Livestock ministry votes defeated
By our Parliamentary correspondents
The Government's Rs. 415,101 million votes allocated for recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure of the Ministry of Livestock Development and Estate Infrastructure were defeated in Parliament yesterday with 34 members voting against and 17 voting for.The votes so blocked at the Committee Stage discussions of the Ministry of Livestock Development and Estate Infrastructure involves a sum of Rs. 36.401 million allocated for recurrent expenditure and Rs. 378.7 million allocated for capital expenditure in 1999, which totalled Rs. 415.101 million.
The turn of events leading to the defeat of the votes began after the Deputy Chairman of Committees Rauff Hakeem who was in the chair overruled an amendment to the votes moved by UNP's Kalutara district MP Susil Moonesinghe, who rose to his feet while Minister S. Thondaman was making his winding up speech. The amendment.
'I hereby give notice that I shall move that the Appropriation Bill (Bill No. 275) be amended by the addition of the following clause:Ñ
'Provided however that no land or property for the improvement of which any moneys voted by Parliament has been spent or is intended to be spent by this Ministry, shall be alienated or disposed of in any manner whatsoever, unless a Cabinet Appointed Tender Board has approved such alienation', immediately after the figures 115,000,000 under heads 510 and 512 (Ministry of Livestock Development and Estate Infrastructure) of the said Bill'.
Deputy Chairman of Committees said the amendment cannot be allowed as no notice of it has been given in advance in terms of Standing Orders.
Tyronne Fernando (UNP-Colombo district reading Standing Order 24 (1) said the standing order did not preclude amendment to any bills before a committee of the whole House, without prior notice.
John Amaratunga (UNP-Gampaha district) said the intention of the amendment was not to block the vote but to protect the public properly, for the development of which moneys have been allocated under the votes which is being discussed.
Susil Moonesinghe was allowed to move the motion but the chair overruled it.
Tyronne Fernando said the chair's action was undemocratic and that the United National Party would vote against the allocations under three programmes of Expenditure Head No. 510.
When the chair put the votes for the approval of the House the UNP group called for a division.
It received 34 and 17 against.
However House approved expenditure under Head 512 which amounted to Rs. 194.206 million.
The chair announced that Expenditure Head 510 had been defeated and Head 512 has been passed.
Saturday commentary
The Acid TestBy Prasad Gunewardene
Violence appears to be the order of the day and those at the receiving end now include Peoples Alliance appointees as Samurdhi Govi Animators who were staging a demonstration at Battaramulla to urge the very government that appointed them to meet their demands. Men armed with clubs had launched a pre-dawn attack on them. The armed gangs that attacked these men have not been identified. Some of the victims were rushed to the Colombo National Hospital and one of them had to undergo emergency surgery. Police ruled out the possibility of political opponents of these men being involved in the attack and described it as a home and home match.With the date fixed for the North Western Provincial Council election, violence appears to have raised its ugly head in that province. Nomination day was marred by violence in both Kurunegala and Puttalam. The UNP candidate for Puttalam, Tissa Munasinghe and a few others were remanded for unlawful assembly and charged with attempted murder. The UNP claims that the police failed to apprehend a single supporter of the Peoples Alliance though they perpetrated violence in some areas where the police was present. UNP's chief minister candidate Gamini Jayawickreme Perera alleged that while only three UNPers were allowed inside the Kurunegala Kachcheri to hand over nominations according to the election laws, hundreds of government supporters had been allowed to storm into the premises of the Kachcheri.
The North Western PC election now appears to be an acid test for the ruling party it wants to prove that the people yet have faith in them. It would be a bouncing board to contest the other five councils that were postponed under emergency regulations. The UNP has already started the campaign with the slogan. 'This will be humiliating defeat to the PA'. It was the strategy that was adopted by the Peoples Alliance when they campaigned for the Southern Provincial Council and it had a great impact on the people and it swung the electorate in favour of the PA. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe addressed all NWP candidates of his party last Wednesday at 'Siri Kotha' and briefed them on the strategies to win the elections. Mr. Wickremesinghe left for Hong Kong on a private visit the same night.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga too met her candidates in the province this week to plan out matters to ensure a PA victory. She had an hour long meeting with PA's candidate for the post Chief Minister's, Mr. S. B. Nawinna. Mr. Navinna had outlined his plans and expressed confidence that he would be the next chief minister of the province. Mrs. Kumaratunga was satisfied with the assurances of her chief minister candidate and noted that she had already detailed her cabinet ministers and members of parliament in the NWP to work closely with the candidates to ensure a PA victory. Cabinet ministers will now frequently visit Wayamba on the advice of the President to strengthen the campaign.
