The ‘Entrepreneurs Paradise Loan Scheme – Enterprise Sri Lanka’ programme was launched by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at the BMICH on Friday.

The programme was introduced under the ‘Gamperaliya’ Rural Development Project, from which aspiring entrepreneurs of all fields and sectors could obtain concessionary loans to kick start entrepreneurial ambitions.

Young graduates, poultry producers, registered journalists, school service vehicle owners, small scale farmers and entrepreneurs in agriculture, fisheries, livestock, floriculture and many other fields could apply for concessionary loans.

At the launch of the event, President Sirisena pointed out that for the success of this new programme, the coordination and inter-relation between all stake holders including the Finance Ministry, Enterprise Development, banks, all other relevant state establishments and the entrepreneur was extremely vital.

The Finance Ministry and the Public Enterprise and Kandy City Development Ministry launched the joint programme introducing 15 loan schemes selected from among 100 loan schemes.

At the ceremony, an entrepreneur received his cheque for the loan to the value of Rs.50 million given at 3.5% interest from President Sirisena in the presence of Ministers Mangala Samaraweera and Lakshman Kiriella.

Chamara Indrajith, the main suspect arrested in connection with the Friday’s armed gang robbery in Matara, was shot dead when he was attempting to hurl a hand grenade at police officers at Kirala Kale in Matara this morning.

Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara said the suspect was taken to recover his hidden clothes bag at around 7.15 a. m today. 

“He attempted to hurl the hand grenade which was inside the bag and was injured when a police officer shot at him. The suspect, who was a resident of Veyangoda, succumbed to injuries after he was hospitalised,” SP Gunasekara said.

The suspect was arrested yesterday when a gang reportedly led by him attempted to rob a jewellery shop in Matara.

SP Gunasekara said the investigations had revealed that the suspect was wanted for several murders and robberies.

He was the main suspect of underworld figure Udammita Samare’s killing.

In addition, the deceased suspect was wanted for the shooting incident at Attanagalle musical show in April 21 this year where an individual was shot dead and four others were injured.

He was also wanted for the killing of a 54-year-old woman and injuring her son in Veyangoda in May 21 this year. (Darshana Balasuriya)

Parliamentarians Chamal Rajapaksa, Rauff Hakeem and Vijitha Herath had been named to the newly-appointed committee to be in charge of Constitutional Affairs, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya announced today.

As per the announcement, the Speaker himself, the Leader of the House, and three other members are appointed to this Committee.

These three members are nominated by the Speaker, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

This committee will be given the responsibility to look into proposals with regard to the Constitution.

The new Committee was appointed as per the new Standing Orders, which had been adopted by the House, Parliament sources said. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)

malij Friday, 22 June 2018 19:55

According to the the TV footage shown, the barbaric way the villagers have killed the leopard and the way they have behaved afterwards is most revolting.

Reply :

0
     
0

Fictional characters originally ‘described’ by famous English children’s writer Enid Blyton have given their names to six new species of minute  goblin spiders discovered in the diminishing forests of Sri Lanka.

According to the website phys.org, the goblins Bom, Snooky and Tumpy and the brownies Chippy, Snippy and Tiggy made their way from the pages of: “The Goblins Looking-Glass” (1947), “Billy’s Little Boats” (1971) and “The Firework Goblins” (1971) to the scientific literature in a quest to shed light on the remarkable biodiversity of the island country of Sri Lanka, Indian Ocean.

As a result of their own adventure, which included sifting through the leaf litter of the local forests, scientists Prof. Suresh P. Benjamin and Sasanka Ranasinghe of the National Institute of Fundamental Studies, Sri Lanka, described a total of nine goblin spider species in six genera as new to science. Two of these genera are reported for the very first time from outside Australia.

Their paper is published in the open access journal Evolutionary Systematics.

With a total of 45 species in 13 genera, the goblin spider fauna in Sri Lanka—a country taking up merely 65,610 km2—is already remarkably abundant. Moreover, apart from their diversity, these spiders amaze with their extreme endemism. While some of the six-eyed goblins can only be found at a few sites, other species can be seen nowhere outside a single forest patch

“Being short-range endemics with very restricted distributions, these species may prove to be very important when it comes to monitoring the effects of climate change and other threats for the forest habitats in Sri Lanka,” explain the researchers.

In European folklore, goblins and brownies are known as closely related small and often mischievous fairy-like creatures, which live in human homes and even do chores while the family is asleep, since they avoid being seen. In exchange, they expect from their ‘hosts’ to leave food for them.

he newly discovered goblin spider species Xestaspis kandy in its natural habitat. Credit: Suresh P. Benjamin