[In brief]

Schools close in J'pura, Colombo for Ranaviru Pranama Upahara

All schools coming under Sri Jayawardenapura and Colombo Educational Zones will be closed on Friday, May 22 in view of the Ranaviru Pranama Upahara celebrations to be held at the Parliamentary playground.

These schools will be reopened on Monday, May 25. This celebration will be presided over by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Triennial general meeting

The Triennial Masura (General Meeting) of the Mahara Jummah Mosque at Ragama will be held on May 24 at 9 a.m. at the Jummah Mosque.

Parasites to control mealybug threat

Ishara MUDUGAMUWA

The national program to eradicate the Mealybug threat has been started at Vidyapura Fertilizer Company, Polonnaruwa under the patronage of the Agricultural Development and Agrarian Services Minister Maithripala Sirisena.

He said unlike in other fields, normally the agriculture field has to face natural disasters. Specially lack of water, pesticides and insecticides affect this field.

In last two years we could see the production of vegetables and fruits increased rapidly. Because of that we could limit the number of food items we import from foreign countries and save lot of foreign exchange, he said.

The Minister said further: but unfortunately because of the Mealybug threat 90 per cent of papaya cultivation was destroyed and it affects the other crops too.

As a result of the tests which were done by agricultural scientists, we could import special parasites from A.P.E.S company in America. We hope to spread those parasites all over the country to control the melaybug threat.

There is no side effects by this parasites", he said.

Earthslip claims six

Asela KURULUWANSA

An earth mound which fell onto a house in Norton Bridge, Ginigathena Road killed four members of a family and two relatives.

The dead are Jayathilake Bandara, his wife and their two children aged two and six.