The UNP is confident of a resounding victory at the NWP poll and claim that the Catholic belt in Puttalam was in their favour with the lead taken by the two parliamentarians Festus Perera and Harold Herath. Both of them have fielded their wives in the fray this time.
The PA is planning to launch a major attack recalling 'the past misdeeds of a UNP parliamentarian from Wennappuwa', which they feel would affect one of the woman candidates in the fray.
United Lalith Front leader Srimani Athulathmudali has now decided to stick to the government with which she has had many differences. ULF sources said that it was likely that she would be accompanied by her Parliamentarian Kesaralal Gunesekere,an ardent supporter of the PA despite the fact that his leader was thrown out of the cabinet inspite of the ULF agreement with the PA. If the duo comes on the PA platform it will be interesting to see what the Ravi Karunanayake faction of the ULF would do. Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe had already absorbed two Lalith Front men to contest the election in NWP. They are Tissa Munasinghe and Mangala Ranaraja. Early this week both Athulathmudali and Gunesekere appeared on MTV and Gunesekere launched an attack on his colleague Ravi Karunanayake by name accusing him of going the UNP way though his leader Srimani Athulathmudali did not name Karunanayake during her attack. Ravi Karunanayake responding to the attack launched on him by Gunesekere laughed off saying. 'I don't take him seriously because he does not know what he is doing'. He added that Gunesekere was a man who signed for the removal of the Bribery Commissioners when his leader Srimani Athulathmudali decided otherwise.
Mr. Karunanayake claimed out that both Athulathmudali and Gunesekere did not know where they were heading and urged the two to read the agreement with the PA once again to ascertain whether the PA was giving them due treatment according to the agreement. He said that the duo which refrained from voting with the PA on the votes for the President for three years as the party was for the abolition of the Executive Presidency this time voted in favour, violating their own principles. Mr. Karunanayake who is at loggerheads with the government had been deprived of speaking time in Parliament for the past seven months. He keeps his voice going only through asking oral and adjournment questions. He is expected to bring this issue before the Commonwealth Secretariat alleging that his democratic right as a MP had been violated by the very government of which he is a member.
By Franklin Sathyapalan
The government changed control of censorship on war news from military to civil yesterday according to regulations made by President under Section 5 of the Public Security Ordinance.The President has also appointed Ariya Rubasinghe, Director Information the Competent Authority with effect from December 9.The new censorship prohibits reporting of matters which pertains to any operations carried out or proposed to be carried out, by the Armed Forces or the Police Force (including the Special Task Force), the deployment of troops or personnel, or the deployment or use of equipment, including aircraft or naval vessels, by any such forces, or any statement pertaining to the official conduct or the performance of the Head or any member of any of the Armed Forces or the police Force.
COLOMBO, Dec. 11 - Sri Lanka suffered an island-wide power failure on Friday which officials of the state electricity utility said could have been triggered by lightning.
Officials said power had been fully restored in the capital Colombo and elsewhere by late Friday.'We believe power tripped because of lightning,' an official at the main systems control centre of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) said.
The state radio quoted CEB officials as saying they were investigating the cause of power failure.Earlier D.G.D.C. Wijeratne, CEB's additional general manager for transmission, said the power failure, which occurred around 3:45 p.m. (0945 GMT), was island-wide.
Fire brigade officials said they had not received any complaints of serious incidents related to the power failure.
'We haven't heard of people stuck in lifts. There haven't been any rescue calls,' a fire brigade official said.
Another official said a small fire had been reported at the local head office of ANZ Grindlays Bank in Colombo's main Fort business district.
Bank officials said the fire started due to overheating of the generator, but added that it had been extinguished.
The staff was evacuated and nobody was injured, the official said, adding details of the damage were not immediately known. - (Reuters)
Germany grants Rs. 2 mln food aid for displaced persons
The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany in November 1998, allocated a sum of Rs. 2,000,000 to the German NGO - 'German Agro Action' to implement another Food Security Project for Refugees in Northern Sri Lanka.
