President Ranil Wickremesinghe has appointed a new Chairman to the Central Environment Authority (CEA) with effect from July 30th and the reason for the sudden removal of the incumbent Chairman Venura Fernando has not been stated, the CEA unions said.
A letter stating appointment of U.D.Chandana Jayalal as the new CEA Chairman as undersigned by the Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake had been copied to several officials including Secretary to the Ministry of Environment and Director General CEA today.
A collective of five trade unions attached to the CEA said that they strongly oppose the removal of the incumbent Chairperson Venura Fernando, who was an honest official who even did not claim his salary.
The unions claimed that the removal of the previous chairman was questionable when an election had been declared in the country and that they had brought the matter to the notice of the Election Commission and the independent monitoring body PAFFREL.
A union spokesperson said that they will have a special discussion today regarding the matter as a number of CEA employees are disheartened by the sudden removal of their chairman.
When contacted, Chairman Election Commission R.A.M.L. Rathnayake told the Daily Mirror that the appointment and transfers of the state officials for service requirements or disciplinary action is not prohibited during an election period.
“However, one can always complain to the commission if they suspect the appointment or transfer was due to a political reason,” Rathnayake said.
However, sources within the Ministry of Environment stated that there was an audit query underway against a board decision taken by the CEA to increase salaries by Rs.10, 000 for its staff members recently.
(dailymirror.lk) (Except for the headline, this story, originally published by dailymirror.lk has not been edited by SLM staff)
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the National Centre for Good Governance of India (NCGG) and Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA) was signed during the State Visit of President of Sri Lanka, H.E. Anura Kumara Disanayaka to India in December 2024 for training and capacity building of 1500 Sri Lankan civil service officers over a period of five years.
The first program under the MoU was successfully held at NCGG from 21 April to 02 May 2025, and was attended by 41 officers. Based on the request of the Government of Sri Lanka, the theme of the program was ‘digitization in governance’. The program featured a series of sessions focused on key areas such as digital service delivery, digital public infrastructure, financial inclusion through digital payments, and innovations in public grievance redressal systems. Senior officials and domain experts delivered presentations on flagship Indian initiatives in the digital domain, including Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, e-Office, GeM, Aadhaar, PM Gati Shakti, among others.
At an interaction session with participants in the inaugural program organized on 08 May 2025 at SLIDA, the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, H.E. Santosh Jha underscored that capacity building is an important pillar of the development cooperation between the two countries, with Sri Lanka being among the largest recipients of scholarships and capacity building initiatives offered by India. He highlighted that, demonstrating India’s continued commitment to enhancing capacity-building opportunities for Sri Lankans, Prime Minister of India had announced additional training avenues to 700 Sri Lankan citizens annually during his recent State visit. In that context, the High Commissioner said that the participants in the first NCGG-SLIDA programme also represented the first set of Sri Lankan nationals to receive training as part of the significantly enhanced capacity-building endeavour of India that will now benefit 1000 Sri Lankans annually.
The interaction session was also attended by Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government, Mr S. Aloka Bandara; Director General of SLIDA, Mr A.V. Janadara; senior officials and faculty members of SLIDA; among others.
In view of the highly positive feedback from the participants in the inaugural NCGG-SLIDA program, based on request from SLIDA, a second program on the same theme under the MoU is now being planned for another batch of around 40 officers for early June 2025.
Another Special Forces (SF) soldier who was onboard the SLAF Bell 212 helicopter that crashed into the Maduru Oya Reservoir this morning (May 09) has succumbed to his injuries while receiving treatment at the hospital.
This brings the death toll from the fatal accident to six.
Six other armed forces personnel, who sustained injuries in the incident, are currently receiving treatment at the hospital.
(Previous news 2025 May 09 – 11.31.a.m.)
5 dead in Bell 212 crash
Five military personnel have been confirmed dead in the crash of a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Bell 212 helicopter into the Maduru Oya Reservoir earlier this morning (May 09. According to the SLAF Spokesperson Group Captain Eranda Geeganage, the deceased include three members of the Sri Lanka Army’s Special Forces and two Air Force personnel.
The aircraft was carrying a total of 12 individuals, including six Army Special Forces members, two Air Force Regiment Special Forces personnel, two other Air Force members, and two pilots.
The Election Commission has instructed all candidates who contested the 2925 Local Government (LG) Elections to submit their campaign income and expenditure reports on or before May 28.
A statement by the Commission emphasized that candidates are required to prepare and submit their financial disclosures in line with the provisions of the Election Expenditure Regulation Act No. 03 of 2023. These reports must be handed over to the Returning Officers of the respective electoral districts.
Election Commissioner General Saman Sri Ratnayake stated that this process is part of the Commission’s efforts to ensure transparency and accountability in the electoral process.