Private medical college shouldn't award MBBS

 Dailymirror
The Malabe private medical college should never be allowed to award the Sri Lankan MBBS, Medical Faculty Students Action Committee representative Najith Indika said yesterday protesting opposite the University Grants Commission (UGC).

“How can the standard of the Malabe private medical college be compared to ours?” Mr. Indika said. According to him some of the students accepted into the Malabe private medical college have not passed the Advanced Level Examinations

“Anyone with Rs.6 million can do medicine at the Malabe private medical college which is yet to build its own hospital for the clinical training which is a necessity for any MBBS course,” Indika said.

The best of the science stream at the G.C.E. Advanced Level enter the eight medical colleges island wide and sometimes the people who get three A’s also don’t make it to the local medical colleges, Mr. Indika said.

“The resources of the local medical colleges should be expanded so that they can accommodate external students or bigger batches,” Mr. Indika said. This protest is to get the attention of President to focus his attention on the medical college issue and bring about a viable solution to this issue, he added.
Students from the eight medical faculties of the universities island wide took part in yesterday’s protest from Punchi Borella to the UGC. (Sumaiya Rizvi)

Promised pay hike not granted from budget - FUTA

November 22, 2011, 10:07 pm , The Island.

by Dasun Edirisinghe

The Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) yesterday said the government had reneged on its promise to increase the salary of a senior professor to Rs. 143,000 from the Budget 2012.

FUTA President Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri told The Island that when they resorted to trade union action few months back demanding the rectification of their salary anomalies and a pay hike, the government had promised to consider the implementation of FUTA proposals in four phases.

The government had undertaken to increase the salaries of senior professors from the Budget as the second phase, Dr. Devasiri said. Asked whether his federation would resume trade union action in protest, he said the FUTA would take up the matter with the government first.

University teachers resigned from their voluntarily administrative posts on May 9 this year in protest against delay on the part of the government to redress their grievances. However, after a lapse of two months they suspended their trade union action when Higher Education Ministry agreed to grant their demands.

Dr. Devasiri said the FUTA was ready to resume trade union action should the government refuse to honour its promise.

"We had several discussions with the National Salaries and Cadres Commission (NSCC) and they, too, agreed to our demands," Dr. Devasiri said. He, however, noted that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had said in his budget speech that a circular would be issued to rectify the salary anomalies in the public sector by Dec. 31, 2011.

According to Secretary to the NSCC Bandula Wijeratne, the Commission is awaiting the circular, Dr. Devasiri said.

University teachers resorted to trade union action to pressure the government to rectify their salary anomalies on March 15 this year.

Neglected in budget, jobless graduates to launch continuous protest

November 22, 2011, 10:01 pm , The Island.

by Dasun Edirisinghe

Unemployed graduates, who had been waiting for nearly eight years to secure government jobs, yesterday threatened to launch a continuous protest campaign as the 2012 budget had neglected them.

Addressing a press conference in Colombo, Convener of the Combined Association of Unemployed Graduates, Lunugamvehere Kalyanaransi thera, said that they had high hopes that the budget would allocate funds to provide them with jobs, but it had failed.

"The 2012 budget totally neglected the unemployed graduates," he said adding this was the third time that the government neglected the issue in the budget.

Kalyanaransi thera said that the Rajapaksa government had promised 8,000 jobs in the 2007 budget and 15,000 jobs in the 2008 budget. In the 2009 budget, the government promised 17,500 jobs for graduates and it planned to recruit 14,500 as Jana Sabha Secretaries and 3,177 as aesthetic teachers.

But the government has broken all such promises, he said.

He said that the government completely forgot the issue in the 2010 and 2011 budgets.

Answering a query, Kalyanaransi thera said that there were more than 19,000 vacancies remaining in the public sector, but the government did not take any action to fill those vacancies with them.

However, there were 42,000 unemployed graduates waiting for jobs at present, he said.

According to him, they had already started their protest at provincial level. They have held protest marches and awareness rallies in the Southern, North Central and Eastern Provinces, he said.

"Our next protest would bring all our members to Colombo to participate in a demonstration," Kalyanaransi thera said adding if the government keeps turning ablind eye even after that they would resort to a continuous agitation.