The project will be implemented in close co-operation with the long standing 'German Agro Action' partner, the local NGO - 'Sewa Lanka Foundation'. UNHCR, WFP and the EU are also contributing financially to this programme.
'German Agro Action' and 'Sewa Lanka Foundation' have been partners in the implementation of several welfare programmes since 1994. From 1996 onwards, the German Government has allocated to the 'German Agro Action' and 'Sewa Lanka Foundation' a total sum of Rs. 169 mn for the benefit of relief and resettlement projects in Sri Lanka.
Mendis will not hike liquor prices
W. M. Mendis and Co. Ltd. announced that the company products will not be increased though there has been an increase in the import duty of portable spirits.
A company communique said:
Prices of all Mendis products will not be increased though there has been an increase in the import duty of potable spirits. We feel that with the recent increase of duties due to the budget proposals, the public should not be burdened with further increase in retail prices.
Our organisation will absorb these additional costs even though it may seriously affect the profitability.
Samurdhi, Govi animators to stage protest strike
By Kalinga K. A. Weerakkody
Samurdhi and Govi animators in Colombo district will stage a week-long strike from Monday (14) in protest against the attack carried out on them on Thursday (10) morning by an unknown gang.This was a unanimous decision taken by the Colombo District Samurdhi, Govi Sevana Niyamaka Niladaringe Sangamaya at an emergency meeting held yesterday at the union Head Quarters Battaramulla presided over by Jeevaka Malalanayaka the Union (SAGA) Secretary of the Colombo District.
Jagath Kumara the secretary of the All Island Samurdhi and Govi Animators Union said that they proposed to convene an all-island meeting of the (SAGA) union to decide what further action should be taken by the membership to protest against the attack they were subjected to on Thursday morning.
Delegates of 235 branches of the union are expected to participate at this meeting due to be held on Tuesday (15). He added that one of the members of the union who sustained serious injuries in Thursday's attack is lying in a critical condition at the Colombo National Hospital. This member who has suffered serious injuries on his arms and legs has already undergone two operations.
One of the matters that will come under discussion at Tuesday's meeting is the condition of this member.
Armed thugs stormed the tent inside while Samurdhi and Govi animators who were on a fasting campaign opposite the Samurdhi Authority at Battaramulla. They had been attacked with clubs around 2.30 a.m. on Thursday.
The fast was temporarily called off following the attack.
The fast by the animators demanding permanency of employment was on its 4th consecutive day. It was carried out on a rotational basis by the protesting animators.
Those who came under attack were the members from Dehiwela with two leaders from Horana.
The animators had also been demanding the reinstatement of their secretary and five other workers at the Samurdhi Bank who were suspended on November 2 this year.
There are over 30,000 Samurdhi and Govi animators.
They also wanted an increase in their current allowance of Rs. 199.
Insufficient monitoring system for high level natural disaster
by Sakuntala Perera
The Mahaweli Authority did not have the sufficient monitoring system to monitor possible 'high level natural disasters' pertaining to the high dams on the accelerated Mahaweli project reservoirs, the Director, Headworks Administration and Operations Division, Mahaweli Authority, S. Karunaratne told the Public Hearing of the World Commission on Dams at the BMICH.The World Bank funded World Commission concluded its two day hearings of submissions of the Asian region yesterday.
S. Karunaratne further added that despite the possibilities of the natural disasters causing 'catastrophic actions, they could not be anticipated with the present monitoring system of the Mahaweli authority, which can only make predictions up to a certain level.
'Formulation of post disaster management systems would be helpful to handle such situations and the public made safe on the degree of action measures taken on post disaster mitigatory actions:
'The environmental issues such as water quality management, sedimentation activities and peripheral degradation have been encountered after completion of high dams and unanticipated future threats may cause severe impacts on dams,' he added.
He further noted that if there was a failure at the dam upstream, 'it may occur a catastrophic disaster in highly populated urban areas in the down stream.
'Sri Lanka is fortunate as it is not in a seismic prone area. But a few minor tremors occurred around major reservoirs after impoundment of major reservoirs, causing alarm in the general public. All the major dams have been constructed considering all necessary parameters including seismic factors. Several types of instruments have been installed in the bodies of the dams and their foundations for periodic monitoring purposes. A systematic and intensified maintenance schedule for dams are performed with service of inspections, including a third party of consultants,' he added.
