BY CYRIL WIMASURENDRE

KANDY –This year`s Kandy annual Esala Perahera ends today (12) with the Day Perahera parading the streets of Kandy and President Ranil Wickremesinghe receiving the Perahera ‘Sandeshaya` from the Nilames who conducted the procession that lasted for ten days.

President Wickremesinghe receives the Perahera Sandeshaya from Diyawadana Nilame and the Basnayaka Nilame for the first time.

The Day Perahera is conducted on the streets of Kandy after the water cutting ceremony in the morning at Getambe.

By Norman Palihawadane

Police have arrested two women for forcibly entering the President’s House and taking pictures sitting on the President’s chair.The suspects were taken into custody by the officers of the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD).The two suspects are residents of Moratuwa.

The suspects were in pictures released by the police headquarters last week seeking public assistance to apprehend the suspects.The CCD is conducting investigations into the incidents.The Police said the whereabouts of 29 persons identified with the help of CCTV footage and social media posts were still unable to be ascertained.Among the majority of the pictures released were suspects seated on the President’s chair.

Four days have been allocated for the debate on the Budget Appropriation (Amendment) Bill for the next four months presented to the House by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena on 09 Aug.The Bill will be debated on 30, 31 August and 1 and 2 Sept. in parliament. The party leaders’ meeting, where the aforesaid decision was taken was chaired by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Wednesday.

One of the salient features of the amended Budget Appropriation, presented for the first time by Prime Minister Gunawardena was the increase of allocations for the Health and Education ministries, the Prime Minister’s Office said. It has also increased the allocations under Heads of the President and Defence.

The allocation for the Education Ministry amounts to Rs. 200 billion for both recurrent and capital expenditures. The allocation for the Defence Ministry has been increased to Rs. 3.76 billion. Health Ministry allocation has been increased to Rs. 248,069,998,000 for both recurrent and capital expenditures.

Rs. 682.728 billion has been allocated for recurrent expenditure of Public Administration as per the appropriation account. A sum of Rs. 212, 808,260,000 has been allocated for the Public Security Ministry.Rs. 9.3 billion has been allocated for the Trade, Commerce and Food Security Ministry while Rs. 467,208,833, 000 has been allocated for the Finance Economic Stabilization and National Policies Ministry and Rs.138,560,485,000 has been allocated for Agriculture.