News
GMOA threatens to pull out of technical committee over failure to have GPS app to track virus
By Rathindra Kuruwita
The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) announced yesterday that it would withdraw from the Health Ministry’s technical committee on COVID-19 if officials failed to finalise the GPS mapping of COVID-19 patients by the end of the week.
GMOA Editor Dr. Haritha Aluthge told The Island that they had been urging the health ministry to map all COVID-19 patients. The map would help authorities to take better decisions.
“If we can get this on a map with GPS technology, we can easily decide what areas should be quarantined, what the danger areas are. Without such a map we can’t take any scientific decision.”
The GMOA Editor added that there was such a map in the western province, which should be extended to cover the entire country.
“It’s true that the Western Province is the most affected but this map should cover the entire country. We have informed the Health Ministry that the map should be finalised by the end of the week. If not, we will withdraw from the Health Ministry’s technical committee on COVID19.”
Dr. Aluthge added that almost all stakeholders had agreed on the importance of the map.
The Paddy Marketing Board has approximately 115,000 metric tonnes of paddy stocks purchased from farmers, which are currently stored in the Board’s warehouses, and it has been planned to retain a sufficient buffer stock from these reserves and sell the remaining quantity in order to provide the necessary storage space and financial resources for the purchase of paddy from farmers during the upcoming Yala season.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to sell the aforementioned paddy stocks
following a formal tender procedure.
The Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 provides the legal provisions for regulating and promoting the export agriculture sector in this country.
Taking into consideration administrative changes and sectoral developments that have taken place over time, approval was granted at the Cabinet Meetings held on 2023-09-04 and 2025-08-11 to amend the said Act, which has not been updated for over 30 years.
The proposed amendments are intended to amend the designations of the Head of the Department of Export Agriculture and other officials, and to provide a clearer definition of the term “the export agricultural crop.”
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to publish in the Government Gazette the Draft Export Agriculture Promotion (Amendment) Bill, prepared in all three languages by the Legal Draftsman to amend the Export Agriculture Promotion Act, No. 46 of 1992, and thereafter submit the same to Parliament for its concurrence
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Cabinet approves sale of Paddy stocks held by the Paddy Marketing Board
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