Six police officers attached to the Gampaha Rapid Motorcycle Unit were arrested by the Gampaha Police in connection with the alleged brutal assault of a Catholic priest who was riding a motorcycle that failed to stop on police orders at Telwatte, in Minuwangoda, yesterday (25).

The injured priest was admitted to the Negombo Hospital for treatment.Sources said that the Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, who is currently on a visit to Italy, had informed the President about the incident.

According to police, officers of the Gampaha Rapid Motorcycle Unit were deployed on an operation at Udugampola on Saturday (24). During the operation, they had ordered a suspicious motorcycle approaching them to stop. However, the rider failed to comply with police orders.

The officers then pursued the fleeing motorcycle and stopped it. A heated argument ensued and the police allegedly assaulted the priest.

by Norman Palihawadane and Hemantha Randunu

Four passengers were arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) yesterday morning (25) for attempting to smuggle ‘Kush’ cannabis and Hashish with a combined street value of more than Rs. 216 million.

Three passengers were first apprehended by a joint team of Airport Customs officers and officials of the Customs Narcotics Control Division while they were trying to exit the arrival terminal, through the Green Channel.

The suspects, two 29-year-old residents of Nattandiya, a bricklayer and a businessman, and a 32-year-old businessman from Grandpass, Colombo, had arrived at Katunayake, at around 4.00 am, on 25 January, from Muscat, Oman, aboard Salam Air flight OV-437.

Customs officers recovered 10.4 kilos of ‘Kush’ packed in 10 parcels and 1.9 kilos of ‘Hashish’ concealed in 18 parcels. The narcotics were concealed in five suitcases. The total street value of the seized drugs is Rs. 133.94 million.

Arrangements have been made to hand over the suspects along with the seized narcotics to the BIA Police Narcotics Bureau branch for further investigations.

Subsequently, the police arrested another Sri Lankan national, who tried to smuggle 8.2 kilos of ‘Kush’ cannabis with a street value of approximately Rs. 82.2 million.

Police said the narcotics had been found concealed in eight packages hidden inside two pieces of the suspect’s hand luggage during an inspection. The suspect had arrived from Muscat, Oman earlier the same day.

The suspect was identified as a 37-year-old private security guard employed at a nightclub. He, along with the seized narcotics, would be produced before the Negombo Magistrate’s Court, police said.

by Norman Palihawadane and Chaminda Silva

The third consignment of coal supplied to the Norochcholai Lakvijaya power plant has been found to be substandard, the government has acknowledged, Pubudu Jayagoda, Education Secretary of the Frontline Socialist Party, said yesterday (25) in Polonnaruwa.

He added that any losses incurred should be recovered from those responsible instead of being passed on to the public.

Jayagoda said his party had raised concerns earlier about the quality of coal imported from an Indian company, but the government, particularly the Minister of Power and Energy, had rejected its complaint. Tests conducted by the government laboratory attached to the Norochcholai plant had confirmed that the first shipment had a low calorific value and a high ash content, but authorities failed to take action. A second test conducted by a laboratory in India confirmed the Sri Lankan report, yet the government decided to withhold the findings.

However, the plant’s electricity output and coal consumption revealed the problem. According to a CEB report issued on 21 January, the third shipment also failed to meet the required standards. Normally, the plant’s three generators produced a total of 810 MW (270 MW each), but the third shipment generated only around 715 MW—240 MW, 239 MW, and 236 MW from each generator, compared with a 300 MW capacity per unit. Power specialist Vidura Relpanawa confirmed that the coal quality was substandard.

Under the tender terms, if coal in two shipments failed to meet specifications, the contract is cancelled. Jayagoda said the government, which ignored warnings, had now admitted the problem in an English-language weekend newspaper.

Proposed solutions include emergency local purchases and inspection of coal at the unloading port to reject the substandard batches, steps which he said should have been taken earlier.

Jayagoda warned that delays had left less than three months for stockpiling the coal needed for the next year, beginning from the April cycle, and questioned the tender process.  He urged the authorities to recover losses from those responsible, curb corruption, and ensure the public is not burdened with the cost.