State

A decision was taken to provide maximum security to the candidates contesting for the forthcoming Presidential election during the Security Council meeting held under the patronage of the President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday.

ලබන නොවැම්බර් මස 16 වැනිදා පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත ජනාධිපතිවරණය සඳහා ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමේ කාලසීමාව පැය භාගයකින් දීර්ඝ කිරීමේ අදහසක්, මැතිවරණ කොමිෂන් සභාවේදී සාකච්ඡාවට ලක්වී තිබේ.

Sri Lanka will be raising 60 billion yen (US$500 million) by issuing 10-year Samurai bonds by mid next month hopefully before the Presidential elections, Central Banka Governor Dr. Coomaraswamy disclosed.

The Constitutional Council has approved the appointment of Saman Sri Rathnayake as the Commissioner General of the National Elections Commission.

Chairman of the Election Commission Mahinda Deshapriya yesterday said that it had made compulsory for any voter to have any valid document to prove his or her identity during the presidential election which will be held on November 16.

In the wake of financial constraints and heavy state borrowings, finance ministry has directed ministries, departments and public institutions to tighten belts further pruning capital expenditure by 10 percent during the remaining two and half months period this year.

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) to investigate corruption of the current administration yesterday issued summons again on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to appear before the Commission on October 18 to provide evidence on the decision to store paddy at the Mattala Airport in 2015.

The Elections Commission (EC) recently thwarted a move by Galle District UNP MP Wijepala Hettiarachchi to donate Rs.50,000 each as housing aid among selected families in his constituency under the ‘Gamperaliya’ programme, following the declaration of the presidential election, an official said.

The names of Ministers Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, Rajitha Senaratne, Sajith Premadasa and Lakshman Kiriella are in the first report submitted to President Maithripala Sirisena by the Presidential Commission investigating the fraud and corruption of the good governance government, reports say.

The Cabinet at its meeting headed by President Maithripala Sirisena is reported to have yesterday scrapped the National Economic Council (NEC) set up by President Maithripala Sirisena.

In the absence of foreign investments for sections of the Central Expressway project, the Cabinet has approved a proposal by the Ministry of Highways and Road Development to obtain a loan of Rs 60 billion from three state banks.

Motorcycles are prohibited from using the Dehiwala flyover due to increasing number of accidents, police said.

Cabinet yesterday appr-oved a proposal for President Maithripala Sirisena to retain his official residence, which he now occupies at Mahagama Sekara Mawatha, Colombo 7, following the end of his term of office.

As the ballot paper for this time’s presidential election is extremely long in comparison to previous elections, the number of ballot papers each ballot box can hold has reduced to 400.

ජනාධිපතිවරණයේ ඡන්ද පත්‍රිකා නොවැම්බර් 6 වැනි දාට පෙර ජාතික මැතිවරණ කොමිසමට භාර දෙන බව රජයේ මුද්‍රණාලය පවසයි.

රජය සතු 422 ක් වන රාජ්‍ය ආයතන බොහෝමයක් පාඩු ලබන ආයතනවල අතර 2018 වර්ෂයේ ඒවායෙහි දායකත්වය ලබාදී ඇත්තේ 33% ක් පවතී.

The Government this week announced the opening of Batticaloa, Jaffna and Ratmalana Airports for operation of regional commercial flights as it readies to welcome the first flight into the newly-declared Jaffna International Airport (JIA) on Thursday (17 October).

ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා දැනටම තමන් භාවිතා කරන පැජට් පාරේ පිහිටි නිලනිවස තමන් විශ්‍රාම ගිය පසුවත් තමන්ටම භාවිතා කිරීමට අවසර ලබාගැනීම සඳහා කැබිනට් පත්‍රිකාවක් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට සූදානමින් සිටින බව වාර්තා වේ.