heavily relies on large scale state intervention for research and development, often under Pentagon cover, in what continues to be called U.S. free-market economy”. The new plans had an interesting provision that had to do with the Middle East. It stated that Washington had to maintain intervention forces focused on a region of pivotal importance where the major crises could not have been laid at the Kremlin’s door” (as quoted by Chomsky in the book named above from National Security Strategy of the United States”, White House, March 1990). On this ridiculously vulgar fumbling about for an excuse for something base, Chomsky makes this comment: ‘Contrary to fifty years of deceit, it was quietly conceded that the main concern in this region was not the Russians, but rather what is called radical nationalism”, meaning independent nationalism not under U.S. control’.  

 Sri Lanka is not in the Middle East, but in what the Americans have recently chosen to call the Indo-Pacific region. Have America’s security strategies or its attitudes towards weaker nations changed for the better over the past thirty years? Most probably not. A leopard does not change its spots, as the local saying goes, though it may change its hunting grounds. Currently emerging revelations in international media show how the narrow self interest of fiercely nationalistic  America is plaguing the whole world. The moral of Chomsky’s narrative may be applied, with necessary alterations, to Sri Lanka’s current predicament vis-a-vis the global superpower in her desperate nationalist struggle to preserve her independence and sovereignty.

Ada Derana

ජනමාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි උපාධිධාරී ජාතික මධ්‍යස්ථානය.

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

ගරු ජනාධිපති තුමනි,

රැකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරීන් හා ඩිප්ලෝමාධාරීන් බඳවාගැනීමේ අවුරුදු 35 උපරිම වයස් සීමාව අවුරුදු 45 දක්වා සුදුසුකම් සපුරා ඇති සියලූම රැකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරීන් බඳවා ගැනීමට පියවර ගන්නා මෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

‘‘රැකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරීන් රැකියාගත කිරීමේ වැඩසටහන 2020’’ යටතේ උපාධිධාරීන් හා ඩිප්ලෝමාධාරීන් 50 000 ක් බඳවා ගැනීමට අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය තීරණය කර ඇති අතර එසේ බඳවා ගැනීමට කටයුතු කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් අපි ස්තූතිවන්ත වෙමු.

විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයකින් උපාධියක් ලබා පිටවන සෑම උපාධිධාරියෙකුටම අධ්‍යාපන සුදුසුකමට සරිලන සුදුසු රැකියාවක් දිනා ගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් අපි අරගල කරන්නෙමු. රැකියාවිරහිත භාවයේ සිටින සුදුසුකම් සැපිරූ සැම රැකියාගත කිරීම රජයේ වගකීමක් වන අතර එවැනි ක‍්‍රියාමාර්ගයක් ගැනීම පිළිබඳව අගය කරමු.

මෙම නව බඳවාගැනීමට අදාළව නිකකුත් කර ඇති ඇතැම් කොන්දේසි ගැටළුකාරී වන අතර ඒ පිළිබඳව ඔබතුමාගේ අවධානය කඩිනමින් යොමු කර විසඳුමක් ලබා දෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

02. මීට සති කීපයකට පෙර ආණ්ඩුවේ අමාත්‍යවරයෙකු වන ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම මැතිතුමා මාධ්‍ය මගින් උපාධිධාරීන් බඳවා ගැනීමේ දී අවුරුදු 45 දක්වා උපාධිධාරීන් බඳවාගන්නා බව ප‍්‍රකාශ කරන ලදි.

නමුත් අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල තීරණය අනුව හා 2020.02.06 හා 07 දින පළවූ දැන්වීම් වලට අනුව බඳවාගැනීමේ උපරිම වයස් සීමාව 35 දක්වා සීමා කර ඇත.

2015-2019 වර්ෂවල රැකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරීන් විධිමත් බඳවාගැනීමක් සිදු නොකළ අතර එම වසර 05 තුළ අවු.35 ඉක්ම වූ උපාධිධාරීන්ට දැඩි අසාධාරණයක් සිදුවීම වැළැක්විය නොහැක. එමෙන් ම එම අසාධාරණයට ලක් වන පිරිසට යළි කිසි දිනෙක රජයේ සේවයේ රැකියාවක් ලබා ගැනීමේ අවස්ථාව ද අහිමි වේ.

03. 2020 බඳවා ගැනීමේ පවතින අනෙක් කොන්දේසි අතර 2017-2020 දක්වා කිසිඳු රැකියාවක් නොකළ උපාධිධාරීන් හා ඩිප්ලෝමාධාරීන් ඉල්ලූම් කළ යුතු යැයි ද සඳහන් කර ඇත. එම කොන්දේසිය ද අසාධාරණ වන අතර 2014 සිට උපාධිධාරී රැකියාවක් හිමි නොවූ පිරිසක් ද වෙති. අපේ රටේ රැකියාවක් ලැබීමේ අස්ථාවරත්වය මත කිසිම කෙනෙකුට තම සුදුසුකමට නිසි මොහොතේ රැකියාවක් ලැබෙනු ඇතැයි සහතිකයක් නැත. ඒ යටතේ මෙම කොන්දේසිය ද අසාධාරණ බව දන්වමු.

04. නව බඳවාගැනීම් යටතේ ඇතුළත් කරගනු ලබන උපාධිධාරීන් දිස්ත‍්‍රික් හා ප‍්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාල මට්ටමින් බඳවාගෙන වසර 05ක් අනිවාර්යයෙන් එම සේවා ස්ථානවල රැකියා කිරීම කොන්දේසියක් වේ. දැනට 2005-2016 දක්වා බඳවාගෙන ඇති උපාධිධාරීන් අතර සේවා කාලය වසර 15 ඉක්ම වුවත් කොළඹ සිට සිය පදිංචියට අදාළ සේවා ස්ථානයකට ස්ථානමාරුවීම් ලබාගත නොහැකිව ඇත. ඉහත කොන්දේසිය අනුව දැනට රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ කොළඹ ආශ‍්‍රිත සේවා ස්ථානවල සිටින අවශ්‍යතාවය සහිත උපාධිධාරීන් සඳහා ස්ථානමාරුවීමක් ලබා ගැනීම තව වසර ගණනාවකින් කල් යනු ඇත. මෙවැනි කරුණු කළමණාකරණයකින් පසු විසඳිය යුතු බව පෙන්වා දෙමු.

05. නව බඳවාගැනීම් යටතේ බඳවාගන්නා උපාධිධාරීන් ආගමන විගමන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව, තක්සේරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව ඇතුළු ඒ ශ්‍රේණියේ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවෙත බඳවා ගන්නා බවත්, ඉහත කොන්දේසි අනුව වසර 05 ක් එහි සේවය කළ යුතුයි යන්න අනුව දැනට සේවයේ සිටින ස්ථීර උපාධිධාරීන්ට එම සේවා ස්ථානවල සේවය කිරීමේ අවස්ථාව අහිමි වනු ඇත.

06. 2020 නව බඳවාගැනීම් ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කරනුයේ ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය හරහා ය. උපාධිධාරීන් බඳවා ගැනීමේ ව්‍යවස්ථාමය වගකීම පැවරී ඇත්තේ රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලන අමාත්‍යාංශයටය. එය නොසලකා 2018/2019 ජාතික ප‍්‍රත්පත්ති හා ආර්ථික කටයුතු අමාත්‍යාංශය මගින් වසරක පුහුණුවකට ඇතුළත් කරගත් උපාධිධාරීන් ස්ථීර කිරීමේ දී පරිපාලන දෝශ රැසක් නිර්මාණය වී ඇති බවද පෙන්වා දෙමු.

