The Public Trustee’s Department has paid Rs. 144,000 to ‘Sitha Stores’ for a suit for prime minister D.M. Jayaratne to be worn during a visit to Vavuniya.

JVP’s Sunil Handunetti made the revelation during the parliamentary debate on COPE.

The Department has also spent Rs. 269,000 on books and clothes distributed during the tour.

The attorney general has received several complaints against the public trustee, who has been asked to explain more than Rs. 20 million of spending during a period of one year.

There is another allegation that absence of records of bills for Rs. four million spent on ‘Atapirikara’ offerings to Buddhist monks at functions attended by the premier and other politicians.

Furthermore, instead of obtaining services of lawyers of the AG’s Department, the public trustee had paid Rs. seven million to private lawyers.

The AG has questioned the public trustee’s spending of Rs. 500,000 on a pandal to mark the president’s induction in office and Rs. four million on an alms giving at Kirivehera, Kataragama.

Former Army chief Sarath Fonseka has no intentions whatsoever of joining the government.

He has told a weekend newspaper that his objectives are not to fulfil personal agendas.

Mr. Fonseka has said that those who had been instrumental in his freedom and those who are with him are committed to honest politics.

He also said that he had opposed the government from the beginning as he did not want to join a force that was destroying the country.

Meanwhile, the ex-Army chief has told the Sunday issue of ‘Divaina’ that attempts by the government to bring him down mentally would not succeed.

He has said that no one would be able to stop him from his political decision for the sake of the country and the people.

A  book "Sri Lankawe Savimath Kanthawo" lauched by the Ministry of Womens's Affairs to mark the World Women's Day was  neither mentioned nor dedicated  on Sri Lanka's second lady  Prime Minister and first Presient Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaranatunga, UNP parliamentarian Dr Anoma Gamage said.

This book had given main emphasised  on  first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa and also an artical on  Upeksha Swarnamali as well, she said.

Dr Gamage said that it was pathatiic not mentioning a single world on former President Chandrika Kumaranathunga being a world renowned leader. Therfore she  questioned  from the subject Minister Tissa Karaliyadde and his advisory board on this matter.

The members of the Non-academic staff of universities have decided to commence a continuous strike from the 6th of next month opposing the failure by the authorities to remove salary anomalies that have existed for a long time. Several trade union actions were taken recently demanding authorities to solve the issue but authorities have not taken any step to resolve the issue pointed out Inter University Trade Union Federation on 25th.

Its President said opportunities were created on the 27th April and on the 8th, 18th and 23rd of this month to have a discussion regarding the issue but authorities deliberately avoided discussing it.

The USA has stated that the Sri Lankan delegation led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs G.L. Peiris on an official visit to the USA has expressed its willingness to host UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navaneetham Pillai in Sri Lanka.

The USA has told G.L. Peiris and the delegation that Sri Lanka should approve Ms. Pillai’s visit to Sri Lanka. It is also stated that Sri Lanka should work closely with the UNO in human rights matters.

The delegation has been told at the US State Department that a committee should be appointed to investigate genuine human rights matters before UN High Commissioner for Human Rights arrives in Sri Lanka. They have also emphasized that Sri Lanka should cooperate with the UNHCR regarding the resolution adopted in Geneva in March.

The proposal was approved at the party’s General Council held in Batticaloa ahead of today’s annual convention. A senior member said that in future talks with the government, the party would be calling for a solution within the merged Northern and Eastern provinces.

Among the other proposals approved are to call for the demilitarization of the north and east, to campaign against state-sponsored colonization, equal rights for the Tamils and the resettlement and development in the two provinces.

At the General Council meeting R. Sampanthan was re-elected as the leader of the ITAK and Parliamentarian Mavai Seanathiraja as the General Secretary.

The latest countrywide census conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics has placed Sri Lanka's population at 20.2 million, official sources said yesterday.

According to the headcount, 14.9 million are Sinhala. Around 220,000 persons add to the total population of Sri Lanka annually and by 2041 the total population of Sri Lanka will be around 24 million, the census, which was the first to be conducted islandwide in 30 years, showed, weekend daily english newspaper reported .

The population of the north is 997,754 of which 934,392 are Tamils. There are only 21,860 Sinhala and 32,659 Muslims in the five districts of the Northern Province. The census revealed that out of the total Muslim population of more than 1.5 million, more than one-third live in the north and east. The majority live in the east, where they constitute about a third of the population, which has roughly an equal proportion of Sinhala, Muslims and Tamils, officials said.

The Department has finalized the first report on preliminary data of the islandwide census and it will be handed over to President Mahinda Rajapaksa soon, Director General D.B.P. Suranjana Vidyaratne told the Sunday Times. Details of the report would be made public after the report was submitted to the President.

With the onset of south-west monsoonal rains in several areas, people living in six districts prone to landslides have been advised to be cautious in the coming days due to risks of earth slips or landslides.

Disaster Management Centre Deputy Media Director Sarath Lal Perera said the people living in high risk zones in these districts should be extra vigilant about landslides.
Among the vulnerable districts are Kegalle, Ratnapura, Nuwara Eliya, Kalutara, Galle and Matara.

He also said people living on either side of the Hatton-Awissawella road should also be extra cautious about impending dangers due to bad weather conditions.