The Presidential Commission On Missing Persons Commenced It's First Public Sitting In Eastern Province

The Presidential Commission investigates on missing persons of Northern and Eastern Provinces during the period 1990-2009 has  up to now received around 16,000 complaints from island wide it has been revealed .out of these complaints around 9300 are complaints on civil disappearances and 4300 are on disappearances of security personal.

The Commission has commenced it's first public sitting in the eastern province district  of Batticloe today(20).the first public hearing on missing persons scheduled to be held until 22nd of March in the towns of Chenkallady, Vakarai and Batticaloe according to the sources.

The public hearings will cover 56 village level areas(Grama Seva Niladari Divisions) in the district.

The three member commission comprising Mr.Maxwell Parakrama Paranagama(Chairman),Dimingu Badathurage Priyanthi Suranjana Vidyaratne and Mrs.Mano Ramanathan held it's first public sitting in Kilinochchi District of Northern Province on last January.the commission is to submit a report after concluding necessity inquiries and investigations on missing persons.

Heavy Traffic In Colombo Due To Protest March

A heavy traffic has been reported from several main roads in Colombo and suburbs this evening following the massive protest march of University Students which headed towards colpetty.in some roads traffic has lasted more than one hour  and commuters have faced severe difficulties due to this it has been reported.

The Police has fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse the protest march of university students when they tried to clear security gates .

Midwives To Launch A Continuous Strike As Health Ministry Has Approved Midwifery Training For Nurses

The Health Ministry has agreed to give midwifery training to all newly trained nurses annually although government midwives are strongly  opposing it according to Public Services Nurses Union(PSNU)health minister along with several higher officials of Health Ministry last Monday(17) have expressed their willingness to PSNU on allowing  nurses to get midwifery training after finishing their three year training the  union has said.

Under the proposed midwifery training 1350 newly trained nurses belongs to 2009 B Batch will received the training at nursing schools island wide .

Meanwhile The Government Midwives Union President Mrs.Devika Kodithuwakku has said that Midwives will launch an island wide continuous strike as soon as the health ministry has issued a circular on allowing new nurses to get midwifery training.

Sri Lanka Granted It's Air Space For Search Operations On Missing Malaysian Flight

The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry has today(18) granted overflight clearance to Malaysian authorities for using special search and rescue air crafts to  search on missing Malaysian Flight MH370 -Boeing 777 which has disappeared without a clue on 08th of March .the Malaysian authorities have earlier requested from local Foreign Ministry's permission  to use Sri Lankan Air Space for search operations on Missing Malaysian Flight carried out  by Air Crafts of Malaysia,Australia ,New Zealand and United States.

Responding to the request made by Malaysian Authorities a P-3 Orion  Anti Submarine Plane belongs to United States  has searched on missing flight in west of the Malaysian Peninsula to roughly Sri Lanka a distance of about 1000 linear miles .

Malaysian Authorities have speed up their search operations on the  missing flight in Indian Ocean and Countries located there after they have found a home made plane simulator created  by  Chief Pilot of the Missing flight Captain Zaharie Ahamad Shah which  had five runaways of Air Ports including Sri Lankan Air Port programmed into  it.

The MH370 Flight  was traveling Kuala Lampur to Beijing when it  disappeared last Saturday from civil radars near  Gulf Of Thailand

Every Month Around 6-18 Quality Failure Drugs Are Wthdrawn From Sri Lankan Hospitals

Every Month around 6 -18 drugs use in Government Hospitals in Sri Lanka  are   withdrawn from hospitals due to quality failure problems  while Countries like Australia withdraw around 6 quality failed  drugs every three years  Professor Senaka Bibile Memorial Organization has said.'this giving us an indication of the status of medicinal drugs imported to Sri Lanka by spending millions of rupees" the organization has stated.

 
According to the national convener of Professor Senaka Bibile Memorial Organization Dr.Jayantha Bandara around 80% to 90% of drugs imported here are from well known low quality drug manufacturing companies located in Asia .however even there are quality failure problems in imported drugs and a drug shortage almost every year the expenditure for importing drugs to Sri Lanka is on the
increase he has stressed.in 2010 around Rs.24.5 billion was allocated for importing drugs to the country and in the year 2012 that amount has  risen to Rs.47.5 billion Dr.Bandara has revealed.

North Central Province Doctors To Launch A Token Strike Tomorrow

The government hospital doctors attached to government hospitals in   North Central Province are  to launch a token one day strike tomorrow(17) by demanding a disciplinary action against a public health inspector who has violated the establishment code.doctors attach to government hospitals in North Central Province are due to launch this strike from 8 a.m tomorrow(17) to 8 a.m on Tuesday(18) according to Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA).

The OPD Clinics,routine surgery and treatment performs in hospitals in the province will be affected as a result of this strike GMOA has said.

Fraudulent Health Director Has Selected To Represent Sri Lanka In International Seminar

The National Drug Authority Director who is on transfer order and having dozens of fraudulent charges against him has selected by the Health Authorities to represent Sri Lanka on  an international seminar currently  underway  in France on Narcotics .although the sponsors of the seminar the World Health Organization(WHO) has requested the health ministry to select and send the best official who is involved in narcotic field in Sri Lanka the ministry officials have selected the drug authority director who is representing a totally different field  it has been revealed.

The said director has receiving  a daily allowance of US Dollars 350 for a week period  from the Health Ministry during his stay in  France in addition to the allowance received from WHO sources said.

While the selected director has already left France and attending the seminar at present the transfer order to assume his duties as the director of Family Health Bureau has sent and he is not in the country to accept  it sources have revealed.the Public Services Commission (PSC) too rejected the Health Secretary Dr.Nihal Jayathilake's recommendation to appoint the said fraudulent officer for the vacant post of deputy director general of health services(laboratory services) due to his involvement in number of corrupt activities in the health field.