ගරු ජනාධිපති තුමනි,
මේ දක්වා උපාධිධාරීන් බඳවා ගැනීමේ උපරිම වයස් සීමාව අවු.45 දක්වා සලකා බැලූ අතර 2020 නව බඳවාගැනීමේ දී ද උපරිම වයස් සීමාව 45 දක්වා සලකා බලන ලෙසත්, රැකියා නොමැතිකම නිසා සා/පෙළ, උ/පෙළ අධ්‍යාපන සුදුසුකම් යටතේ කුමන හෝ රැකියාවක් කිරීමේ පදනම මත උපාධියට රැකියාවක් ලබා ගැනීමට ඇති අවස්ථාව අහිමි නොකරන ලෙසත් ඉහතින් දක්වා ඇති අංක 04, 05, 06 කෙරෙහි අවධානය යොමු කරන ලෙසත් ඉල්ලන අතර මෙම ගැටළු වලට කඩිනමින් විසඳුමක් ලැබෙනු ඇතැයි අපි අපේක්ෂා කරමු.

ඉහත කොන්දේසි ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වී යම් පිරිසකට අසාධාරණයක් සිදු වන්නේ නම් එම පිරිසේ අයිතිය වෙනුවෙන් අඛණ්ඩව ක‍්‍රියාකරන බවද වැඩි දුරටත් දන්වා සිටිමු.

ස්තූතියි.

මෙයට,
චන්දන සූරියආරච්චි

Ada Derana

පේශල පසන් කරුණාරත්න

කළුතර දිස්ත්‍රික්කයෙහි වලල්ලාවිට ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කොට්ඨාසයට අයත් 787 – සී තොටහා ග්‍රාමසේවා වසම තුල පිහිටි  තොටස් ඇල්ල සොබාදහම නිවා සනහාලන සුන්දර පරිසර පද්ධතියකි. ජෛව විවිධත්වයෙන් පොහොසත් නිවර්තන තෙත් සදාහරිත වනාන්තරයක් වන යගිරල වන රක්ෂිතය තුලින් ආරම්භ වී ගලා එන දොළ මාර්ගයෙන් ඇද හැලෙන තොටස් ඇල්ල සොබා සෞන්දර්යෙන් අනූන සංචාරකයන්ගේ ආකර්ෂණය දිනා ගෙන ඇති දියඇල්ලකි.

කෙතරම් සුන්දර පරිසර පද්ධතියක් වූවද මෙම සුන්දර දියඇල්ල හා එය පිහිටි රක්ෂිත පරිසරයේ සුන්දරත්වය විදීමට පැමිණෙන සංචාරකයන්ගේ නොහොබිනා ක්‍රියා කාරකම් හේතුවෙන් මේ සොඳුරු දිය ඇලි කොමලිය කලක පටන් දැඩිසේ දූෂණයට ලක්ව තිබුණි. පොලිතීන්, ප්ලාස්ටික්, බියර් ටින්, ආහාර දවටන ආදී නොදිරන කැලිකසල අක්‍රමවත්ව බැහැරකර වීදුරු බෝතල්, බෝතල් කටු ආදිය දිය ඇල්ල වෙත දැමීම නිසා දැඩි පරිසර දූෂණයක් ඇල්ල හා අවට පරිසරයේ සිදුව තිබුණි.

මේ විනාශකාරී ක්‍රියා හේතුවෙන් ගම්වාසීන්ට හා දියඇල්ලේ සුන්දරත්වය විදීමට පැමිණෙන සංචාරකයින් දැඩි අපහසුතා ගෙන දුන් අතර ජෛව විවිධත්වයද දැඩිසේ හායනය වෙමින් පැවතුණි.

මෙම  ක්‍රියාදාමයන් වලක්වාලමින් දියඇල්ල සහ අවට පවතින්නා වූ වටිනා පරිසර පද්ධතිය රැක ගැනීම සඳහා කඩිනම් පියවරක් ගත යුතුව තිබූ අතර ඒ සඳහා වලල්ලාවිට ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාලය මගින් වැඩ සටහන් කිහිපයක් සූදානම් කරන ලදි. එහි පළමු අදියර වශයෙන් දියඇල්ල සහ අවට පරිසරයේ කැලි කසල ඉවත් කර පරිසර පද්ධතිය පිරිසිදු කිරීමේ වැඩසටහනක් වලල්ලාවිට ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේ නිලධාරීන් හා ස්වේඡා පරිසර ක්‍රියාකාරීන්ගේ සහභාගීත්වයෙන්   2020 පෙබරවාරි මස 06 වන බ්‍රහස්පතින්දා දින පැවැත්විය. මෙම තොටස් ඇල්ල පිරිසිදු කිරීමේ වැඩසටහන සඳහා වලල්ලාවිට ප්‍රාදේශිය ලේකම් රන්ජන් ප්‍රියශාන්ත පෙරේරා මහතා සහ සහකාර ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් චතුරිකා ජයවික්‍රම මහත්මිය සමගින් ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේ තරුණ නිලධාරී මණ්ඩලය සහභාගී වූ අතර වලල්ලාවිට යෞවන සමාජ ප්‍රාදේශීය මණ්ඩලයේ සාමාජිකයන් සහ වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය, මතුගම හරිත මිතුරෝ සංවිධානය යන පරිසර සංවිධාන වල සාමාජිකයන්ගේ දායකත්වයද මේ සඳහා ලැබී තිබුණි.

මෙම වැඩසටහන සඳහා සහභාගී වූ පිරිස විසින් දියඇල්ල සහ අවට රක්ෂිත පරිසරය තුල  අක්‍රමවත් අයුරින් තැන තැන දමා තිබූ විශාල අපද්‍රව්‍ය ප්‍රමාණයක් එකතු කර ක්‍රමවත්ව බැහැර කිරීමට කටයුතු කල අතර. ඉදිරියට මෙවැනි විනාශකාරී ක්‍රියා සිදු නොවීම සඳහා සංචාරකයින් දැනුවත් කිරීම සඳහා පුවරු සවි කිරීමටද පියවර ගන්නා ලදි. යලි මෙම සුන්දර භූමිය අපවිත්‍ර කිරීමෙන් වළක්වා ගැනීම සදහා විනාශකාරී නොහොබිනා ක්‍රියා සිදු කරන පුද්ගලයින් හට නීතීය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම පිළිබඳව ඇල්ල අවට ගම්වාසීන් සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කොට ඔවුන් දැනුවත් කිරීමද සිදුකරන ලදි.

මෙම වැඩසටහන මගින් සිදු වූ වැදගත්ම කාර්ය වූයේ දියඇල්ල සහ අවට පරිසරයේ පිරිසිදු කම පිළිබඳව උනන්දුවක් නොදැක්වූ ජනතාවට ඒ පිළිබඳව සිතා බැලීමට අවස්ථාවක් උදාවීමයි. තරුණ පිරිසක් එකතු වී සිදුකරනු ලැබූ මෙම ක්‍රියාව දියඇල්ලේ සුන්දරත්වය විදීමට පැමිණ සිටි සියළු දෙනාගේම ඇගයීමට ලක්වූ අතර අක්‍රමවත් ලෙස කසල බැහැර කරමින් තමන් විසින්ම තමන්ටම සුන්දරයත් විදීමට ඇති වටිනා පරිසර පද්ධතියක් අපිරිසිදු කර ගැනීමට ක්‍රියාකිරීම  පිළිබඳව කනගාටු වන අයුරු දක්නට ලැබුණි.  ඉදිරියේදී තමන් ඒ පිළිබඳව සැලකිලිමත් විය යුතු බවත් දියඇල්ල සුන්දරව තබා ගැනීම තම වගකීමක් ලෙස සැලකිය යුතු බවත් මෙම වැඩසටහන දෙස බලා සිටි පුද්ගලයින් පැවසූ අතර පැමිණ සිටි සංචාරකයින්ද හැකි අයුරින් මෙම වැඩසටහන හා සම්බන්ධ විය.

