⬛️Trooping of the Colour Fly Past!
Over 30 aircraft took to the skies above London and over Buckingham Palace to celebrate His Majesty The King’s Official Birthday following the King’s Birthday Parade (Trooping the Colour).
⬛️"ඔය ඔක්කොම යාලුවෝ මල්ලී"
රංජන් රාමනායක
⬛️ජනපතිගේ පිටපතකට අනුව ITN එකේ රඟපාපු අනුර කුමාර🤔🤔🤔
⬛️This is how RW will play the game of Election 😂😂😂
⬛️Sri Lankan’s living in USA are already pumped up ahead of our first game tonight against South Africa. All the best ! Always keep the flag up. #T20WorldCup2024 #SLvSA 🇱🇰🇱🇰🇱🇰
⬛️Trees falling, CMC slumbering
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Torrential rains and gale-force winds have caused a large number of treefalls in different parts of the country. Falling trees have already snuffed out five lives and caused extensive damage to properties, especially vehicles and houses, during the past few days. The situation is expected to take a turn for the worse with rains intensifying.
Perhaps, the city of Colombo is more prone to treefalls than any other urban centre in the country; the green giants adorning its streets and public spaces are said to number more than one hundred thousand. Many of them are ageing and believed to be unstable. Some of them have recently collapsed. These leafy titans have to be monitored regularly to ensure that they do not pose a danger to the public.
It may be recalled that in October 2023, a large tree fell across a street in Colombo, crushing a bus and killing five passengers. It had been leaning for weeks, posing a serious safety threat, but the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), true to form, ignored warnings and sprang into action after disaster had struck. Having risen from its slumber, the CMC panjandrums promised to take action to ensure that such tragedies would not happen again in the city. But nothing tangible has been done so far to ensure the safety of the public against treefalls, which are likely to kill some more people if rains and strong winds continue.
An expensive machine purchased by the CMC in 2017 to make tree risk assessments in the city has been idling in a storeroom, according to media reports. Municipal Commissioner Bhadranie Jayawardhana has been quoted by the media as saying that there is no one with required technical competence to operate the machine. Shouldn’t the CMC have had some of its technicians trained for the task before purchasing it. What the city administrators have done is like buying an elephant without a mahout! A company never sells such a highl
⬛️The footage shows the moment the president's helicopter wreckage was found by the volunteer drone team of the Relief & Rescue Organization of the Red Crescent
From IRNA News Agency via X
⬛️ From REUTERS - A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister crashed as it was crossing mountain terrain in heavy fog on the way back from a visit to the border with Azerbaijan
VIDEO - Iran’s President Raisi in helicopter crash, officials say - News
⬛️යුද ගැටුම් නිමා වී වසර 15 ක් ගත වී ඇතත් තවමත් 'කුඩම්මාගේ සැලකිලි' ලබන සිංහල ගම්මානය
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දශක තුනක් පැවති සිවිල් යුද්ධය නිමා කර, 15 වැනි සැමරුමට අපි ළඟා වී සිටිමු.
එහෙත් තමන් තවමත් 'අනාථයින්' ලෙස ජීවත්වෙන බව මුලතිව්, කෝකිලායි මොට්ටුආරම ගම්මානයේ ජනතාව BBC සිංහල සේවයට පැවසූහ.
මේ ගම්මානයේ පවුල් 300ක් පමණ ජීවත් වෙන අතර බහුතරය සිංහල ජාතිකයන් වේ.
1930 දශකයේ දී ජනාවාස වූ මේ ගම්මානය යුධ ගැටුම් නිසා කෙටි කාලයක් හැර යාමට ද ජනතාවට සිදු විය. පරම්පරා කිහිපයක් ජීවත් වුව ද අදටත් ඔවුන්ට ඉඩම් සඳහා රජයෙන් බලපත්‍රයක් හෝ ලැබී නැත.
