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Sisira appointed Director, CID Sisira Mendis
SSP has been appointed Director of the Criminal Investigation Department
(CID). He will assume duties tomorrow. With nearly 24 years of service in the CID, Mr. Mendis succeeds Lionel Gunatilleke, who has been promoted DIG (CID). GMOA interim committee takes control The Government
Medical Officers Association (GMOA) membership yesterday decided
on the Interim Committee that is to take over functions of the trade
union until the next elections to be held in June this year. The thirteen-member
committee comprising members who are not ex-office bearers have
been agreed upon by the two factions in the GMOA and has received
the blessings of the entire membership. The withdrawal
of the two court cases on election related issues will be the first
on the agenda in a bid to get over legal hurdles in the prevailing
crisis, Dr. Mahesh Harischandra, the mediator between the two conflicting
groups said. He said the
present office bearers will cease to function and those who were
in the contest in the last election will have to withdraw their
candidature. A special general
meeting was held yesterday to finalise issues on the Interim Committee
and the memberships' mandate on the committee. Issues relating to
salaries of medical officers and the contention on course and examination
fees of the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine were also discussed. Doctors allege
that the Assistant Medical Practitioners are paid a higher salary
than that of Grade II Medical Officers. With recent upheavals in
different categories in the health sector on the issue of salaries,
the doctors too are now demanding that their salaries be reviewed. Internal clashes that have been brewing for over a year had split the GMOA Ex co membership into two groups. The Interim Committee was formed to solve particularly the internal crisis raging within the GMOA, which had split the trade union. Nimal Wikramanayake
took his Oaths as a Senior Counsel in Melbourne on December 18.
Nimal is the first Sri Lankan barrister to take silk in Australia,
although Sri Lankans have been admitted to practise in Australia
as barristers and solicitors for over 50 years. The Parliament of
Victoria recently abolished the rank of Queen’s Counsel and
replaced it with the equivalent rank of Senior Counsel. Mr. Nimal Wikramanayake
is the son of the late E.G. Wikramanayake QC. and the nephew of
the late E.B. Wikramanayake QC. and the late N.E. Weerasooria QC.
A number of his grand uncles were proctors of the Supreme Court
and he can trace his legal ancestry back to the Crown Proctor in
Galle in 1848. He took a second class honours in the Law Tripos Part II at Cambridge in 1958 and was called to the Bar in England by the Inner Temple on 10th February 1958. He was the first victim of the Basnayake ruling which resulted in his English barrister's qualifications not being recognised in Ceylon, when he returned here early in 1959. As a result
of the Basnayake ruling the Ceylon Law College qualifications are
no longer recognised throughout the English speaking world and Sri
Lankan lawyers now have to sit for various subjects in all Commonwealth
countries if they wish to practise there. Mr. Wikramanayake
had a large and wide ranging practice in the District Court of Colombo
where he practised from 1959 to 1971. He arrived
in Melbourne in 1971 and commenced working as a solicitor. He was befriended
by the late Louis Voumard, Esq QC who persuaded him to help him
with his celebrated treatise on the Sale of Land. When Voumard died
his secretary wrote to the Law Book Company and informed it that
a young man was helping Voumard with his work at the time of his
death. Fortuitously the Law Book Company accepted her statement
and asked Mr. Wikramanayake to continue with Voumard's work and
the rest is now history. Mr. Nimal Wikramanayake now practices in Melbourne and specialises in property and commercial work. Schools in rural areas will be upgraded By Shanika
Udawatte Ten schools
were closed during the 2002 and forty during 1998 - 2001, Mr. Cooray
told The Sunday Times. The minister
pointed out that parents strive to admit their children into popular
schools. Hence admission
to less popular schools has decreased. He added that there are over
110 schools in the Western Province which have less than 50 students. "This
has resulted in the closure of many schools," he said. Mr.
Cooray added that many schools have 10 or more grade one classes,
which absorbs most of the students that enter schools at the beginning
of each year. He said that schools being located in areas without proper transport facilities and the lack of infrastructure are some of the reasons which compel parents to try to admit their children to schools in urban areas. "Rural schools will be provided with better facilities and well-qualified teachers to make them more attractive to parents," he said.
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