Sri Lankan government told to improve country's image before the international community

Thu, Oct 31, 2013, 10:55 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Oct 31, Colombo: Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party (UNP) says the government should look at improving the country's image before the international community.

UNP spokesperson, parliamentarian Gayantha Karunathilaka said the government was paying much emphasis to the hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo next month but the real necessity was for the government to work towards building confidence among members of the international community and to improve the country's image in the international arena.

Addressing a media briefing at the party headquarters on Wednesday, Karunathilaka said that it is the government's failures that have resulted in the Canadian Prime Minister announcing he would not participate in the summit.

According to Karunathilaka, the government is also using the CHOGM summit to ignore the real issues faced by the country.

He accused the government of spending public money to stage mega events like Deyata Kirula and Asian Film Festival and to bloat the image of the politicians.

POLICE ARREST GANG INVOLVED IN 12 ARMED ROBBERIES

November 1, 2013

Four suspects have been arrested over 12 recent large scale armed robberies including the theft of Rs 7.5 million from a garment factory owner in Ja Ela and Rs 35 million in foreign currency and gold in Pettah.

The suspects, Weerasinghe Suneetha, Susil Silva, Prasanna Sanjeewa Kumara and Sanjeewa Mandanayake, were arrested by a team of officers from the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID).

The armed robberies carried out by the gang of robbers include the robbery of Rs 7.5 million from the owner of Polytex Garment in Ja Ela on May 28.

The businessman was returning to the factory with the cash from a private bank when the armed men had stopped him near the factory and stolen the money after threatening him.

They were also involved in robbing foreign currency and gold worth Rs 35 million from a jewelry store in Sea Street, Pettah on August 06. The suspects had used two T56 rifles and a pistol to carry out the robbery, police said.

The suspects are being detained and further interrogated, police said.  

45,000 health workers on strike

By Aisha Nazim-Friday, 01 Nov 2013

Over 45,000 employees in the health sector are on a 24-hour token strike today, claiming that numerous demands pertaining to salary anomalies, increments and allowances have not been addressed by the Ministry of Health, the Health Services Trade Union Alliance (HSTUA) said. 

President of the HSTUA, Saman Ratnapriya, maintained that the unionists were compelled to launch the strike as they are left with no other alternative. Despite the Health Ministry agreeing with the unionists’ demands and accepting that they indeed do have problems, which ought to be resolved, something tangible is yet to be done to resolve the issues.
The unionists met with the Health Ministry authorities on 14 and 28 October, to no avail, Rathnapriya noted.He also said the demands ranged from inadequacies and discrepancies of salary increments to various allowances like communication allowances, transport allowances and overtime payments.

“On 14 October, the Ministry Secretary asked us for a two-week time period to resolve our issues. On 28 October, the Health Minister asked us for an additional two weeks. We refused this request because they can’t keep asking for extensions like that and also because the Secretary has done absolutely nothing over the two-week time period he had asked for,” Rathnapriya said.