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CBK talks politics with three ministers
View(s):Before embarking on a her latest trip to London, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has ruffled feathers at the highest levels of the UPFA Government.
She was the subject of concern among the leadership who wondered whether she was making a re-entry to politics. However, a source close to her said that was far from the truth. At a private party she hosted recently, she was asked this same question by some guests, to whom she had replied that her daughter had told her that if she really wanted a challenge, she should come and look after her grandchild in Britain.
Rumours were sparked after she had three different meetings with three different ministers. She had gone to one ministry to obtain help over a problem and ended up chatting with the minister for a long period. The second encounter with a minister came when she was on her early morning walk at Independence Square. She topped off the third event by having dinner with another minister.
Even if she was not entering politics again, that she did talk politics and said things not so polite about the UPFA leadership was cause for concern to them.
Why Navy and Air Force personnel are absconding
A query in Parliament by Colombo District UNP parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake why Navy and Air Force personnel were “absconding”from service drew a response giving a variety of reasons. Chief Government Whip Dinesh Gunawardena provided the answers on the two separate service arms. There was a long list of reasons for those “absconding” in the Sri Lanka Navy.
They included:
Household problems of the sailors; love affairs of the unmarried sailors; outcome of the peer group’s relationships; addicted to drugs; getting connected with money-earning dealings; expectations of going abroad and inability to endure the differences that exist between the military environment and the civil society environment.
Minister Gunawardena said in the Sri Lanka Air Force, the absconding was caused among other reasons by going abroad because of financial difficulties; illness; engaging in duties in difficult areas far from their homes; engaging in activities which are inappropriate to the Air Force and due to personal reasons.
Jayasekera flexes Humvee muscle
They call it the Humvee or Hummer or the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), a four-wheel drive military vehicle, usually used by the top brass only.
And that was the vehicle used by former UNP Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekera to travel from Kurunegala to Kandy this week. He is a candidate for the UPFA at the September 21 elections to the North Western Provincial Council. In Kandy, Jayasekera paid his respects at the Dalada Maligawa. He also called on the Mahanayakes of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters.
PS chairman’s alleged wife gets away scooter free
Kotikawatte-Mulleriyawa Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Prasanna Solangarachchi was at a leadership training programme with his colleagues from other local bodies. When they were not learning the finer points of leadership, they were exchanging gossip.
He related a story told to him by a traffic cop. The policeman had halted a woman riding a scooter without wearing a helmet somewhere in Mulleriyawa and wanted to charge her. She was let off only after she confessed that her husband was Chairman Solangarachchi.
“From the time I heard the story, I was damn furious. I have been looking for this woman but have not been able to find her. My wife does not know to ride a scooter,” he told his colleagues.
CSE advised to hire rogue Raj
The story in these columns last week about the State-run Colombo Stock Exchange, best known for its alleged insider trading, looking for a chief executive officer in the United States triggered several responses.
Perhaps, the most stinging reaction came from an expatriate in New York, who wrote mock seriously: “The Government would be best advised to offer the job to the best qualified Sri Lankan in the U.S. namely, Raj Rajaratnam, when he returns from the federal penitentiary after serving his jail sentence for insider trading.”
Alas, such is the reputation of the Colombo Stock Exchange.
UNP’s complaint leads to tight security at Govt. Press
Kurunegala District UNP parliamentarian Gamini Jayawickrema Perera’s revelations in Parliament this week over the absence of security at the Government Press for printing ballot papers for the upcoming provincial council elections has produced results.
On Friday, 13 police officers were posted to be around the printing machines where ballot papers for the North, North Western and Central Provincial Council elections are being printed. Surveillance cameras have also been installed in and around the areas where the printing machines are placed.
Sujeeva gets wheels from Welgama
United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian Sujeeva Senasinghe won plaudits from Transport Minister Kumara Welgama in Parliament this week. The question was over an innocuous issue relating to bonus payments for workers in the Sri Lanka Transport Board. But an aside from UNP’s Talatha Athukorala drew Welgama’s inner feelings.
It came after Welgama declared that he liked MP Senasinghe. Ms. Athukorale was to ask why he liked him so much. “Mama ethumata kemathi. Hebai mama ara paththe kenek nemei. Mama anith peththe kenek. Mang kemathi ewata” (I like him. But I am not a person from that side. I am from the other side. I like ‘those’.)
That was indeed a public admission of Welgama’s likes and dislikes; but it was not for the first time either.
Ranil thanks MR for taking away his headache
President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe met each other at a high profile wedding last weekend where they were the attesting witnesses.
The meeting came hot on the heels of two significant events; the cross-over of Kurunegala UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera to the ruling UPFA coalition and the tragic incidents at Weliweriya. President Rajapaksa was in a sombre mood as Mr. Wickremesinghe explained his visit to the Gampaha District earlier in the day to see what had happened the previous evening at Weliweriya where three people, including two students had been killed by Army firing.
As for the cross-over of the UNP MP, Mr. Wickremesinghe told the President “Thank you for taking Dayasiri. Our headache is now yours”.
The wedding was that of Isuru, son of Rear Admiral and Mrs. D.K. Dassanayake to Isuri, daughter of Mr. Jayaraja and Mala Chandrasekera. The wedding took place at ‘King’s Court’, Cinnamon Lake Hotel, Colombo.
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