It has been revealed that the failure to prevent violent incidents across the country on May 09 is a considerable fault of the police and the armed forces.

This is stated in the report issued by the committee appointed by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to investigate the related incidents. This report was handed over to President Ranil Wickramasinghe on the 8th.

The other members of this committee which was appointed by Former Navy Commander, Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karnagoda, are former Air Force Commander, Marshal of the Air Force Roshan Gunathilake and former Army Commander General Daya Ratnayake.

The committee says that the intelligence agencies had provided sufficient information regarding the attack on Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s house in Mirihane on March 31st and the riots on May 09th, but the police and the armed forces have not acted properly. It has been observed that instructions had been given to higher officials to control the protesters, but those officials have not issued orders to their subordinates to take necessary measures.

The report has been prepared based on the evidence of police and military intelligence officers and the committee reports on 03 major faults.

The committee says that the reluctance of security forces members to carry out orders such as the use of batons, shooting in the air, shooting below the knee, lack of proper coordination between intelligence agencies and the lack of operational coordination between security agencies are very serious deficiencies.

The committee pointed out that due to various reasons such as prosecution of security forces members involved in incidents like the Rathupaswala incident, taking action against security forces members in Sri Lanka in front of international organizations such as the United Nations Human Rights Council, security forces members are reluctant to take necessary measures in civil conflicts.

Railway Deputy General Manager (Commercial) Vajira S Polwattage said today (10) media that with the large number of people arriving for the weekend holidays, especially for the main railway line, Badulla line, there is a panic situation at the railway stations due to the high number of passengers. Commenting on said.

However, he apologizes to the commuters for not being able to provide a supply that meets the demand and asks them to understand the current situation and take action.

Polwattage said that due to the commotion caused by some passengers trying to forcefully enter the reserved seats of the train, there have been obstacles to the traffic.

Accordingly, he requests to travel only in the cabins of the class for which tickets have been obtained.

He said that at present there is a problem of issuing tickets due to the increase in the number of passengers for train travel and the train tickets are sold out unexpectedly.

Polwattage said that alternative measures are being taken to reduce the blockages.

In the meantime, there is a great demand for long-distance service trains, especially for trains on the main road, Badulu, and he said that all the seats are sold out in the first five minutes of every day when booking seats.

It is reported that the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo has been closed. This has happened according to a decision of the Norwegian government.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway has decided to close the embassies of Sri Lanka, Slovakia, Kosovo, Madagascar and the Houston Consulate General of the United States of America, and the Foreign Affairs Minister said that diplomatic relations with the respective countries will be continued through Norwegian ambassadors located in nearby countries.

During the war, the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo was a very busy place, and since Norway acted as a mediator in the peace process in this country, it had also arranged to appoint ambassadors with experience in diplomatic relations as ambassadors in this country.

With the end of the war, the role of the Norwegian embassy was significantly reduced and that may have been the reason for the closure of the embassy.

Due to the economic crisis that Sri Lanka is facing, it was decided to close the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Oslo, Norway last April. Although it has been announced that the ambassador will be temporarily withdrawn, a date for re-establishing the office has not been announced so far.

As reported by the Government Medical Officers Association, doctors have started to leave the country in large numbers due to the economic crisis in the country.

“During the past 8 months, approximately 500 doctors who were in the health service and hospital system of this country have evacuated from Sri Lanka by now. As this matter being consequential, in the past two months, especially these doctors have finally given up their profession with this situation and left their jobs abroad, sometimes without informing the Ministry of Health. Therefore, more than 50 quit notices have been issued. These are just a few statistics.”

A representative of the association stated this in a press conference held yesterday (09) by the Association of Government Medical Officers.

OV

Minister Mahinda Amaraweera says that the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture have informed him that the report issued by the Auditor General regarding the controversial Chinese fertilizer ship is not correct.

The Minister states that the Auditor General’s Department has asked the Ministry of Agriculture regarding the fertilizer transaction, but the answers given by the Ministry officials have not been included in the report.

Also, usually this type of report should be submitted to the Parliament first, but the minister who says that this report has already been released to the media, stated that it is a mistake and that an investigation will be conducted as to how it happened.

The Minister also mentioned that an investigation will be conducted regarding the truth or falsity of the facts mentioned in the Auditor General’s report.

Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said this while replying to an inquiry made by a radio channel.

The relevant Auditor General’s report had recommended that the loss incurred by the government through this transaction should be recovered from the persons responsible for it.

The flame has been extinguished after seven decades of selfless service to this great nation and to the peoples of the commonwealth of nations. How a young princess of the Windsors who threw herself to the services of the nation during the dark days of the second world war, gracefully matured to fill the role of the mother of the nation is beyond comprehension. In her unobtrusive way, Her Majesty ensured the relevance of the British Monarchy as the guarantor of the democratic way of life, in an era of fast changing world order.

Her Majesty’s everlasting legacy is the grace with which she presided over a large number of British colonies gaining independence and regrouping themselves as equal members of a family of nations – the commonwealth.

The demography of this nation itself has changed during Her Majesty’s reign and now the United Kingdom is a multicultural and multi ethnic society. However, one that remained a constant, is the esteem in which the institution of monarchy is held by the rainbow society of the UK. Her Majesty’s role in this is incalculable.

Though not unanticipated, the end of her reign and the life full of grace, have plunged the whole nation into a deep sense of sorrow. We join the grieving nation in paying our respects to our dear queen.

British Tamils Forum

Samantha Power, head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka today (10). It is for a two-day official visit.

It is said that she is coming to Sri Lanka to discuss the economic crisis and development work in Sri Lanka.

During this visit, she is scheduled to hold talks with President Ranil Wickremesinghe and other government heads and senior officials as well as representatives of the private sector.

According to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the amount of remittances received from foreign workers to the country in August 2022 was 325.4 million US dollars.

Last July, 279.5 million US dollars were received as remittances and it seems that the remittances of foreign workers have increased.

Also, the total amount of remittance received from January to August 2022 is 2214.8 million US dollars.