ස්තූතියි.

පේශල පසන් කරුණාරත්න

(0710580734)

නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන (2020.02.04)

http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2020/02/blog-post.html

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනරජයේ පරමාධිපතය ජනතාව කෙරෙහි පිහිටා ඇත්තේ ය. පරමාධිපත්‍යය අත්හළ නොහැක්කේ ය. පරමාධිපත්‍යයට පාලන බලතල, මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් සහ ඡන්ද බලය ද ඇතුළත් වන්නේ ය”. යනුවෙන් ජනමතවිචාරණයකින් මිස සංශෝධනය කළ හැකි ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 3වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව ලෙස ඇතුළත් කර ඇත. ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනරජයේ පරමාධිපතය එනම් ජනතාවගේ පරමාධිපත්‍ය ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම සහ භුක්ති විදීම සිදු කරන ආකාරය 4වන ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ දැක්වේ. මෙම ලිපිය මගින් සළකා බලන්නේ ජනතාවගේ අධිකරණ බලයට අදාල ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනරජයේ පරමාධිපතය ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම සහ භුක්ති විදීම සිදු කරන ආකාරය ඇසුරෙන් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ නඩු තීන්දුවකට ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණයකින් නියම කළ ජනමතවිචාරණයක් අවලංගු කළ හැකිද? යන්න විමසා බැලීමයි.

4(ඇ) ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ ජනතාවගේ අධිකරණ බලය ක්‍රියාත්මක වන ආකාරය දක්වා ඇති අතර නීතිය අනුව පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසින් ම ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ හැකි පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සහ එහි මන්ත්‍රීවරයන්ගේ වරප්‍රසාද, පරිහාර හා බලතල සම්බන්ධයෙන් විනා ජනතාවගේ අධිකරණ බලය, ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යස්ථාවෙන් ඇති කොට පිහිටුවන ලද හෝ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් පිළිගන්නා ලද නැතහොත් වෙනත් යම් නීතියකින් ඇති කොට පිහිටුවන ලද අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන මගින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුත්තේ ය ලෙස දක්වා ඇත.

ඒ සමගම අවබෝධ කළ යුත්තේ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 4 (ඈ) ව්‍යවස්ථාව මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් සම්බන්ධව විධිවිධාන දක්වන බවත් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 17 සහ 118 සහ 126 ව්‍යවස්ථා මගින් මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් සම්බන්ධ අධිකරණ බලය ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට පවරා ඇති බවයි.

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 4 (ඈ) ව්‍යවස්ථාව අනුව ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් ප්‍රකාශ කොට පිළිගනු ලබන මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් සියලු පාලන ආයතන විසින් ගරු කරනු ලැබිය යුත්තේ ය. ආරක්ෂා කරනු ලැබිය යුත්තේ ය. වර්ධනය කරනු ලැබිය යුත්තේ ය. තව ද, ඒ මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් මෙහි මින් මතු විධිවිධාන සලස්වා ඇති ආකාරයට සහ ප්‍රමාණයට මිස සංක්ෂිප්ත කිරීම, සීමා කිරීම හෝ අහිමි කිරීම නොකළ යුත්තේ ය. ලෙස දක්වා ඇත.

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 17 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ දැක්වෙන ආකාරයට මූලික අයිතිවාසිකමක් යම් විධායක හෝ පරිපාලනමය ක්‍රියාවක් මගින් උල්ලංඝනය කර තිබීම හෝ උල්ලංඝනය කිරීමට අත්‍යාසන්නව තිබීම හෝ සම්බන්ධයෙන් 126 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ විධිවිධාන සලසා ඇති පරිදි ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට ඉල්ලීමක් කිරීමට ඒ තැනැත්තාට හිමිකම් ඇත්තේ ය. (126 ව්‍යවස්ථාම මගින්ද මේ බව දැක්වෙන අතර ලිපිය දීර්ඝවන හෙයින් 126 ව්‍යවස්ථාව මෙහි දක්වා නැත.)

ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට නඩු විභාග කිරීමට හෝ කියා සිටින කරණාවලට හෝ ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් සිදුකරන යොමු කිරීම්වලට ඇහුම්කන් දීමට අධිකරණ බලය ලැබෙන්නේ 118 ව්‍යවස්ථාව හෝ 129 ව්‍යවස්ථාව හෝ 134 ව්‍යවස්ථාව හෝ 136 ව්‍යවස්ථාව හෝ 157.අ.4 ව්‍යවස්ථාව ඇතුලු ව්‍යවස්ථා සහ වෙනත් නීති මගින් ය.

ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ නඩු තීන්දුව/ Judgement සහ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණය Determination සහ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ මතය/ Opinion අතර වෙනස

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 80.2, 118 සහ 124 ව්‍යවස්ථා අධ්‍යයන කිරීමෙන් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ නඩු තීන්දුව සහ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණය අතර වෙනස අධ්‍යයනය කිරීම පහසු කරවයි.

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ  118 ව්‍යවස්ථාව මෙසේ ය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනරජයේ ශ්‍රේඨාධිකරණය ජනරජයේ උත්තරීතම සහ අවසානාත්මක ලේඛනෝපගත කිරීමේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ අධිකරණය වන අතර ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ විධිවිධානවලට යටත්ව, මෙහි පහත දැක්වෙන ආකාරයේ වූ අධිකරණ බලය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්නේ ය. එනම් :-

(අ) පනත් කෙටුම්පත්වල ව්‍යවස්ථානුකූලත්වය සම්බන්ධයෙන් වූ අධිකරණ බලය

(ආ) මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් ආරක්ෂා කිරීම සඳහා වූ අධිකරණ බලය

(ඇ) අවසාන අභියාචනාධිකරණ බලය

(ඈ) උපදේශක අධිකරණ බලය

(ඉ) ඡන්ද පෙත්සම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් වූ අධිකරණ බලය

(ඊ) පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ යම් වරප්‍රසාද කඩකිරීමක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් අධිකරණ බලය සහ

(උ) පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසින් නීතියෙන් පවරනු ලබන හෝ නියම කරනු ලබන වෙනත් කාරණා සම්බන්ධයෙන් වූ අධිකරණ බලය.

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 124 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ පනත් කෙටුම්පත් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ තීරණය සම්බන්ධ විධිවිධාන දැක්වේ.

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ  80.2 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ ආරම්භය මෙසේ ය.

යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් හෝ යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක යම්කිසි විධිවිධානයක් හෝ ජනමත විචාරණයක් මගින් ජනතාවගේ අනුමතය සඳහා ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට අපේක්ෂා කරන බව අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය විසින් සහතික කර ඇත්තා වූ අවස්ථාවක හෝ, යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් හෝ යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක යම්කිසි විධිවිධානයක් හෝ ජනමත විචාරණයදී ජනතාව විසින් අනුමත කිරීම අවශ්‍ය බව ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය විසින් තීරණය කර ඇත්තා වූ අවස්ථාවක හෝ යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් 85 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ (2) වැනි අනුව්‍යවස්ථාව යටතේ ජනමත විචාරණයක් මගින් ජනතාව වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කරන අවස්ථාවක, ඒ පනත් කෙටුම්පත හෝ ඒ විධිවිධානය ජනතාව විසින් ජනමත විචාරණයක දී 85 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ (3) වැනි අනුව්‍යවස්ථාවට අනුකූලව අනුමත කර ඇති බව ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් සහතික කරනු ලැබූ විට පමණක් ඒ පනත් කෙටුම්පත හෝ ඒ පනත් කෙටුම්පතෙහි එකී විධිවිධානය හෝ නීතිය බවට පත් වන්නේ ය. එසේ අනුමත කරනු ලැබූ සෑම පනත් කෙටුම්පතක ම මෙහි පහත දැක්වෙන ආකෘතියෙහි වූ සහතිකයක්, ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් ස්වකීය අත්සන ඇතිව සටහන් කළ යුත්තේ ය:-

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ  80.2 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ දැක්වෙන ජනමතවිචාරණය තීරණය කළ හැක්කේ කාටද?

1. යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් හෝ යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක යම්කිසි විධිවිධානයක් හෝ ජනමත විචාරණයක් මගින් ජනතාවගේ අනුමතය සඳහා ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට අපේක්ෂා කරන බව අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය විසින් සහතික කිරීමෙන්

• යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් හෝ යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක යම්කිසි විධිවිධානයක් හෝ ජනමත විචාරණයදී ජනතාව විසින් අනුමත කිරීම අවශ්‍ය බව ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය විසින් තීරණය කිරීමෙන්

• යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් 85 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ (2) වැනි අනුව්‍යවස්ථාව යටතේ ජනමත විචාරණයක් මගින් ජනතාව ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමෙන්.

118 ව්‍යවස්ථාව සහ 80.2 ව්‍යවස්ථා සැළකීමේදී යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් හෝ යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක යම්කිසි විධිවිධානයක් සම්බන්ධ ව්‍යවස්ථානුකූලත්වය ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ විසින් පරීක්ෂා කර පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් හෝ යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක යම්කිසි විධිවිධානයක් ජනමතවිචාරණයක් පැවැත්වීම අවශ්‍ය බව ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය විසින් තීරණය කරනු ලබයි.

යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් හෝ යම්කිසි පනත් කෙටුම්පතක යම්කිසි විධිවිධානයක් සම්බන්ධව පරීක්ෂා කර ශේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය ලබා දෙන්නේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණයකි. අනෙක් අවස්ථාවලදී නඩුව හෝ ඉල්ලීම විභාග කර ශේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය නඩු තීන්දුවක් ලබා දේ.

ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය වෙත උපදේශක අධිකරණ බලය සදහා ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 129 ව්‍යවස්ථාව යටතේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ මතය ලබා ගැනීම අවස්ථාවෝචිත වන ස්වභාවයේ සහ පොදු වැදගත්කමකින් යුත් යම් නීතිය හෝ සිද්ධිය පිළිබඳ ප්‍රශ්නයක් උද්ගත වී ඇති බව නැතහොත් උද්ගත වීමට ඉඩ ඇති බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනරජයේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාට කවර අවස්ථාවක දී වුව ද පෙනී ගියහොත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය වෙත ඒ ප්‍රශ්නය සලකා බැලීම සඳහා යොමු කළ හැකි අතර ඒ අවස්ථාවේ දී ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය විසින් සිය මතය ලබා දේ.

ඒ අනුව ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණ, ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ නඩු තීන්දු සහ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ මතය යනු එකි නෙකට අනන්‍ය වූ ශේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ අධිකරණ බලය ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම්ය. මේ ආකාරයේ අනන්‍ය වූ බලයක් ඇති අතර ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණ, ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ නඩු තීන්දු සහ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ මතය අතර ගැටීම් ඇති කරන්නේ නැත.

2002 ‍ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණය සහ 2018 ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ නඩු තීන්දුව

2002 දී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කළ 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය සම්බන්ධ පනත් කෙටුම්පත සහ එහි විධිවිධාන ජනමත විචාරණයකින් ජනතාව විසින් අනුමත කළ යුතු බවට සරත් නන්ද සිල්වා (අ.වි), වඩුගොඩුපිටිය (වි), බණ්ඩාරනායක (වි) ඉස්මයිල්(වි) එදිරිසූරිය (වි) යාපා (වි) ජේ. ඒ. එන් ද සිල්වා (වි)  ලබා දුන් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණය, 2018 නොවැම්බර් මස 09වැනි දින අංක 2096/70 දරන අතිවිශේෂ ගැසට් පත්‍රය මගින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවීමට අදාලව මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා නිකුත් කළ ගැසට් නිවේදනය අවලංගු කරමින් 2018.12.13 දින ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් නඩුවකින් නලීන් පෙරේරා (අ.වි) බුවනෙක අලුවිහාර (වි), සිසිර ආබෲ(වි) ප්‍රියන්ත ජයවර්ධන (වි), විජිත මලල්ගොඩ(වි), ප්‍රසන්න ජයවර්ධන (වි)  සහ මෘදු ප්‍රනාන්දු (වි) විසින් ලබා දුන් තීන්දුවෙන් කිසිම වෙනස්කමකට ලක්වන්නේ යැයි හෝ විශේෂයෙන් පනත් කෙටුම්පත් සම්බන්ධව හෝ එහි යම් විධිවිධානයක් සම්බන්ධව ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය විසින් ජනමතවිචාරණයක් සදහා නියම කරන තීරණයක් කිසිම අවස්ථාක ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ නඩු තීන්දුවකින් අවලංගු කිරීමට හැකියාවක් ලැබෙන්නේ යැයි විධාන කරන්නේ නැත.

ඒ අනුව 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය සම්බන්ධ පනත් කෙටුම්පත සහ එහි විධිවිධාන ජනමත විචාරණයකින් ජනතාව විසින් අනුමත කළ යුතු බවට සරත් නන්ද සිල්වා (අ.වි), වඩුගොඩුපිටිය (වි), බණ්ඩාරනායක (වි) ඉස්මයිල්(වි) එදිරිසූරිය (වි) යාපා (වි) ජේ. ඒ. එන් ද සිල්වා (වි)  ලබා දුන් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණය මේ වන විටත් වලංගු නීතිය වන අතර එයට පටහැනිව 79 සහ 80.2 ව්‍යවස්ථා උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් ක්‍රියාත්මකවන 19වන ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ 2/3 ඡන්දයෙන් සම්මත වී ඇති පනත් කෙටුම් පතක්ම වේ.

ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් මේ ව්‍යවස්ථා විරෝධි ක්‍රියාවලිය නිවැරදි කළ යුතු අතර ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණය අනුව 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය සම්බන්ධ පනත් කෙටුම්පත සහ එහි විධිවිධාන ජනමත විචාරණයකින් ජනතාව විසින් අනුමත කළ යුතු බවට ශේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණය මත පදනම් 19වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය සම්බන්ධ පනත් කෙටුම්පත සම්බන්ධව ජනමතවිචාරණයක් කැදවීමට ක්‍රියා කළ යුතුය.