Medical U’grads protest against MPMC

November 22, 2011, 10:06 pm , The Island.

by Dasun Edirisinghe

Medical undergraduates yesterday launched protests opposite the University Grants Commission (UGC) in Ward Place and the Higher Education Ministry demanding an immediate end to the Malabe Private Medical College project which got underway in 2009.

Police headquarters moved in additional personnel as undergraduates caused massive traffic jams in the area for about two hours.

Organizers told The Island that about 2,000 undergraduates had been involved in the protest, the latest in a series held to pressure Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake to abandon the Malabe project.

They vowed to continue their protests until the government abandoned the project. A group of undergraduates made representations to Higher Education Secretary Dr. Sunil Navaratne.

Budget a broken promise - union

November 22, 2011, 10:08 pm , The Island,

The 2012 budget had not conferred the promised salary increase of 10 per cent to the state sector, the Public Service Trade Union Confederation said. "The budget has instead conferred a 10 per cent increase of allowances received by the state sector employees," Secretary to the confederation, Saman Rathnapriya said.

The incumbent regime had repeatedly broken the promise given to the state sector employees during the last presidential election regarding increasing their salaries by Rs. 2,500.

"Under the proposed budget only those who hold higher positions in the state sector would receive Rs. 2,500 in allowances while the lower level employees would receive a lesser amount," he said.

Rathnapriya also said that under the current proposals the doctors would receive an additional allowance of Rs. 2,500 and this discrepancy was a major injustice done to nurses and professions supplementary to medicine.

Meanwhile the Chief Minister of Sabaragamuwa province, Maheepala Herath said that allocating Rs. 40 billion for the fertilizer subsidy for the farmers and Rs. 15 billion to develop underdeveloped villages was an admirable move by the government.

"Reducing the poverty level in Sri Lanka from 15.5 per cent to 8.09 per cent at a time even the western super powers had faced an economic downturn is obviously a hint that Sri Lanka is on the verge of becoming the miracle of Asia," he said.

Issuing a statement the Secretary of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, Karunathilaka Dissanayake said that the budget would improve every aspect of the economic sector of the country providing concessions for all the ethnicities in Sri Lanka. (PH)

 

Non-academics give Govt. time to rectify anomalies

November 22, 2011, 10:05 pm

by Dasun Edirisinghe, The Island.

University non-academics yesterday said that they would give the government time until January 01 to rectify the anomalies in their salaries. This follows discussions they had with Higher Education Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne at the ministry.

President of the Inter University Trade Union Federation R. M. Chandrapala told ‘The Island’ that Dr. Navaratne promised to work according to the proposed circular, which was to be issued, to rectify the anomalies in public sector salaries before December 31.

Dr. Navaratne, the Additional Secretary to the Ministry and eight members from the university trade unions attended a two-hour-long meeting yesterday.

He said that it was included in the 2012 budget which was presented in Parliament by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday.

"We were waiting to win our demand since 2006," Chandrapala said, adding that this was the last time they were going to be deceived by government promises.

University non-academics, including executive and administration officers, had been waiting for the rectification of their salary anomalies for the past six years and they were at the end of their tether. They staged a token strike on Nov. 02.

Salary hike nullified by devaluation, inflation – Wickremeratne

November 21, 2011, 10:41 pm ,The Island,

by Zacki Jabbar

The Mahinda Rajapaksa government’s 2012 budget had true to form bluffed the working class, once again, by devaluing the rupee and then granting a 10 percent salary increase to public servants, UNP MP Eran Wickremeratne said yesterday.

He told The Island that with inflation officially at six percent, though it was much higher and the rupee devalued by three percent, there had in effect been no salary hike and could possibly work out to a deduction in wages.

Asked about his overall perception of the 2012 budget which was presented by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his capacity as Finance Minister, amidst fisticuffs in parliament yesterday, Wickremeratne said that it was inflationary and the rupee devaluation would make imports cost higher, resulting in the common man being strangled further.

He noted that deficit financing was the underlying theme of the 2012 budget and with the unofficial inflation figure much higher than the official position, the cost of living was bound to rise further.

The Revival of Underperforming Enterprises and Underutilised Assets, was the most obnoxious piece of legislation to be passed in recent times, Wickremeratne said adding that its presentation in parliament as an ‘Urgent Bill’ had prevented any public debate.

He said that the Act was being used to take over lands of privatized companies, in direct violation of the agreement’s they had entered into with the State. At a time when local and foreign investments should be encouraged, the wrong signals being sent out were detrimental to economic development, Wickremeratne observed.