ධීවර රැකියාවෙන් ජීවත්වෙන ජනතාවට භූමිතෙල් සැපයීමට ඉන්ධන පිරවුම්හලක් ඉදි කර ඇතත් අදටත් එය විවෘත කර නොමැත. ගම්මානයේ මූලික පහසුකම් නොමැති අතර කිසිඳු දේශපාලනඥක් ඒ පිළිබඳව සොයා නොබලන බව ද කෝකිලායි වැසියෝ පැවසූහ.
BBC - සිංහල
⬛️At a CBSL discussion, Murtaza Jafferejee, one of the brightest brains in business and policy, questions CEB buying renewable energy from Adani at $0.826 without tender when going rate is under $0.06 . International Monetary Fund governance report calls for open tenders to avoid corruption.
Advocata Institute
⬛️“අදහස් ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම සම්බන්ධව ගොඩක් ප්‍රශ්න මගෙන් ඇහුවා” කටුනායක ගුවන් තොටුපොළ පොලිසිය වෙත ප්‍රකාශයක් ලබා දුන් නීතීඥ සඳරු කුමාරසිංහ
BBC - සිංහල වෙතින් From X
⬛️Are these traffic officers correct?
⬛️කටුනායක ගුවන් තොටුපොළ වීසා නිකුත් කිරීමේ ගැටළුවක්!
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කටුනායක ගුවන් තොටුපොළ තුළ මෙතෙක් ආගමන විගමන දෙපාර්තමේන්තු නිලධාරීන් විසින් සිදු කළ වීසා නිකුත් කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාපටිපාටිය 05/01 දින සිට ඉන්දීය පෞද්ගලික සමාගමකට පැවරීමත් සමග සවස 05.00 සිට ඔවුන්ට එම පද්ධති නිසි පරිදි ක්‍රියාත්මක කර ගැනීමට නොහැකි වීම නිසා දිගු පෝලිම් ඇති වී විදේශීය සංචාරකයන් දැඩි විරෝධයක් පළ කරන්නට වීමෙන් උණුසුම්කාකාරී වාතාවරණයක් ඇති වී තිබේ .
මෙතෙක් කටුනායක ගුවන් තොටුපොළ වෙත පැමිණ වීසා අයදුම් කිරීම සහ ඒවා ලබා දීම විනාඩියක් වැනි කෙටි කාළයක් තුළ ආගමන විගමන දෙපාර්තමේන්තු නිලධාරීන් විසින් සිදු කර තිබුණි .
ඔවුන් ඒ සදහා ඉන්දියාව , චීනය වැනි වැඩි වශයෙන් සංචාරකයන් මෙරටට පැමිණෙන රටවලින් ගාස්තු අය නොකළ අතර සාර්ක් රටවල සංචාරකයන් සදහා දින 30 කාළයක් සදහා ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර
⬛️How did Indian company take over visa issuance at BIA without cabinet approval?
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Chaos broke out at the BIA last night following the controversial takeover of the on-arrival visa issuance process at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) by an Indian company. This company has been charging an extra $25, whereas the Immigration and Emigration Department had been managing the process smoothly for several years.
The Daily Mirror learns that the Indian company assumed control of the on-arrival visa issuance process without obtaining cabinet approval leading to serious questions as to which Minister or authorithy allowed this?
Furthermore, the Indian company levied an extra $25 alongside the standard $75 fee.
When contacted, Controller General Harsha Illukpitiya of the Immigration and Emigration Department said that the visa issuance procedure was returned to their jurisdiction because the private company was unable to ensure a smooth operation.
The video circulating on social media depicted long queues at the airport. A Sri Lankan individual was seen blaming the Indian visa issuing officers, alleging that his wife's on-arrival visa was canceled.
He shouted, questioning how an Indian person could decide his or his wife's visa status and asserted his rights as a Sri Lankan citizen. He claimed he had the right to decide his own visa and emphasized his status as a taxpayer, stating he paid approximately Rs. 4 million rupees each year. He insisted on his right to raise his voice in this matter and showed disgust as to why the Sri Lankan Government had to sell the visa issuing system to an Indian company when there were several Sri Lankan companies who could handle that.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan individual questioned the Indian visa officer's authority to speak to him in such a manner.
He blamed the Sri Lankan Government for permitting Indian companies to operate in Sri Lanka, ignoring