ALI SUKHANVER

Though the Christians have been granted leverage in the CAA but practically in their day-to-day life, they have to suffer from a lot of degradation and humiliation in India. The leverage provided to them in the CAA is nothing more than a ‘play-card’ just to please the Western countries like US and UK and win their favours. The Christians there in India are so helpless that they cannot even build their churches. The Hindu extremists don’t allow them to do any type of preaching too and so many times they are barred from performing their religious rituals. Building huge statues of Hindu gods, goddesses and political figures and erecting them at prominent places has ever been a very common practice in India. Moreover, statue making has some religious relevance too with Hinduism but for the minorities statue-making has been made a sin. The ‘credit’ of this action no doubt goes to Mr. Modi and his followers.

At Harobele village in Kanakapura, recently, the construction work on a statue of the Holy Christ had to be stopped soon after it started. Reports say that the extremist Hindus objected that the proposed hill where the statue is set to stand is the abode of a Hindu god, although no temple exists there in the locality. Harobele village is a predominantly Christian locality. The proposed statue is said to be the tallest Christ monolith in the world. Just to get support and cooperation of the Hindu community in peaceful completion of this project, the Congress leader DK Shivakumar was invited to lay the foundation-stone of the statue on December 25, 2019 but even this ‘good-gesture’ proved futile.

On 13^th January 2020, the Right wing organizations took out a massive rally at Kanakapura in protests against the construction of that statue. The rally was participated by thousands of workers of BJP, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The protestors were raising slogans that ‘Hindu land must not be Christianized’. They said that the10 acres land allotted for the statue is sacred for the Hindus. On the other hand, the BJP-run state government is blaming the previous administration of Congress party of illegally allotting the plot of land. In short, things are heading towards another Gujarat Massacre like episode.

According to Aljazeera, the area of Kanakapura has a Christian dominating population and it has always been a target of the Hindu extremists. A horrible wave of violence against the Christians of this area was witnessed in 2008 when Hindu extremists blamed that the local Christians were trying to convert Hindus into Christians by giving them heavy cash. The US Commission for International Religious Freedom said in a report last year that religious freedom was on a downward trend”, with a campaign of violence, intimidation, and harassment against non-Hindu and lower-caste Hindu minorities in India”. But the Hindu extremists are not ready to accept any such report. They are adamant rather stubborn in their approach to the matter and try to give nonsense type of justifications to prove them right. Prabhakar Bhatt, a top RSS functionary said talking to media, We want to stop the statue, since it goes against the spirit of communal harmony and encourages religious conversions which are rampantly carried out by Christian missionaries.”

Atrocities against the minorities particularly against the Christians are nothing new in India. The Christian community in India would never forget the callous burning alive of Pastor Graham Steward Stains along with his two minor sons Timothy and Philip in January1999. Pastor Graham was an Australian missionary and the day he was burnt alive he was sleeping in his station wagon at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district in Orissa. Bajrang Dal’s Dara Siingh aka Rajendra Pal was the man behind that brutality. Javed Akhtar is a very popular poet of India with a large number of his fans all over the world. In a recent tweet he said criticizing the behaviour of the Hindu extremist parties with particular reference to the Kanakapura Statue, They boast they will give citizenship to all the religiously persecuted Christians from the neighbor countries at the same time they claim that they will not allow a statue of Jesus Christ.”

Courtesy Ada Derana

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has met with a group of protesters near the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo today (07).

Workers assisting in the government’s dengue prevention programme had engaged in a protest near the Presidential Secretariat, stating that the former government had employed them under contract basis and that those appointments have been suspended.

President Rajapaksa made a surprise visit to the site of the agitation and met with the protesters. He reportedly assured them that they would be included in the government’s programme to create 100,000 new employment opportunities.

The protesters had then cheered the President as he left the site and returned to the Presidential Secretariat.  

Courtesy Ada Derana

The Government of Good Governance had splashed Rs.2.8 billion on luxury vehicles during its tenure, according to a revelation made during today’s parliamentary session.

Minister Johnston Fernando gave an elaborated explanation on the matter to the House, adding that the highest spender was former President Maithripala Sirisena.

He also criticized JVP Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake for backing such a government with such extravagant spending.

Accordingly, Rs. 1.65 billion has been spent on vehicles for ministers and their ministries, while another Rs. 625.85 million was spent on vehicles for state ministers.

It was also revealed that Rs. 564.99 million has reportedly been allocated for the vehicles for deputy ministers.

The staggering revelation mentioned that former President Sirisena had spent the highest sum on vehicles under the Ministry of Defence. Accordingly, he has imported a total of 9 vehicles worth Rs. 328.9 million, two bulletproof vehicles worth Rs. 151 million and two BMW X5’s totalling to Rs. 104 million.

Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, in the meantime, had imported a Lan Cruiser V8 worth Rs. 42 million. Former Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Rajitha Senaratne has spent Rs. 39 million, also on a Toyota Land Cruiser V8.

Former Minister Ravi Karunanayake has purchased a Mercedes Benz worth Rs. 411 million while Vijayakala Maheswaran imported a Diesel-powered Land Cruiser worth Rs. 42 million.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The previous government had spent Rs.2.8 billion to purchase vehicles for the use of ministers since 2015, Chief Government Whip Johnston Fernando said in parliament today.

He said a sum of Rs.1.6 billion had been spent on the vehicle purchase of ministers while Rs.652 million had been used to purchase vehicles for state ministers.

A sum of Rs.564 million has also been spent on the vehicle purchase of deputy ministers,” he added.

Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Civil Aviation Minister Prasanna Ranatunge said today steps would be taken to obtain compensation from those involved in the SriLankan airline’s Airbus deal after obtaining legal advice.

He said this in Parliament when responding to a question asked by JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake on the controversial Airbus deal.

The minister said SriLankan airlines has complained to the Bribery Commission (BC) to investigate the bribery charges and that the former SriLankan CEO Kapila Chandrasena and his wife were arrested by the CID in connection with the incident.

Responding to a question whether the government would take steps to officially obtain the reports revealed in a British court, the minister said official documents on the verdict of the British Crown Court had been published by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in Britain.

The minister said there were allegations that some ministers of the previous government had obtained various inducements to suppress the investigations though there had been an investigation into the incident.

Former President had appointed a commission into the incident and officials of SriLankan had given statements before the commission. A report had been submitted to the Attorney General but no action has been taken against the culprits,” he said.

The minister said the government had created a situation where the responsible institutions could carry out an impartial investigation and take legal action against those responsible free of political intervention.

JVP leader Dissanayake on Thursday questioned the government whether steps would be taken to officially obtain the reports revealed in a British court and initiate legal action against those involved in the malpractice. 

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

කොරෝනා වෛරසයේ උපත සත්ත්වයන්ගෙන් සිදුවූ බවට බොහෝ පාර්ශව මත පළ කලද කොරෝනා වෛරසය ඇමරිකාව විසින් නිර්මාණය කළ ජීව අවියක් බවට රුසියානු විද්‍යාඥයන් පිරිසක් පෙන්වා දී තිබෙනවා.

චීනයේ ආර්ථිකය අඩපණ කිරීමේ ප්‍රබල අරමුණින් මාරාන්තික කොරෝනා වෛරසය ඇමරිකාව ගොඩනගා ඇති බවයි අදාළ විද්‍යාඥයන් ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇත්තේ.

