Ajith Panditharatne becomes a servant at the Central Bank Governor’s house

Friday, 26 April 2013

Chairman of People’s Merchant Bank, Ajith Panditharatne has been employed as a servant at Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal’s residence, Central Bank Governor’s friends said.

Informed sources say that Panditharatne had received this new posting during the Central Bank Governor’s mother’s funeral. Every one who had visited the funeral had spoken very highly of the head of the People’s Merchant Bank. However, the Central Bank Governor had not said the reason for this praise.

The People’s Merchant Bank Chairman’s loyalty towards the Central Bank Governor is due to the fact that the Governor had saved him from being jailed for one of his rackets. It is learnt that Ajith Panditharatne had prepared fake documents about the sale of Central Bank’s gold reserves with the knowledge of the Central Bank Governor and had collected monies from local and foreign investors.

People who had paid monies had later complained to the CID and Fraud Bureau about the racket in order to retrieve their monies. When the CID was going to arrest the People’s Merchant Bank Chairman, the Central Bank Governor had got Namal Rajapaksa to intervene and prevent the chairman from being arrested.

Sources said that the People’s Merchant Bank Chairman is now acting as a servant to the Central Bank Governor to show his gratitude.

The President had earlier planned on appointing Panditharatne as the People’s Bank Chairman after the demise of W. Karunajeewa. However, the President had changes his mind after Namal Rajapaksa had informed him of the situation. The President had then appointed his head of staff, Gamini Senarath to the post.

Speaker hides behind the Deputy Speaker

Friday, 26 April 2013

Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa has hidden after assigning the task of managing the House to Deputy Speaker Chandima Weerakkody due to the continuous protests carried out by the opposition MPs against the electricity tariff hike, sources from parliament said.

When the opposition parliamentarians started to protest in parliament lighting candles and JVP MPs standing on tables, the Speaker’s attempt to adjourn parliament sittings also failed to stop the protests. The Speaker had then told the Deputy Speaker to handle the situation saying he did not want to face the blame for others.

Senior SLFP MPs remained in their seats silently and several MPs who have defected to the government from the UNP had thrown bottles of water at the protesting parliamentarians to score points with Minister Basil Rajapaksa.

Galle district parliamentarian Manusha Nanayakkara has taken the lead in this attack.