News
Johnston and Admiral Sarath raps CID
Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando said last week that the CID has opted to harass and hound the media that exposed the alleged garlic scam instead of probing it and taking legal action against the perpetrators.
“This is a classic example of shooting the messenger. The CID should have gone after the officials involved in alleged scam at Lak Sathosa. Instead they have gone after the media personnel who reported it. By doing so they also brought disrepute to the government. Government cannot condone such acts. It is committed to ensure media freedom,” he said. “We regret the incident. It should not have happened.”
“This is a serious incident because CID officers have gone to newspaper offices after Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera had instructed them not to do so. We should investigate this to find whether anyone in the CID has an interest to put the government in difficulty,” the Minister said speaking to journalists during a ceremony held at his ministry’s auditorium on Thursday.
The ceremony was held to hand over keys of 22 houses built at a cost of Rs 340 million for policemen who lost their homes owing to the construction of a flyover above the Slave Island Railway Station and the Beira Lake connecting Baladaksha Mawatha and Chittampalam A. Gardiner Mawatha.
Project requirements resulted in the removal of 42 housing units of the Slave Island police quarters. The Road Development Authority and the Urban Development Authority will provide new housing to those who lost their quarters, Fernando said.
Twenty two housing units in the first phase were provided under the Metro Housing Complex while the remaining 20 would be provided in the future. The keys of 22 houses were handed over to Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera who is in charge of the police by Minister Fernando on Thursday.
Weerasekera said Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena had lodged a complaint with the CID pertaining to the alleged garlic scam. He had however not named any media institution or journalist in his complaint.
Some journalists, including the editors of several newspapers, had been summoned by the CID. “As soon as I heard of the summoning I spoke to the IGP and instructed him not to do that. Even Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa issued similar instructions.
Thereafter, contrary to the instructions given, some CID officers had visited newspaper officers. We apologize to the journalists who were subject to questioning. We have called for a report from the IGP in this regard,” the minister said.
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution forwarded by the Minister of Health and Mass Media to relocate the Deniyaya Base Hospital after constructing a new hospital with a capacity of 300 beds at an estimated cost of Rupees 6,000 million.
The Southern Provincial Department of Health has acquired a plot of land in Handford estate which is approximately 03 kilometres away from the town for this purpose.
News
Cabinet nod to legally empower methodology for implementing the ‘Praja Shakthi’ poverty alleviation national movement
The Cabinet of Ministers granted approval for the resolution furnished by the Minister of Rural Development, Social Security and Community Empowerment to instruct the Legal Draftsman to draft a bill to legally empower the implementation of ‘Praja Shakthi’ (Strength of the Community) poverty alleviation national movement
…preliminary work started on new Constitution
JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva yesterday (17) maintained that the NPP government was not under Indian pressure to hold the long delayed Provincial Council elections.
The top JVP official said so appearing on Sirasa Pathikada, anchored by Asoka Dias. Tilvin Silva said that neither the devolution nor terrorism issues had been discussed during his meeting with External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar and Deputy National Security Advisor Pavan Kapoor, in New Delhi. This was Tilvin Silva’s first visit to India.
Declaring that politics hadn’t been on the agenda, the JVPer said that the Indian focus was entirely on economic development and technology.
The JVP General Secretary visited India under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations’ (ICCR) Distinguished Visitors Programme from 5-12 February 2026. General Secretary Silva was accompanied by Kitnan Selvaraj, MP, Ilankumaran Karunanathan, MP, JVP Central Committee Member Janaka Adhikari, JVP’s Media Unit Head Hemathilaka Gamage and Member of JVP’s International Relations Department Kalpana Madhubhashini. The delegation visited New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Thiruvananthapuram.
Responding to another query, Tilvin Silva said that Dr. S. Jaishankar had reiterated that India would always remain a true and trusted partner for Sri Lanka, in accordance with its ‘Neighbourhood First Policy’ and Vision ‘MAHASAGAR.’
Referring to the second JVP insurrection in the late 1980s, the JVPer claimed that they had not been against India but responded to the actions of the then Indian government.
Sri Lanka enacted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in the wake of the Indo-Lanka peace accord of July 1987 to pave the way for Provincial Councils.
Tilvin Silva said that since they came to power, Indo-Sri Lanka relations had changed. “India has realised we could work together,” he said.
The JVP official said that preliminary work was underway, regarding the formulation of a new Constitution. The abolition of executive presidency and creation of an Office of President sans executive powers, too, would be addressed, he said, adding that the strengthening of the legislature was the other issue at hand.
Pointing out that the NPP had 2/3 majority in Parliament and could introduce a new Constitution on their own, Tilvin Silva said that they intended to obtain views of all and study the past processes in a bid to secure consensus. The JVP, as the party that campaigned against the introduction of executive presidency, way back in 1978, would lead the current effort to do away with the existing Constitution, he said.
Tilvin promised that they would implement what was in their manifesto.
The interviewer also raised the issue of abolishing the pensions for ex-Presidents. Tilvin Silva said that the Supreme Court, too, had approved the move to abolish pensions to ex-MPs. Therefore there was no issue with that, however, the ex-Presidents pensions couldn’t be done away with as they were made through the Constitution. That would be addressed when the government introduced a new Constitution in consultation with other stakeholders.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
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