රුසියානු විද්‍යාඥයන් විශ්වාස කරන්නේ මෙම වෛරසය හමුවේ චීනය අඩපණ වීමෙන් පසුව වෛරසය මර්දනයට නව එන්නතක් සොයා ගැනීමෙන්, ඇමරිකාව මුදල් උපයා ගැනීමේ අරමුණක පසුවූ බවයි.

එවැනි අනාවරණයක් සිදුකර ඇත්තේ පසුගිය මාසයේ ඇමරිකානු වානිජ ලේකම්වරයා ද, උද්ගතව ඇති වාතාවරණය හමුවේ චීනයෙන් ගිලිහෙන රැකියා අවස්ථා යළි ඇමරිකාවට ලබා ගැනීමට හැකිවනු ඇති බවට ආන්දෝලනාත්මක ප්‍රකාශයක් සිදුකර ඇති පසුබිමක් තුල වීම විශේෂත්වයක්.

මේ අතර, කොරෝනා වෛරසය ව්‍යාප්තිය හේතුවෙන් රටවල් පනවා ඇති සංචාරක තහනම් හමුවේ ගුවන් ගමන් ඉල්ලුම අඩුවීම නිසා රැකියා කප්පාදු කිරීමට සහ වැටුප් රහිත නිවාඩු ලබා ගන්නා ලෙස හොංකොං ගුවන් සේවය තම සේවකයන්ට දැනුම්දී තිබෙනවා.

එසේම, කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ 400 දෙනෙකුට රැකියාවලින් ඉවත් වන ලෙස දැනුම්දී ඇති බවයි විදෙස් වාර්තා සඳහන් කළේ.

හොංකොං ගුවන් සේවය එවන් තීරණයකට එළඹ ඇත්තේ හොංකොං හි කැතේ පැසිෆික් ගුවන් සේවය 27,000 ක සේවක පිරිසක් සේවයෙන් ඉවත් කිරිමට ගත් තීරණයෙන් දින කිහිපයකට පසුවයි.

කොරෝනා වෛරසය මේ වනවිට රටවල් 28 ක් පුරා ව්‍යාප්ත වී ඇති අතර, පුද්ගලයන් 638 ක් ජිවිතක්ෂයට පත්ව තිබෙනවා. ඉන් 636 ක්ම චීනයෙන් වාර්තා වන බවයි විදෙස් වාර්තා සඳහන් කළේ.

ලොව පුරා කොරෝනා වෛරසය ආසාදිත මුළු සංඛ්‍යාව 31,500 ක්.

සුරතල් සතුන්ට ද මුඛ ආවරණ පළදවමින් ඔවුන් ද කොරෝනා වෛරසයෙන් ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමට චීනයේ වූහාන් හි නගර වැසියන් පියවර ගෙන තිබූ බව විදෙස් මාධ්‍ය වාර්තා කර තිබුණා.

මේ අතර, නව කොරෝනා වෛරසය වැළඳී ඇති බවට සැක කෙරෙන පුද්ගලයින් 14 දෙනෙකු තවදුරටත් දිවයිනේ රෝහල් කිහිපයක ප්‍රතිකාර ලබනවා.

එමෙන්ම, චීනයේ – වූහාන් නගරයේ සිට පැමිණි සිසුන් 33 දෙනාද, මේ වනවිට දියතලාව හමුදා කඳවුරේ තවදුරටත් නිරෝධායන තත්ත්වයේ පසුවනවා.

එමෙන්ම, වානිජ නෞකා හරහා මෙරටට පැමිණෙන විදේශිකයන් අතර, උණ රෝග ලක්ෂණය සහිත කිසියම් පුද්ගලයෙකු සිටී නම්, ඔහුට කිසිදු ආකාරයකින් රට තුළට ඇතුළු වීමට අවස්ථාව නොලැබෙන බවයි සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයේ නිරෝධායන ඒකකයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ එස්.එම්.ආනල්ඩ් ප්‍රකාශ කළේ.

මේ අතර, චීනයේ සිට පැමිණෙන මගීන් කටුනායක ගුවන්තොටුපලෙන් දිවයිනට පැමිණෙන ස්ථානයේ සවි කළ නැනෝ තාක්ෂණය මගින් වාතය පිරිසිදු කරන උපකරණය පිළිබඳව වියත්මඟ සංවිධානය කොළඹදී අද මාධ්‍ය හමුවක් කැඳවමින් පැහැදිලි කිරීමක් කළා.

එම අවස්ථාවට අදාළ උපකරණයේ නිපැයුම්කරු මංජු ගුණවර්ධන ද එක්ව සිටියා.

එමෙන්ම, ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ උපදෙස් අනුව, ගුවන්තොටුපල අවට සහ කාර්යාල පිරිසිදු කිරීමේ පැය 3 ක ශ්‍රමදානයක් අද පෙරවරුවේ කටුනායක බණ්ඩාරනායක ජාත්‍යන්තර ගුවන්තොටුපලේදී පැවැත්වුණා.

Oshan Wedage, Patrick Roberts, Patrick Faulkner, Alison Crowther, Katerina Douka, Andrea Picin, James Blinkhorn, Siran Deraniyagala, Nicole Boivin, Michael Petraglia, Noel Amano courtesy MAX-PLANCK Institute for the Science of Human History

Abstract

Sri Lanka has produced the earliest clear evidence for Homo sapiens fossils in South Asia and research in the region has provided important insights into modern human adaptations and cultural practices during the last ca. 45,000 years. However, in-depth multidisciplinary analyses of Late Pleistocene and Holocene sequences remain limited to just two sites, Fa Hien-lena and Batadomba-lena. Here, we present our findings from the reinvestigation of a third site, Kitulgala Beli-lena. New chronometric dating from the site confirms the presence of humans as early as ca. 45,000 cal. BP. in the island’s Wet Zone rainforest region. Our analyses of macrobotanical, molluscan, and vertebrate remains from the rockshelter show that this early human presence is associated with rainforest foraging. The Late Pleistocene deposits yielded evidence of wild breadfruit and kekuna nut extraction while the Holocene layers reveal a heavy reliance on semi-arboreal and arboreal small mammals as well as freshwater snails as a protein source. The lithic and osseous artefacts demonstrate that populations developed a sophisticated tool kit for the exploitation of their immediate landscapes. We place the rich Kitulgala Beli-lena dataset in its wider Sri Lankan context of Late Pleistocene foraging, as well as in wider discussions of our species’ adaptation to ‘extreme’ environments as it moved throughout Asia.

Results of investigations at Kitulgala Beli-lena led by researchers from the Department of Archaeology confirm human occupation of Sri Lanka’s rainforest region as early as ca. 45,000 cal. BP

Sri Lanka has produced the earliest clear evidence for Homo sapiens fossils in tropical rainforest environments in South Asia. However, in-depth multidisciplinary analyses of archaeological sequences remain limited to just two sites. A paper recently published in Quaternary Science Reviews details evidence for modern human adaptations and cultural practices from a third rockshelter site: Kitulgala Beli-lena.

Located in Sri Lanka’s Wet Zone rainforest region, Kitulgala Beli-lena was re-excavated in 2017 by archaeologists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History alongside researchers from University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Sri Lanka and other international institutions. The excavation aimed to recover new archaeological material in order to refine the chronology of the site and better understand early human culture, technology, and subsistence strategies.

