Two Opposition Tamil MP's Crossed Over To The Government

Two Tamil Opposition MP's who are members of the opposition United National Front(UNF) today joined with the  Government by crossing over  during the Parliamentary Proceedings held today.The two MP's Prabha Ganeshan and P.Digambaram crossed over to the Government Bench from the Opposition this noon.

The two MP's met the president Mahinda Rajapaksha today before announcing their decision.

Samurdhi Officers Throughout The Island Launched A Protest Campaign Against Deputy Minister

All Samurdhi Officers attached to the Government Service today  staged an Island wide protest campaign against the Deputy Minister of highways Mervin Silva's act to tied one of their officers to a tree at kelaniya two days ago.The officer was tied to a tree due to his non participation of dengue control programme conducted in kelaniya.The protesting Officers demanded an Impartial Inquiry against the Misbehaving act  of the deputy minister.Samurdhi is a programme launched by the government to give financial  aid to the low income groups and Samurdhi officers are handling the relief work throughout the Island.

However while facing lot of criticisms due to his act the Deputy Minister Silva told the parliament yesterday that he didn't tied the officer to tree ,however that officer tied himself to give an example to others on his misbehavior.

Deputy Minister Tied A Worker To A Tree Due To Non Participation To Dengue Control Activities

Deputy minister on highways Mervin Silva today tied a Samurdhi Worker in to a Mango Tree in Kelaniya due to his non participation for the Cleaning Programme on Dengue held last weak.Minister who had invited all the media personal to the place where the Worker was tied said that anyone who are avoid of participating the Dengue control Programme will be punished.He earlier said that no Dengue death should report from the Kelaniya electorate .

Meanwhile Samurdhi Workers launched a strike demanding  an impartial inquiry on the incident involved  Deputy Minister Mervin Silva.

Fourty Five Cases Filed Against Colombo Residents Over Breeding Dengue Mosquitoes

Colombo Health Department filed 45 court  cases within las seven months against the Colombo City residents who maintained Dengue breeding places in their residence/Workplaces.Out of these cases 08 were settled and the accused persons paid a sum of Rs.196,000 as fines.Each of the accused paid Rs.24,500 as the fine.

Colombo Helath Department foiled these cases in the Maligakanda Magistrate Court in Colombo.Under the Mosquito Breeding prevention act passed by the Parliament a person who charged of having Dengue Breeding Palces in his/her premises can be fined up to Rs.50,000 or can imposed a 6 month Imprisonment.

Prabhakaren's Driver Surrendered To The Police

The driver of the late slain ed LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaren has surrendered to the Trincomalee Police yesterday.According to the Police the driver Valiwale Sathikumaren was surrendered yesterday and informed the Police that he fled the tigers during the last stages of the War last year.The police is conducting further investigations on this matter.

Health Ministry To Establish An Eye Bank

Health Ministry is planning to form a National Eye Bank aiming to cater to the needs local community  on  the Eye transplants and to export the Eye cornea to other Asian Countries.Singaporean Eye Bank funded the building of this  local Eye Bank and an accord regarding this is scheduled to be signed today  between Health Ministry Officials and the Eye Bank Officials.

The proposed Eye Bank is build attach to  the Colombo Eye Hospital .

GMOA Seeking President's Intervention To Stop Brain Drain Of Government Executives

The Government Medical Officers Association(GMOA) has requested from the President Mahinda Rajapaksha to implement a new salary structure based on the National Salary Commission initiated in the year 2006 to prevent Brain Drain of nearly 40,000 Executive grade State Officers including of the Government Doctors.

According to the Assistant Secretary of the GMOA Dr.Chandana Atapattu Around 30,000 executive grade state officers including 13,200 Government Doctors are prone to go abroad  seeking higher salaries due to the low salaries they have received now.