Five overseers, who had submitted bogus sports certificates during an interview conducted by the Department of Prisons, for a promotion from the post of overseer to the post of jailer, have been interdicted.

Explanations have also been called from nine others overseers, a Prison Department spokesperson said. Many promotions in the Prison Department have regularly been granted under duress, favouritism and bribes, inside sources alleged.

Government Spokesman and Media Minister, Keheliya Rambukwella, yesterday defended the government decision to have only its members in the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on the 13th Amendment, citing an example of the PSCs during the Ranasinghe Premadasa Presidency.

He said President Premadasa also had a system of having PSCs, which had representation of political parties according to the percentages of MPs represented in the House. He also said the government had given the option to the opposition members to provide reco

The Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) yesterday accused the Colombo University administration of violating an agreement it had entered into with university authorities last year before calling its 100-day strike.

FUTA members held a media briefing near the Colombo University’s Stanley Wijesundera Mawatha entrance as the university administration prevented media personnel from entering the university premises to attend a press briefing scheduled to be held at the Faculty Club. Security officials flanke

The Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) yesterday urged the government to stop suppressing undergraduates forthwith.

FUTA President Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri told that the police had arrested the conveners of the Inter University Students’ Federation Sanjeewa Bandara and Inter University Bhikkhu Federation Ven. Kimbullewe Chandananda Thera for violating bail conditions and not appearing in Court respectively.

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” ― George Orwell, 1984

Sanjeewa Bnadara, the convener of the Inter University Students’ Federation was remanded for the grave crime of participating in an unlawful gathering. Some comments posted as responses to a news report, in an online edition of a leading English newspaper, on the remanding of Sanjeewa Bandara, called for him being remanded forever, applauded the government for controlling the unruly students, chastised him on w

A senior professor of a top local university yesterday said the academic curriculum should not be blamed for graduates not being up to industry requirements.
As opposed to a common perception that what is required by industries are not extended by the universities, a senior professor at the University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Ajith Abeysekera, yesterday charged that issues prevail in the entire setup of the education sector in Sri Lanka and not the curriculum of local universities

Several witnesses were summoned to testify before a People’s Tribunal last week that was investigating whether the recent increase in electricity tariffs in the country was justified.
The three-hour public forum entitled ‘Is the electricity bill justified?’ was conducted courtroom style, was organised by Transparency International Sri Lanka and held at the J.R. Jayewardene Centre in Colombo 7 last week.
Sitting as tribunal judges at the forum were retired High Court Judge W.T.M.P.B. Warawewa, who provided the

Foreign employment agents, who recruit women workers without properly screening the backgrounds of the employers in the Middle Eastern countries, will be solely responsible to pay the workers’ compensation.

The employment agents will also have to take responsibility for payments in cases such as, issues pertaining to any unwarranted ill-treatment committed on the housemaids by their employers during their working period in those countries.

A New York-based body that promotes press freedom has expressed its concern over media access during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Colombo in November.

Executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists , Joel Simon, has written to Kamalesh Sharma, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, saying that Colombo has indicated that the Sri Lankan government intends to enforce stringent background checks on any foreign journalists covering the meeting.

A journalist attached to the Uthayan newspaper based in Jaffna was attacked last night while he was heading home after work.

The journalist, Kunalan Dileep, was heading home on his motorbike when he was attacked by a group of men who approached him in a three-wheeler.

The attackers had assaulted him near the Jaffna Mahajana College and then fled the scene.

He was taken to hospital with injuries sustained mostly to his arm and legs which were not serious in nature.