The operation carried out by the special investigations unit at the Bureau had taken action against three foreign employment agencies at the Fountain Plaza at Maradana. The three agencies according to the SLBFE are Avish Manpower, MF Agency and Rose Asian Tours and Travels.

During the raid on these agencies the SLBFE has recovered 122 passports and false documents that had been prepared by the agencies to be given to their clients, who are hopeful of receiving employment overseas.

Officials of the agencies were arrested by the Maradana Police and were produced before the Maligakanda Magistrate. They were granted a Rs. 200,000 bail.

The case is to be taken up on October 25.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Commissions (TRC) recently announced the introduction of floor prices to mobile phone operators.

TRC’s revised floor price are as follows: Off Net – Rs 2 and On Net – Rs 1 per minute basis Tariff Plans; Off Net – Rs 2.50 and On Net – Rs 1.25 per Second Basis Tariff Plans; and Off Net – Rs 0.25 and On Net – Rs 0.10 for SMS.
Airtel filed an FR petition at the Supreme Court complaining that the TRC’s decision to impose a new scheme was against the interest of the customers and is ultra vires the powers of the commission.
The company further claimed that the TRC decision prevented a level playing field and discriminated between sections of consumers and/or sections of operators.

The Supreme Court however refused to grant leave to proceed with the FR petition filed by the Bharati Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. and those filed by two consumers challenging the floor price imposed on mobile phone tariffs.

Sarath Fonseka waves

The Colombo High Court today issued summons on 20 witnesses in the case involving a statement made by the former Army General Sarath Fonseka during an interview with the Sunday Leader ( December 13th 2009) that Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had issued an illegal order to a ground commander,  not to accommodate surrendering LTTE leaders during the last stages of the war.

Daily hearings into the highly controversial ” White Flag” case is to  begin on the 27th of September.

Chinese construction equipment at work

As construction on the 300MW power plant nears completion, the Sri Lankan cabinet has approved the Lanka Coal Company opening a Rs. 1 billion letter of credit to purchase coal and begin operations this November. The cost of the first shipment of 65,500 MT of coal will cost USD $7 million.

This coal power plant was commissioned in 2006 and is being built using a USD $455 million loan from China’s EXIM bank. Much of the work was given to the China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation. While this creates debt and few jobs for Sri Lanka, it does provide vital electricity infrastructure.

“We want to give electricity to 100 percent of the households by 2012,” power minister Champika Patali Ranawaka said. “At the moment about 85 percent of the households have power.”

According to the website LBO, which has been thoroughly documenting energy issues, Sri Lankan power plants depend heavily on expensive liquid fuels (gas) causing the CEB to incur heavy losses.

Patient being prepared for surgery

Consultant Eye Surgeon of the Hemas Hospital, Wattala, Dr. Shamintha Amaratunge, on Tuesday  (27) performed 50 cataract surgeries free of charge.

This project, Sight at 50, was initiated by the Rotary Club of Colombo West, who teamed up with the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) to help those in the low-income group who faced cataract problems.

President of the Rotary Club of Colombo West, Pradeep Amirthanayagam, told The Sunday Leader that Sight at 50 was one of the projects the Club was carrying out in celebration of their Golden Jubilee Year.

“A lot of our projects have taken place outside the city, so this time we planned to focus on Colombo,” said Amirthanayagam.

“We have had several meetings with the CMC since May, to ensure that the right people – people who really lived below the poverty line – were selected. The CMC has access to these groups, and we also wanted to make sure we helped out people from all three communities.”

Amirthanayagam also explained that this was somewhat of a long-term undertaking, where the patients would be monitored for weeks after the surgery, and provided with the necessary lenses and other medical supplies.

Doctors Sunethra Jayawardane, Preethie Aluthge and Uthika Vignesvararajah from the CMC oversaw the proceedings.

Cataract is common among the ageing population, the nurse in charge, Sister Kamala Perera, said, adding that 60 per cent or so of the ageing population is affected by this.