State workers get 10% pay hike

Rupee devalued by 3 per cent
Rs. 230 bn for security forces
Pensions up by at least Rs. 500
Rs. 37,000 mn for Northern railway
Rs.100 mn for legal aid to poor
Concessions for SMEs, strategic sectors

November 21, 2011, 10:36 pm ,The Island.

By Saman Indrajith

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, presenting his government’s seventh consecutive budget, yesterday offered the State sector workers a ten percent salary hike, a three percent devaluation of the rupee to encourage exports and reduce import costs, all taxes were removed from sports goods to encourage sports, vehicle duty for tourism was cut by 50 per cent and in order to become self sufficient other than in rice, a high cess was proposed on a number of pulse imports.

It was also the 65th budget of Sri Lanka that was presented to Parliament yesterday by the President as the Finance Minister.

The budget deficit that has prevailed for a long period of time due to recurrent expenditure exceeding government revenue has been reduced to Rs 1.8 billion in 2012. This was a big drop from a deficit of Rs 120 billion in 2010, the president said.

A ten percent salary increment has been proposed for the Public sector including the military.

A sum of Rs 496 billion had been allocated in 2012 to take forward the development projects. "I was therefore able to include a number of development proposals suggested by the Members of Parliament in various fields such as highways, irrigation, electricity, water resources, education and health into this budget speech," he said.

"We need to reduce the import cost and increase export revenue. When our currency has strengthened, our trading partners’ currencies have depreciated. So I propose to devalue the currency by 3 percent with effect from today", the President announced "We have been able to maintain the growth rate at 8 percent in 2011, the same as in 2010. In the Northern region, it is reported that the growth is 23 percent, well beyond 8 percent." Last year, economic activity in the former war zone — which was under the control of Tamil Tiger separatists for decades until the Sri Lankan military defeated them in 2009 — grew at a 14.2 rate.

"In addition to rice, we need self-sufficiency in green gram, peanuts, ginger, and corn in order to achieve food security. So I propose a high cess on imports of these products."

"Vehicle registration charges will be revised while they will be increased for luxury vehicles in order to increase revenue of provincial councils." He also said tourism vehicle import duties will be cut by 50 percent"

"We have allocated 30 billion rupees ($271.8 million)for the inter provincial road network."

"We can be the regional sports hub and that can help to strengthen our economy. I propose 500 million rupees for development of infrastructure complexes and all sport goods will be tax-free in order to encourage sports."

"We have decided to impose a visa fee of $10 per person from the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) region countries and $20 from the other regions’ visitors. There won’t be any charge on children to encourage family tourism. Tourists who spend a minimum of 48 hours also won’t be charged. This will give additional revenue of 2 billion rupees."

Of 230 billion rupees allocated to defense, 203 billion or 88 percent will be spent on salaries, food and uniforms.

"Now we have identified 37,000 acres of land under the plantation industries which are not used. These identified lands will be handed over to identify families for a 30-year lease, 2 acres each to develop small estates with lending facilities and seeds," the President added.

Revamp for India's Tata Nano - the world's cheapest car

The Tata was launched amid great fanfare as the answer to India's aspirational middle classes

The world's cheapest motor car, India's Tata Nano, has been given a makeover, after disappointing sales since it was launched in 2009.

The 2012 Nano will be available in more colours and have more luxurious interiors, as part of an effort to rejuvenate its appeal.
The manufacturers also say the car will be more fuel-efficient.
Tata motors, which makes the Nano, also manufactures British luxury cars Jaguar and Land Rover.
The modifications were made after feedback from Nano owners, Tata Motors' India operations director, PM Talang, is quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
The engine will be increased by three horsepower to 38 and the company says the inside of the car will be quieter.
The car's makers say they hope the new model will help to increase sales. The price of the car will remain the same.
Last December it was reported that sales of the Nano had plunged by 85% compared with a year earlier.
Analysts pointed out that a series of fires in the Nano may have contributed. Tata offered free safety upgrades for the model.
It was launched in 2009, amid great fanfare as a car costing just 100,000 rupees ($1,979; £1,366). Tata owner Ratan Tata has described it as a "milestone" at the time.

BUDGET SPEECH 2012

http://www.scribd.com/doc/73363054/Bgtspeech2012-Eng