Plant gathering and stone tool production ca. 45,000 years ago

New radiocarbon dates showed that Kitulgala Beli-lena had episodic human occupation, from around ca. 44,000 to 31,000 cal. BP. This early human presence is associated with clear evidence for rainforest plant gathering, specifically of wild breadfruit (Artocarpus nobilis) and kekuna nut (Canarium zeylanicum). Both of these plants provide a rich source of starch, fats, and protein, and require little processing. Sediments from the earliest phase of site occupation also yielded evidence for the manufacture of quartz flakes using the bipolar-on-anvil method, which hints on how the early foragers made use of their landscape.

A Pleistocene preference for monkeys and freshwater snails

Kitulgala Beli-lena saw increased human occupation starting with the Terminal Pleistocene, beginning roughly 17,000-12,000 years ago and continuing to around 8,000 years ago. During this time, the people that utilized the rockshelter relied heavily on small arboreal and semi-arboreal animals, specifically monkeys and squirrels, as well as freshwater snails. Tools made from monkey bones, projectile points possibly used to hunt the arboreal animals, were also found in the same sedimentary layers. Together with the quartz tools dating to the same period, these findings suggest that the Kitulgala foragers developed a sophisticated tool kit for the exploitation of their immediate landscapes.

Specialized rainforest adaptation

The evidence reported from Kitulgala Beli-lena adds to the knowledge of specialized rainforest adaptation of early humans in tropical environments. Considering the results of studies looking at other sites in the region, a complex picture of specialized rainforest occupation and exploitation is starting to emerge. It appears that Kitulgala Beli-lena, and the previously reported sites in the region, all formed part of a network of hunting ranges, plant exploitation routes, and settlement strategies. In addition, the continuous human presence in the region from the Late Pleistocene to the Historic period suggests an ability of foragers to persist in rainforest settings indicative of sustainability of rainforest resource exploitation.

Interlinked to the MCC US Government grant of $480m are some crucial topics that the ruling government, the judiciary and citizens cannot ignore. 84% of Sri Lanka’s land belongs to the state. What happens if this 84% state land is privatized? Will the Govt be able to impose tax and gain revenue. Will the bulk money given at purchase of land be sufficient to run a country? Confounding matters is the removal of restrictions prohibiting foreigners to purchase land & property. A Government is only trustee or custodian of the land for a term of office and an overruling principle is the inalienability of land with sovereignty. WITHOUT land no country is sovereign. So if a country’s land is privatized its sovereignty is questioned. That is one aspect that policy makers need to seriously ponder. Sri Lanka managed to salvage itself from 4 attempts by the previous government to privatize State land. Is the distribution of title deeds to farmers an alternative to privatizing state land?

That Sri Lanka lacks a sound and secure land policy is a fact. That Sri Lanka has been depending on proposals and reports given by foreign private contractors is also a fact. How far these proposals gel with the country and its people’s needs or wants is a different question altogether. What these foreign proposals continuously recommend is to view land as a commodity and open up for foreign investments.

Leaving aside the controversies surrounding the proposed MCC economic corridor and the numerous pink dots in a map circulating drawing fear of US bases being set up across the country, let us take the subject of farmers being given freehold title deeds.  

Farmers holding LDO permits given title ownership

The previous government was on a hurricane attempt to dish out 1million deeds to farmers. Why were they in such a hurry to hand over deeds to those holding only permits under Land Development Ordinance of 1935?

Permit holders of the LDO could not fragment land, mortgage the land, dispose of it without the GA’s permission but the land could be passed on to a nominated successor so long as he/she continued the livelihood given to the original allottee.

LDO permits were intended to ensure no State land would be alienated to any other person than citizens of Sri Lanka. But now foreigners can purchase any land and any property. All restrictions upon foreigners was removed by the previous government ahead of attempts to privatize land, ahead of signing ACSA, ahead of launching preconditions given by MCC teams regularly arriving in Sri Lanka since 2015.

Sri Lanka from being known as the Granary of the East has become a country now importing rice and most foods that could easily be grown in Sri Lanka for local consumption. The pride that our ancestors brought to our island in developing agriculture has virtually collapsed. The farmers today are engulfed in poverty & debt. These are sad realities that we have to face. But is giving a title deed to a farmer in poverty & debt the solution?

A farmer holding a LDO permit is in a plot of land that does not belong to him. The land he and his family had been living for generations belong to the State of Sri Lanka.

However, the LDO permit enabled the farmer to have a livelihood, he had a roof over his head, he had a place for his family to live. He had security in the form that as a member of the farmer community, they could make appeals to a government and obtain some form of concessions. The state banks would also assist whenever possible.

Now imagine this farmer getting 100% title ownership to the land.

His links to the government immediately ceases.

He becomes a private owner fending for himself. The government has nothing to do with him and no obligations to him. He is one his own.

Will a bank give a loan to a farmer without consistent monthly income?

What is the collateral security the bank will demand – obviously the land.

What happens when the farmer cannot repay the loan? The Bank confiscates the land and eventually puts it to auction. How many can afford such land up for auction? With foreigners able to purchase land, will it not be them who will come forward and grab the land? (was this the plan all along)

What happens next to the farmer?

He loses the land his family had been living for generations

He has no means of livelihood

He has no place to live

He has lost the land he had been previously living under lease

His family doesn’t have a place to live or a means of indirect livelihood

He and his entire family are displaced.

So if 1million such farmers are to be given title ownership to land – wont this 1million eventually end up without land, without a job and without a place to live?

With their dependents we are looking at a minimum of 4million people who are likely to be displaced, without home and livelihood.

What is a government who doesn’t have any state land because all 84% of state land under its custodianship was privatized going to do about the scenario?

How will a government provide a place to live for this 4milion displaced people?

When 84% state land is privatized – a government has no land under its jurisdiction.

We are living in an island – there is only the sea around us… where will these 4million displaced people without any livelihood, without any money and without any place to live go to and as citizens of Sri Lanka how will the Sri Lankan Government look after them?

Shenali D Waduge

උපුටා ගැන්ම  අද දෙරණ

බැඳුම්කර වංචාවන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් මේ වන විට ප්‍රකාශයට පත්කර ඇති වෝහාරික විගණන වාර්තා සම්බන්ධයෙන් තමන්ගේ නම සම්බන්ධ කර තිබීම පිළිබඳව පැහැදිලි කිරීම සඳහා හිටපු මහ බැංකු අධිපති අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල් මහතා ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවක් කැඳවා තිබුණේය.

මෙහිදී අදහස් දක්වමින් කබ්රාල් මහතා කියා සිටියේ, තම ඥාතීන් අතුරින් කිසිවකුත් මෙයට සම්බන්ධයක් නොමැති බවත්, සම්බන්ධයක් තිබෙන එකම ඥාතියා රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ බවත්ය.

මෙහිදී සිය ඥාතීන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් එල්ල වන චෝදනා පිළිබඳව ඔහු මෙසේ ප්‍රතිචාර දැක්වීය.

