Sri Lanka Welcomes 750,000th Tourist This Year

Sri Lanka welcomes it's 750,000 th Tourist this year (2011)  few hours ago at Bandaranaike International Air Port in Katunayake.According to  Sri Lanka Tourism this number  is the highest number of Tourist Arrivals ever recorded in  history so far.

Chamber Of Pharmaceutical Drugs In Sri Lanka To Support Drug Policy While Opposing The Drug Price Control Mechanism

The Chamber of Pharmaceutical Drugs In Sri Lanka stated today that they have been opposing the proposed Drug Price Control Mechanism of the Government as it will become a burden to the patients.The President of the Chamber Mr.Vish Govinda Swamy said today that they will supporting the proposed National Drugs Policy if the authorities are willing to implement that soon but not the price control mechanism which has proved as a useless system in other fields too.

Addressing a press briefing held in Colombo this eve Mr.Govinda Swamy has stressed that to tackle the rising drug prices in private pharmacies the chamber of pharmaceutical industry in Sri Lanka will introduce a price marking system of every drug that sold in those pharmacies and have already advised the pharmacy owners to marked  the prices of drugs on  the labels of every drug .

"We still think the only way to tackle the problems related to medicinal drugs of sri lanka including the quality and the price problem is non other then implementing the proposed National Drugs Policy made by late professor senaka bibile".But without trying to implement that policy soon wonder why the authorities are trying to introduced a drug price control mechanism in a hurry  " he has questioned.

As The Pharmacy Drugs Prices Are In Increase Majority Of Patients Avoid Of Buying Them

Majority of the patients are avoid of buying medicinal drugs  through the private pharmacies nowadays due to the ever rising prices of them health sources have revealed today (23).As the patients are not buying  drugs  the sales of these pharmacies too dropped sharply. According to the sources the prices of almost every drug available in those pharmacies  have  increased during past few weeks without an exact reason.

Prices of some essential drugs including drugs prescribed for Diabetes,High Blood Pressure,Cholesterol and Heart Diseases were increased by  more than 10 percent during this month .

Due to this situation the majority of government hospital patients have  avoid of buying the drugs from private pharmacies although  prescribed by hospital doctors and doctors are warning that the conditions of these patients will get worsen if they continue to avoid of buying prescribed  drugs for their ailments.

The Final Report Of Lessons Learn t And Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) Was Handed Over To The President

The final  report of the Lessons Learn t And Reconciliation Commission(LLRC) was  handed over to the President  Mahinda Rajapaksha to day (20) at Temple Trees by the Commission's Chairman C.R De Silva.The Commission was appointed by  President in the year 2010 .

The Lessons Learn t And Reconciliation Commission had gathered over 1000 public evidence during their proceedings.Commission Members finished the final report on 15th of November according to the sources.

Former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka Was Found Guilty On White Flag Case And Sentenced To Three Years Of Imprisonment

The Special Three Member Judge Panel of  Colombo High Court has today (18th) found Former Army Commander and the leader of Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Retired General Sarath Fonseka was  guilty for  first charge out of the three charges against him in  "White Flag Case " and sentenced him a  three years of  rigourous  imprisonment .The Judge Panel was also fined General Fonseka a Rs.5000 fine.

The Judgment was a divided one as 2:1 while 2  judges including  the chairman of judge  Panel justice Deepali Wijesundera judged General Fonseka as found guilty for one of the three charges filed against him and 1 judge judged as he was not guilty for all the three charges.The 2 judges who were given their judgment against  General Fonseka found him guilty on the first charge against him inciting violance through his statment on "White Flag Issue" while found he was not guilty for the rest of the charges.

General Fonseka is currently serving a 30 month jail sentence imposed by the local Court Martial.The former Army Commander was charged for a statement made by him for the local weekend newspaper stating the troops have killed number of LTTE Leaders under the direction of higher official when they tried to surrender with white flags during the final phase of the war against LTTE in 2009.

During today's court proceedings security was tightened in and around the High Court Complex in Colombo with large number of armed police officers.

Gas Prices Will Not Increased -Cooperatives And Internal Trade Minister

Although Laugfs Gas Company has requested the Government to increased the price of a Gas Cylinder the Gas Prices will not be increased the Minister Of Cooperatives and Internal Trade Johnston Fernando has announced today (16th).

As only the Laugfs Gas Company made a request to increased the Gas Prices there will be no  revision of Gas Prices withing this year according to the Minster.The last Gas Price revision was on Last August.

GMOA Called An Emergency General Meeting Tomorrow To Discuss Future Course Of Action Against A Batch Of Registered Medical Practitioners

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) has called an emergency General Meeting at 12 noon tomorrow(17th) to discuss their future course of action on the 70 Registered and Assistant Medical Practitioners who have produced bogus Medical Certificates to Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) to obtained registration.

According to the Assistant Secretary of GMOA Dr.Upul Gunasekera if the SLMC is to give the registration to these Medical Practitioners all the MBBS Graduate Doctors attached to Government Hospitals Island wide will withdraw their registration form the Medical Council and resigned from their service.

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) too found when they inquired on those Registered And Assistant Medical Practitioners that they followed a six month course in Sri Lanka with  Russian lecturers have lectured them while obtained 3 year fully paid duty leave to study in Saint Petersberg Medical Academy in Russia Dr.Gunesekera has stated.However they have produced bogus Medical Certificates to the SLMC claiming they received the certificates from the Russian Medical Academy he stressed.