He also stated that the establishment of a modern remote sensing system with warning signals for downstream of major dams to monitor their behaviour has also been proposed.
He further observed that around 11,114 families have been resettled following the implementation of the two major reservoirs, Victoria and Kotmale, which had caused 'immense social unrests while integrating with pre settled downstream communities'.
'Even today they have their grievances on mismatched resettlement patterns and original comports they had in their ancestral lands,' he said.
He further proposed the alternative for the major dams of the construction of smaller dams along the stream in the cascade .'This method had been practised over the years in ancient Sri Lanka which helped to bring up the ground water level. Implementation of such systems reduces the weightage of the government budget and the community can have the flexibility to take their own decisions having less environmental impacts,' he added.
Comprising 11 Commissioners of International repute the Commission is expected to release its report on the Asian region scenario early next year.
Also making submissions to the International Commission Economic Geographer and affected person of the Victoria project, Dr. L. W. Mediwaka, requested the Commission to recommend to the local authorities the necessity for the 'permanent lowering of the water level of the Victoria due to the possible dangers involved.
'To prevent the further sinking of the river bed as seen (by graphic evidence presented) probably due to seepage along a fault line, dissolving bed limestone or seismic activity due to weight of water,' he added.
He also requested the Commission to investigate any injustice caused to the dam affected people by way of poor compensation for rehabilitation and resettlement or failure to provide any new land. He also requested that the Commission considered 'decommissioning of the Victoria project, in view of the greater economic benefit to the nation.
'A study by an engineer from the Peradeniya in 1991 found that the actual cost of the Accelerated Mahaweli program cost more than all the benefits from agriculture and hydro power. From figures available up to 1994 the internal rate of return was less than 7%, approximately half of the World Bank accepted rate of return,' he said.
He further noted that it was in this view more advisable for the installation of a series of smaller run-of-the-river power stations as an alternative to the Victoria project.
War violates Lankan women's rights says Radhika Coomaraswamy
COLOMBO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A top United Nations' official said on Thursday the rights of many Sri Lankan women were being violated as a result of the country's long drawn war between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels. Radhika Coomaraswamy, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on violence against women, said more attention needed to be paid to issues such as sexual harassement of female refugees and women being used as combatants in warfare.
'There are major problems that come up, because the Geneva Convention never thought of issues like women prisoners of war. There really is nothing to protect womens' rights in this field,' Coomaraswamy said at a commemorative conference to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 'Women face sexual harassement in refugee camps, restrictions of rations, freedom of mobility. These are all related to human rights,' she said.
Tens of thousands of people have been made refugees by the ethnic war, in which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels have been fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east since 1983.
The LTTE has its own women's squad and the military has said many female rebels have been killed during its battles against the guerrillas.
Women are also enlisted into Sri Lanka's security forces, but they are rarely sent into battle against the rebels.
According to the ministry of rehabilitation, an estimated 8,000 women have been widowed by the war in the northern city of Jaffna alone over the past eight years.
But few studies have been done to determine the actual condition of women in the war-torn north and east, Coomaraswamy said.
The government, which has been accused of human rights lapses, says it has cracked down on abuses by the security forces.
Pathirana proposes salary cuts for false utterances in Parliament
Minister Richard Pathirana opening the debate for the government on the votes of the Ministry of Samurdhi, Youth Affairs and Sports suggested, somewhat lightheartedly, during the course of his speech that the standing orders should be changed to impose punitive measures on those who rattle off false information in the House.
The minister who spoke after the opening speech of UNP member Ranjith Maddumbandara suggested that a scheme to cut the salaries of members of the basis of the number of lies uttered should be appropriate. The minister jovially added that the UNP member, Mr. Azwer's salary would be in for a large cut if such a measure is adopted.
Storm blows across Wennappuwa area
By Indira Perera
A serene storm that blew across Wennappuwa in the early hours on Wednesday rendered 100 families homeless and affecting plantations. According to the Chairman Pradeshiya Sabha, Wennappuwa, Trevin Fernando the destitute families have been provided accommodation in a partly built hotel at Ulhitiyawa.They are also provided with cooked food and dry rations by the Pradeshiya Sabha. They will be find a land in Dummaladeniya, and 25,000 per family to construct houses. The storm which had come from the north had caused sea erosion.
Over 100 coconut trees are on the verge of falling now.
