Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Dr. Padeniya: charges dropped

By Sandun A. Jayasekera
The Health Ministry yesterday exonerated medical specialist and GMOA President Anuruddha Padeniya from  all charges levelled against him and this resulted in the GMOA deciding against the threatened trade union action scheduled for today.
The GMOA on Friday threatened trade union action from today unless Dr. Padeniya’s personal file was returned to the Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital (LRH) director by noon yesterday.
The dispute arose after the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption recorded a statement from Dr. Padeniya last week in connection with his leave to go abroad for post graduate studies.
The GMOA called this an act of victimization because the Commission had nothing to do with the leave of public servants as it did not fall within the ambit of its functions. In the wake of a meeting between the GMOA and Minister Maithripala Sirisena on Friday afternoon, a four-member committee headed by Ministry Secretary Ravinda Ruberu was appointed to look into the allegations.
Dr. Ruberu said the committee exonerated Dr. Padeniya and ruled he had obtained his study leave in accordance with departmental regulations and guidelines and had after completing his post graduate studies qualified as a specialist in paediatrics and neurology. 
The committee also ruled that Dr. Padeniya had obtained the payments due to him during his foreign training in accordance with ministry regulations and had not committed any offence.
The committee included Health Services Director General Ajith Mendis, Additional Secretary Sarathchandra Withana and Medical Services Director R. Balasuriya.

File returned, Padeniya cleared: GMOA suspends strike



By Don Asoka Wijewardena

Doctors’ strike scheduled for today was suspended as GMOA President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya’s personal file, which was removed by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption was returned to Lady Ridgeway hospital yesterday.

Doctors’ files containing details of their leave, salaries, allowances and administrative matters should not be taken away by the Bribery Commission or any other organisation without permission of the Health Ministry, the GMOA said adding that otherwise, it would be compelled to stage a strike without prior notice.

A committee appointed by Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena to look into the matter announced that Dr. Padeniya had passed required examinations and was qualified to work as Consultant Pediatric Neurologist at LRH, GMOA Assistant Secretary Dr. Upul Gunasakera told media a conference held at GMOA Head Office yesterday.

Dr. Gunasekera said the GMOA Executive Committee which convened an emergency meeting yesterday had unanimously decided to suspend the scheduled strike, because the file had been returned to LRH yesterday. The file only contained leave particulars, payments of bills and receipts of government allowances for duty leave etc. Had there been any complaints of bribery, corruption or fraud against doctors, the Bribery Commission could have taken their files but the removal of Dr. Padeniya’s file smacked of political victimisation, the GMOAsaid.

Dr. Gunasekera claimed that it had apparently been removed as part of a campaign to vilify Dr. Padeniya.

Undergrads step up protests over Malabe PMC



by Dasun Edirisinghe

Undergraduates yesterday stepped up their protests against the Malabe Private Medical College (PMC) demanding that the government immediately put an end to its plans to award degrees for a fee.

Convener of the Inter University Students Federation, (IUSF) Sanjeewa Bandara told The Island that they would hoist black flags in all universities as a mark of protest and warned of severe action if the government failed to address the issue at hand forthwith.

He insisted that the Malabe PMC functioning as a fee levying degree awarding institute with four batches of students must be closed down.

"The government is trying to privatize the education system in the country by allowing private institutes to award degrees," he said adding that they would oppose the move. He vowed to defeat the government’s move.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has granted approval for nine institutions to award degrees and there were so many requests pending approval. The newest one was the Malabe PMC and it was the government approved first private institution awarding MBBS degrees, the IUSF convener said.

The pro – JVP IUSF, Bandara said, had opposed the private North Colombo Medical College in 1982 forcing the then government to affiliate it to the Kelaniya University.

According to him, the Malabe medical college would lead to the lowering of the quality of the medical practitioners in Sri Lanka and finally affect the innocent patients of the country.

"We have launched the black flag campaign as the second stage of our protest against the Malabe PMC," Bandara said adding they had held demonstrations opposite the government universities during the last two weeks against the government’s new move.

When contacted by The Island for comments, UGC Chairman Prof. Gamini Samaranayake said that the existing universities could not fulfil the demand for higher education due to several reasons.