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| Saturday, 3 November 2001 |
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Father of 5 dies in accident A father aged 49, of five children fell from a moving lorry and died while participating in a procession after the nominations of Matale district for the forthcoming general election was handed over by the United National Party. The victim P.G. Punchi Banda was succumbed to injuries before admission to Dambulla Weera Denzil Kobbekaduwa Base hospital. Dambulla City Inquirer into Sudden Deaths Piyadasa Wanasinghe held the inquest. Several persons who participated on this occasion, gave evidence. Dambulla District Medical Officer Tissa I. Perera held the autopsy and certified that death was due to a crack the skull causing damages to the brain. The Inquirer recorded a verdict of the accidental death. Karunarathna PC of Galewela police led evidence. All for the sake of love Love affairs account for 95 per cent of student problems leading to suicide attempts, rape and abortions in the universities, Senior Student Counsellor, University of Colombo, Dr.Chandana Jayaratne said at a National Counselling Day lecture organised by the Ministry of Health, Indigenous Medicine and Social Services at the Sri Lanka Foundation institute. Most of these young people were from low income families. They were more or less totally dependent on Mahapola scholarships or bursaries with no financial support from home he said. The introduction of a system of mentor/host families for such students has been found to be most effective. Such students had someone to talk to or to borrow money from, in case of an emergency. It also gave them a sense of security to know that someone cared, he said. Male youth with heart throbbing family problems were found to be more violent and aggressive. As a result they rise up as student leaders, Dr.Jayaratne said. Dr.Jayaratne said this category engaged in unlawful activities using thuggery and, it appeared that counselling could do little to change their behaviour. Society should pay more attention to the problem. It should be assessed and monitored methodically for the development of a national plan for counselling, he added. Crocodile causes panic The news of the presence of a crocodile in the Maha Oya in Pinnawala area has brought fear and anxiety in the people, who use Maha Oya waters for bathing and laundering purposes. The crocodile has been seen by people who were getting ready to bathe, about 200 metres upstream, the place where herds of elephants from the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage are brought down for bathing daily. They say it was basking in the sunlight on a stone slab in mid-stream. Men, women and children gathered on the banks to see the more or less eight feet long crocodile. Sooner the message was sent to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage Management by the people present there about its presence. The veterinary surgeon of Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage Chandana Rajapaksha, was quick to come there with his men but by that time, owing to the disturbance caused by the crowed of onlookers, the crocodile has gone under water. This was the first time the presence of a crocodile in this locality was reported. Now the people live in much fear. The employees of the Elephant Orphanage were warned to be on the lookout for the crocodile as it might attack elephants bathing there and cause injury, particularly to the baby elephants. Public assistance sought Kandy police are seeking the assistance of the public to identify a middle aged man whose body was found lying on the road opposite Trinity College, Kandy around 9.30 p.m. on Monday. Police inquiries have revealed that the man was walking towards Kandy and he had been knocked down by a hit and run vehicle. According to police, the man is between 35 and 40 years, 5 feet 5 inches in height, medium built and dark in complexion. He was dressed in a blue sarong with black stripes and a short sleeve white shirt. The body is kept at the police morgue for identification. Photographs of the body are available at the Kandy police station. IP, M. G. K. Bandara, OIC, Kandy Traffic Police with the assistance of Sergeant, W. Attanayake is conducting inquiries. A/L English Science teachers for outstations The first batch of English medium Advanced Level science teachers has been posted to outstation schools by the Education Services Commission. They were recruited to teach Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Combined Maths in the English medium for the Advanced Level under the education reforms program, an Education Ministry spokesman told the Daily News yesterday. These teachers are yet to receive their pre-service training under the supervision of the Teacher Training Authority. "The training is scheduled to start from the third week of their appointment date to ensure that they will not vacate their posts after the short but intensive training period," the spokesman said. Most of the Colombo schools which have started English medium AL classes, already have teachers capable of teaching in the English medium. However a number of children in the outstations have been deprived of the opportunity to study in English due to the shortage of teachers, he said. Over 1000 AL students in 65 schools in Veyangoda, Galle, Matara, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Madampe, Trincomalee, Vavuniya and Colombo are studying AL science subjects in the English medium. Over 90 schools agreed at first to participate in the program but some of the students withdrew later due to doubts regarding the success of the program. |
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