වෝහාරික විගණන වාර්තාවේ කියනවා, මගේ පවුලේ අය හිටියා කියලා වෙනම තැන්වල. මම මේ ගැන ඩිව් ගුණසේකර මැතිතුමාගේ, කෝප් කමිටුවට ගිහිල්ලා මගේ පවුලේ අය ඔක්කෝමලා ගැන කිව්වා. මට මතකයි එතනදී මගෙන් ප්‍රශ්නයක් ඇහුවා. මෙන්න මේ මේ අය මගේ පවුලේ ඉන්න අය. මම බොහොම පැහැදිලිව කිව්වා. ඒ ඉන්න අය මොන තනතුරු දරනවාද, ඒ අය ඒ තනතුරුවලට පත්වුණේ කොහොමද කියලාත්, මම පෙන්නලා දුන්නා. මගේ මහ බැංකු අධිපතිධූරය නිසා නෙමෙයි, ඒ එක්කෙනක්වත් ඒ තනතුරුවලට පත්වෙලා තියෙන්නේ.”

නිහාල් ෆොන්සේකා – එයා බැංකු ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ හිටපු ප්‍රවීණයෙක්. එයා HSBC බැංකුවේ ඉතාමත් ඉහළ තනතුරක් දරලා තිබුණේ, මම මහ බැංකු අධිපති වෙන්නවත් හිතලාවත් නැති කාලෙක. ඊට පස්සේ එයා DFCC බැංකුවේ කළමනාකාර අධ්‍යක්ෂ වෙලා හිටියා. ඒත් මම එන්න කලිං.

අමල් කබ්රාල් – එයා හැටන් නැෂනල් බැංකුවේ හිටපු අධ්‍යක්ෂ කෙනෙක් කියලා තමයි චෝදනා කරන්නේ. එයා හැටන් නැෂනල් බැංකුවට එන්න කලිං, යුනිලිවර් එකේ සභාපති.

ෂිබානි තම්බයියා – එයා රේණුකා හෝටල් සමූහයේ කළමනාකාර අධ්‍යක්ෂ. එයා ඇමරිකාවේ විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයක උපාධිධාරියෙක්.

සුනිල් විජේසිංහ – මගේ නෝනාගේ අයියා. එයා NDB සභාපති කියලා තමයි කිව්වේ. ඊට කලින් එයා දංකොටුව පෝසිලේන් සභාපති. ඊට කලින් වටවල ප්ලානේටේෂන් සභාපති. මේ පත්කරලා තියෙන්නේ මම නෙමෙයි.

රනෙල් විජේසිංහ – එයා කළමනාකරණ උපදේශකවරයෙක්. එයා වරලත් ගණකාරධිකාරී ආයතනයේ හිටපු සභාපති. එයා ලංකා බැංකුවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ කියන එක තමයි මට තියෙන චෝදනාව.

ධාරා විජේතිලක – මගේ නෝනාගේ අක්කා. එයා සැලසුම් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමේ අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම්. ලංකා වාණිජ මණ්ඩලයේ ලේකම් ජනරාල්. එයා සම්පත් බැංකුවේ හිටියා කියලා තමයි මේ චෝදනාව මට ගේන්නේ.

චතුර කබ්රාල් – මගේ පුතා. එයා ඉංජිනේරුවෙක්. එයා බැංකු ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ කිසිම තැනක නැහැ. චෝදනාව තමයි, වැලිබල් පවර් එකේ සහ ෆෝට්රස් එකේ එයා අධ්‍යක්ෂ මණ්ඩලේ හිටියා කියලා. ඒක සම්බන්ධ කරනවා, ධම්මික පෙරේරාත් එක්ක, වෝහාරික විගණනයේ දී. ධම්මික පෙරේරා ගේ වැලිබල් ෆිනෑන්ස් එකේ ඕපනිං එකට මම ගියා කියලා ප්‍රධාන අමුත්තා හැටියට. එතටෙකාට කියනවා ධම්මික පෙරේරා මහත්තයාගේ කිංග්ස්බරි එක ඕපන් කරද්දී, ඒකට මම ගියාලු ප්‍රධාන අමුත්තා හැටියට. එකේ ප්‍රධාන අමුත්තා වුණේ එවකට හිටපු ජනාධිපතිතුමා, මම නොවෙයි. මම ගියේ සහභාගී වීමට.

ශිරෝමි වික්‍රමසිංහ – මගේ සහෝදරිය. එයා පර්පෙචුවල් කැපිටල් හෝලිංඩිග්ස් එකේ හිටියා කියලා තමයි චෝදනාව තියෙන්නේ. එයා ඒ ආයතනයේ ඉන්න කොට එක සතයක්වත් අරන් නැහැ. එයා මේ මගඩිය ගැන අහගත්ත පළවෙනි දවසෙම 2015 මාර්තු මාසේ 08 වෙනිදා එයා ඉල්ලා අස්වුණා හෝල්ඩිංග්ස් කම්පැනි එකෙන්. පර්පෙචුවෙල් ට්‍රෙෂරීස් එකේ එයා හිටියේ නැහැ.

රෝෂණී කබ්රාල් – මගේ බිරිඳ. එයා හිටියේ ලංකා හොස්ලිට්ල් එකේ නියෝජ්‍ය සභාපති විදියට. මොන හේතුවක් නිසාද දන්නේ නැහැ. එයාවත් මේකට සම්බන්ධ කරලා දාලා තියෙනවා.

රවී තම්බයියා – එයා DFCC බැංකුවේ හිටිය අධ්‍යක්ෂ කෙනෙක්. එයා රේණුකා හෝටල් සමූහයේ සභාපති. ඒක ලංකාවේ ලොකුම සමූහ සමාගමක්.

මගේ පවුලේ අය ගැන මට විශ්වාසයි. මේ වාර්තාවේ පැහැදිලිව ලියලා තියෙනවා, පවුලේ අය සිටින බවට කිසිම සාක්ෂියක් නැහැ කියලා. මගේ පවුලේ අය වෘත්තීයමය අය. ඒ අය එසේ මෙසේ අයත් නෙමෙයි. ඒ ගැන කතා කරලා නැහැ මෙච්චර කල්. නමුත් දැන් කතා කරන්න සිදුවෙනවා.”

මගේ පියා දොස්තර කෙනෙක්. වෛද්‍ය ලෙස්ලි කබ්රාල්. මගේ පියාගේ තාත්තා තමයි විල්ෆ්‍රඩ් ඇලෝෂියස් කබ්රාල්, මේ ලංකාවේ හිටපු පළවෙනි පෝස්ට් මාස්ටර් ජෙනරල්, ලාංකිකයෙක් හැටියට හිටිය. මගේ පියාගේ සහෝදරයා තමයි වෛද්‍ය ෂෙල්ටන් කබ්රාල්. ලංකාවේ හිටපු පළවෙනි ස්නායු ශල්‍ය වෛද්‍යවරයා.”

මේ බැඳුම්කරේට සම්බන්ධ එකම එක්කෙනෙක් ඉන්නවා, මේ බැඳුම්කරේට නෑකමක් තියෙන. ඒ ගැනත් මට කියන්නට ඕනේ. ඒ තමයි මගේ මාමණ්ඩිගේ මල්ලී බැඳලා ඉන්න පුද්ගලයාගේ තාත්තාගේ නංගි තමයි ඒ පුද්ගලයා. කවුද ඒ පුද්ගලයා. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ. මගේ uncle in law මිස්ටර් සෑම් විජේසිංහ. එයා විවාහ වෙලා ඉන්නේ, රනිල්ගේ පියාගේ සහෝදරිය. ඒ සමබන්ධෙ නම් තියෙනවා. මම ඒ ගැන අද හෙළිදරව් කරනවා. අනිත් අය ගැන මම බොහොම උජාරුවෙන් කිව්වට, මේ සම්බන්ධය ගැන කියන්න ලැජ්ජයි.”

– adaderana