Quick Look

Technical training for Ayurvedha doctors

The Indigenous Medicine Ministry will offer technical training to Ayurvedic medical practitioners. The training program will be inaugurated this year.

Promoting nutrition among children, lactating and pregnant mothers and prevention of diseases are among the activities to be initiated islandwide under the patronage of the Ayurvedic Department for 2009.

This was revealed during a discussion at the Indigenous Health Ministry chaired by Indigenous Medicine Minister Tissa Karaliyadda.

Ganja valued at Rs. 4m seized

Panadura-Walana Anti Vice squad during a raid at Habbegamuwa colony arrested five suspects and seized ganja weighing 22 kilograms to the value of Rs. 4 million. They also seized 2,241 ganja plants from the ganja cultivation plot.

The suspects and their contraband are to be produced before the Wellawaya Magistrate Court.Meanwhile Nikaweratiya police during another raid last week, arrested 10 suspects with 1,600 drams of goda and 480 drams of illicit liquor.

Boost for B onion cultivation

Sigiriya group correspondent

The Agricultural coordinating committee meeting held in Matale last week drew up plans to boost B onion cultivation in the Matale District.

The Deputy Director of Agriculture Prasanna Pallemulla said under the programme of 'Api Wawamu-Rata Nagamu' the department plans to energise the farmers with a strong impetus to boost the cultivation, eliminating the hurdles existed in the past, that made them discouraged.

Seeds scarcity, marketing difficulties, loan facilities, banning import during the season have taken up for discussion.

He said the Minister of Local Govt and Provincial Councils has promised to discuss these issues with the relevant ministries so as to get sustainable procedures to be adopted in the future.

The Deputy Director of Agriculture said 6,000 metric tons of B onion is to be produced during the coming Yala season.

Underweight goods sold

B. W. Eheliyagoda Kegalle special correspondent

In the main Kegalle market and in fairs behind the public market held on Mondays and Thursdays some employees of the business community are selling goods to the public that are underweight.

Dealers of vegetables and other consumer items such as dry fish, onions, potatoes, chillies etc. which are sold during weekend fairs and even in the central market in Kegalle town is often underweight. This is a frequent occurrence. The customers fear to question these traders as this would lead to arguments and conflicts with these traders. Some dealers in meat and fish are also guilty of underweighing. The weights used by traders are also not certified and this adds to the customers problems.

Therefore, the Kegalle public draws the attention of the consumer protection authorities and invite them to immediately initiate remedial measures like checking on the weights used.

They also point out that sometime ago weighing machines were installed in market places to enable customers to check the weight of goods bought by them. These weighing scales are no longer operative. The customers request the Kegalle UC authorities to install these weighing scales. This will help the public to deal with honest traders and avoid those who deceive the public.

Series of lectures

A series of lectures will be held at the Indian Cultural Centre. The first lecture titled "Ayurveda and Day to day life" will be held on Monday, January 12 at 6 p.m. The second lecture titled "Comparison between Indian and Sri Lankan Ayurvedic systems" will be held on Thursday, January 15 at 6 p.m. at the Indian Cultural Centre, 133, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 4. The lecture is open to all.

Convocation

Vidya Jothi Professor (Eng) Dayantha Wijeyesekera will be the Chief Guest at the Fifth Convocation of the College of Chemical Sciences of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon to be held at Cinnamon Grand Colombo on Friday, January 30.

Go Green campaign

The British High Commission in Colombo will conduct a "Go Green Campaign". "The campaign will first carry out a carbon audit of its office buildings, all associated operations, policies, two residential houses and transport fleet. The Go Green Campaign will be conduced on Thursday, January 15 at 9.30 a.m. at Westminster House: 128, Wijerama Mw. Colombo 07.

Chemistry graduateship program

The Graduateship programme in Chemistry is now entertaining applications from GCE (A/L) qualified for this high quality low cost programme.

Professor J.N. Oleap Fernando, Honourary Dena of the College of Chemical Sciences, which is the educational arm of the professional body of Chartered Chemists in Sri Lanka, states in a media release that registrations are now in progress for this programme as well as the middle level two year Diploma in Technology in Chemistry programme to train technicians.

Further details about both programmes including application forms can be obtained free of charge from the College headquarters at Adamantane House, (phone 2861653/4615230) 341/22, Kotte Road, Welikada, Rajagiriya (near Post-Office) on any day and can also be downloaded from the Institute of Chemistry web site.www.ichem.com.

Protest

BASL members will assemble in front of the Supreme Court at 1 pm today to protest the killing of Attorney-at-Law Lasantha Wickrematunge.