Allegations of assault, rape and murder abound as the powers that be run amok with impunity

The number of local government politicians breaking the law is rapidly increasing, with most of them belonging to the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). Last week alone, five incidents involving Pradeshiya Sabha (PS) politicians—four from the UPFA and one from the UNP—were reported by media. A criminal case related to a Deputy Minister was also taken up in court.

Mawanella PS Chairman (UPFA) K.G. Piyatissa leaves Kegalle High Court on Tuesday after he was sentenced to death for killing a man in February 2003

The Tamil National Alliance has raised concerns regarding the proposed Colombo Jaffna expressway, to be constructed with Chinese assistance.
“The Sri Lankan government has signed an agreement with China for the construction of an expressway to the North as well as the South.

However the problem that we are foreseeing is that the Northern Province, being close to India, approximately 32kms from Thalaimannar, could threaten Indian security. The Sri Lankan government is granting huge contracts to the Chinese. In the guise of various projects anyone can sneak into that area and it will be detrimental to the Indian security. Therefore we don’t want to allow certain external forces to enter the Northern Province and use it for their own agendas,” TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran said.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has strongly urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to instruct officials to send back two Sri Lankan defence officers undergoing training in Tamil Nadu.
She also urged him to take a policy decision that Lankan armed personnel will not be trained in India till a satisfactory resolution of human rights violations against the Tamils in Sri Lanka is arrived at, and illegal attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy on Indian fishermen stop.

In a letter to Manmohan Singh Saturday, the text of which was released to the media here Sunday, Jayalalithaa charged the centre with being utterly insensitive to the feelings of the people Tamil Nadu by inviting Lankan defence officials for training.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) yesterday brushed off reports that it was considering being a part of the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to discuss national issues stating that there was no change in its stance from its earlier position where it had decided to refrain from taking part at the PSC.

The Government recently said it would go ahead with the proposed PSC to discuss national issues.
TNA Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan told The Nation that the Government had on a previous occasion had called for the formation of a PSC to which the TNA expressed its dissatisfaction over the move.

Another group of mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen and vice chairmen of local authorities, this time from the North and East, will soon receive permits to import duty-free vehicles. If they do not wish to import, they will be offered the privilege of buying locally assembled vehicles on concessionary terms.

The permits are being issued in accordance with a Cabinet decision in December 2010. This decision allowed local authority heads and deputies who complete four years of consecutive service to buy vehicles on duty-free permits. Approval for the latest group of local council heads to buy duty-free vehicles came on a recommendation to the Cabinet by Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister A.L.M. Athaullah. He cited the 2010 Cabinet decision to seek clearance.

Vasu proposes that PTA provision be incorporated in Penal Code

National Languages Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara wants the Government to incorporate in the Penal Code a provision in the Prevention of Terrorism Act that deals with offences relating to religious and racial disharmony. He has told his ministerial colleagues that the move is intended to “prevent, enmity by signs or otherwise between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste, community or other grounds and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony and disturbing public tranquility between different religions, groups, castes or communities.”

  
The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) is at a loss to check what its Commissioner, Badhrani Jayawardena described as a long running problem of its cleaners or minor employees ducking work after marking their attendance.
Municipal cleaners failing to remove garbage periodically have become a common problem, extending to other areas, and even contributing to the increase in dengue which has claimed thousands of lives in the past few years. Jayawardena said that the CMC had received complaints where cleaners do not turn up to collect garbage for as long as two weeks in some areas. “They also sidestep houses which do not pay them a gratification,” she said.

UPFA MP Arundika Fernando says he is ready to make a statement to the CID on the statement he made in parliament regarding the whereabouts of missing journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda.

Fernando says he came across Eknaligoda in France in 2011 when he had gone to visit a friend and journalist Manjula Wediwardana. “When I was at Manjula’s house, a bald man came there. I was told that it was Prageeth Eknaligoda. I have now heard that he has moved to Britain from France. The government must now take measures to bring him back,” Fernando told The Sunday Leader.

Hakeem backed by Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim government MPs“Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.”- Aung San Suu Kyi