By Rajitha Ratwatte We have always believed in the occult, here in the what used to be the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, haven’t we? My earliest memories include ceremonies involving cutting limes and chanting of “manthras” that had absolutely nothing to do with the almsgiving and pirith chanting ceremonies that happened on a regular […]
It’s bang on January 1st 2021, right on the first day of the New Year. Cass with kindness overriding her usual acidity, wishes each and every one of you a much better year than 2020 was. It started off bright and clear with a well matching 2020 label to it. But soon the Covid 19, curse its vey name, which had already sprung up in Wuhan and even now suspected Europe, raged forth. Little Sri Lanka was one country that managed to contain it well, with a superb presidential task force and the public health service working dedicatedly from midwife upwards to the admired Dr Jasinghe, assisted by armed forces personnel. Cass believes that the usual malady that hits us, Sinhalese particularly, took hold: complacency following initial success and we let the virus return with a vengeance. Answer of the Minster of Health to this rising crisis was throwing pots of water into rivers. She should have carried out the threatened self-sacrifice that was torn out from her by criticism in Parliament.
NEW DELHI, December 31:
A dry run for Covid-19 vaccination will be conducted by all state and union territory (UT) administrations across India on January 2 (Saturday) to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges, the Central Government announced on Thursday.
Around 96,000 vaccinators have been trained for this purpose. A total of 2,360 participants have been trained in National Training of Trainers and over 57,000 participants trained in district-level training in 719 districts. States are augmenting the state helpline 104 (which shall be used in addition to 1075) for any vaccine/software-related query.
The activity is proposed to be conducted in all state capitals in at least three session sites.
by Neville Ladduwahetty The government is reportedly planning to hold the provincial council elections while an expert committee is actively engaged in the making of a new constitution. Holding elections before the drafting of a constitution imposes a constraint on the expert committee since it cannot afford to drift too far from existing arrangements if […]