By Maryam Azwer and Gazala Anver

Elderly patient after surgery

The Leader Winners

The Sunday Leader bagged seven awards at the Journalism Awards For Excellence 2009, held at the Mount Lavinia Hotel on Tuesday (27th), making it the print institution to win the most awards for its contributions to journalism in the year 2009.

First to be mentioned on the Leader’s list of accolades at the JAE is the Sepala Gunasena Award for Defending Press Freedom of Sri Lanka which was posthumously awarded to the Founding Editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunga.

The K. Kailaspathy Award for Reporting Under Special Circumstances was won by the Sunday Leader, while Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema took two awards; the Investigative Journalist of the Year and a Merit for the Business and Finance Journalist of the year.

The Merit award for the Investigative Journalist of the Year meanwhile, went to Raknish Savan Wijewardene, the Upali Wijeywardene Feature Writer of the Year award under the English category to Ranee Mohamad and the Merit award for the English Columnist of the Year, to Emil Van Der Poorten.

Competition for the awards was high with leading English, Sinhala and Tamil print institutions including the likes of the Sunday Times, Daily Mirror, The Nation, Raavaya, Lakbima News, Divaina, Metro News, The Daily Virakesiri, Virakesiri Weekly and Thinakural participating.

The main award at the Ceremony, which is the Mervin De Silva Journalist of the Year Award, went to the Namini N. Wijedasa of Lakbima News.

In a surprise and unexplained move, for the very first time, the Scoop of the Year was awarded to a News Desk (i.e, the Sunday Times) and not to a news story or journalist.

According to police reports, the decomposed body – that was measured to be about 5’6 in height -  was clad in trousers only, with the upper body bare.

The body – that is yet to be identified - was taken to the mortuary at the Colombo National Hospital.

Modera Police is conducting further investigations.

Black July

As a follow-up to last week’s coverage of the anniversary of Black July, The Sunday Leader would like to ask its readers for their memories of those terrible riots. You can leave your story in the comments below. Space permitting, we would like to reprint a selection of this testimony.

Midwives from the Government Midwifery Services Association gathered outside the Health Ministry this morning to protest against moves being made by a number of Health Services Associations to get rid of its services.

In a press release the GMSA stated that its members had asked for ‘sick leave’ from the hospitals they worked at in order defeat attempts to destroy the Midwifery Services, and to draw government attention to the proposal it made in their regard under  ’Mahinda Chintana Idiri Dekkma’.

Calling for midwives island wide to join them in the concerted efforts against destructive forces, members of the Government Midwifery Services Association promised that if forced to, they would continue its protest in order to protect their profession.

Mervyn Silva

The Colombo Municipal Council is beginning to look at alternative methods to combat dengue, it is learnt.

Chief Medical Officer of Indegenous Medicine at the CMC, Palitha Ratna said the council was turning to homeopathic medicine in order to prevent the further spread of dengue. Ratna explained that a homeopathic remedy centre had been set up in the Kichilan Community Centre, Slave Island. The medicine works as a mosquito repellent, Ratna explained. He added that this medicine had been employed with some success in rural areas. So far, the CMC together with Rotarians and other welfare organisations have distributed 3000 packets of the medicine in 3 days in Slave Island alone.  Ratna said further evaluation needed to be done before the medicine could be distributed throughout Colombo.

“The people have responded well,” Ratna said of the initiative. However, he admitted that the medicine was not 100% perfect.

A Presidential Task Unit, together with all 3 segments of the military have come together in order to attempt to eradicate the dengue menace.  As of today, 22,758  dengue cases (and deaths) have been reported. Of those, 3,682 were in Colombo, which is the hardest hit area.

In a bizarre turn, Deputy Minister of Highways Mervyn Silva also got involved. At a press briefing he allegedly said that if there were any more deaths due to dengue, he would take steps to tie local Government officials to a tree, close to the victim’s residence.

(More details forthcoming in this Sunday’s Leader)