News

Schaffter’s body exhumed

Published

2 weeks ago

May 25, 2023

editor

The body of late Janashakthi Group Director Dinesh Schaffter was exhumed under special police protection at the Borella Cemetery today.

The body has been identified by Mr. Schaffter’s father Chandra and brother Ramesh.

Mr.Schaffter’s body was exhumed under the supervision of Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya.

The five-member panel of medical experts appointed to investigate Mr. Schaffter’s death requested the Colombo Magistrate’s Court to exhume his body in order to find the cause of death.

Even though the court has informed that the exhumation of the body should be carried out openly, the journalists said that the police prevented the journalists from entering the cemetery.

However, the journalists have been allowed to enter the cemetery after a while and they have been stationed 30 meters away from the exhumation site.

Colombo Additional Magistrate Jayasuriya earlier rejected a request made by the relatives of Mr. Schaffter to conduct the exhumation without the presence of media.

President’s Counsel Anuja Premaratne who appeared on behalf of the relatives of the deceased made a request to allow the exhumation of Mr. Schaffter’s body to be carried out in private in the presence of the family pathologist.

The Magistrate said that a special committee has been appointed to conduct investigations independently and that she did not want to influence the committee’s affairs. The Magistrate rejected the requests and ordered the family members to be present at the exhumation site by 8.30 am today (25).

News

CMC’s receivable income exceeds Rs.6,200mn in 2022!

Published

29 mins ago

June 9, 2023

editor

The receivable income of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) for the year 2022 was Rs.6,280.50 million, it was revealed during the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) meeting.

This was revealed when the COPA met in Parliament on June 06 under the chairmanship of State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna to examine the Auditor General’s reports and current performance of the Colombo Municipal Council for the years 2020/2021.

The CMC’s total receivable income of the year 2021 is Rs.5,835.6 million, Rs.5,386.4 million in 2022 and Rs.4,481.5 million in 2019. It was found that these arrears are in the form of assessment tax, rent and other taxes.

Accordingly, the officials who were present pointed out that they are making arrangements to acquire the properties where the taxes are in arrears.

They said that there are issues related to the identification of the owners of certain properties, and that there is also a shortage of CMC officials available to look into these matters.

The COPA member MPs pointed out that assessment numbers have been given for unauthorized constructions as well.

Accordingly, the committee recommended that a programme should be prepared with specific dates to recover the arrears and a full report should be submitted to the COPA by July 06, 2023.

It was also revealed that the private companies contracted to collect parking fees have continued to default on the monthly rent due to the CMC and the amount of arrears to be collected from 38 companies as at December 31, 2021, was Rs. 265 million.

BIZ

Parliament SOC recommends not to privatise SLT

Published

40 mins ago

June 9, 2023

editor

The Sectoral Oversight Committee (SOC) on National Security has said that it does not recommend the privatisation of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT).

This was stated in a report issued by the SOC on National Security headed by MP Sarath Weerasekera.

The report said that matters sensitive to national security can be exposed through the privatisation of SLT.

News

Fonseka resigns from SOC on National Security

Published

41 mins ago

June 9, 2023

editor

Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka has resigned from the Sectoral Oversight Committee (SOC) on National Security, Deputy Speaker Ajith Rajapakshe announced in Parliament today (09).

He said MP Rauff Hakeem has been appointed to the vacant position instead.