Quick Look

Awards ceremony

Winners of the annual essay competition organized by the Royal Commonwealth Society will receive their awards at a ceremony at the British Council today at 2.00 p.m. The winners include four students from Sailan International School, Seeduwa. The students are Fatima Hasna Hamza, Zeinam Marzook, Fatima Shanaz Thajudeen and Amaan Marzook.

Errant traders nabbed in Kurunegala

M.A.R. Manukulasooriya - Hiriyala Group Correspondent

The Department of Measures, Standards and Services of the District Secretariat, Kurunegala conducted 131 raids last year on errant traders in the Kurunegala district.

These raids have been conducted in Kuliyapitiya, Narammala, Pilessa, Kurunegala, Polgahawela and Thulhiriya. Cases were filed against offenders for selling underweight bread, using unsealed scales and unauthorized scales. Rs 283,500 was recovered as fines.

The raids were conducted by a team of officers under the guidance of W.P.S.L. Wijeratne OIC of the Department.

Farmer injured in trap gun mishap

A.A.L. Dias - Matale district group corr.

A farmer was severely injured when he accidentally trampled a trap gun when he was going to his cultivation in Sigirimulla area. Lalith Seneviratne, 35, was admitted to the Dambulla Base Hospital.

Sigiriya Police are investigating.

Heavy fines on traffic offenders

Mahanama Vithanage - Malwana Group Correspondent

Meegahawatta Police has collected Rs 583,000 as fines from traffic cases filed at the Gampaha Magistrate’s Courts in 2009, OIC Meegahawatta Police IP, Srinika Sanjeewa Jayakody said.

Trader in hot water

A.A.L. Dias - Matale district group corr

Dambulla Magistrate Maheshika Dhanansuriya imposed a Rs 5,000 fine on a trader in Dambulla area who was convicted of selling dhal unfit for human consumption.

The accused was D. Alugalla. Public Health Inspector K. Janaka Roja led evidence.

Speeding car kills man

Mahanama Vithanage - Malwana Group Correspondent

A bachelor knocked down by a vehicle at Kiribathgoda town on the Colombo-Kandy main road died on the spot.

This was revealed at the inquest held on the death of W.H. Pradeep, 35, of Werellagama by Inquirer into Sudden Deaths, Ragama, Dr. H.P.G.G. de Alwis.

The driver had sped without stopping.

Dr. D.A.C. Kulatunga, AJMO, Colombo National Hospital held the autopsy.

The inquirer recorded a verdict of accidental death. Kiribathgoda Police are investigating.

Cinema, sports complex for H'tota

Raja Waidyasekera - Tissamaharama Special Corr.

A fully fledged cinema and sports complex will be set up in Hambantota. This is a project approved by the Board of Investment in Sri Lanka (BOI).

An official of BOI told the Daily News that among the Hambantota sea port related activities so far identified are container terminals, flour mills, cement factories and the oil refinery and off shore services.

Kandy schools reopen today

Asela Kuruluwansa

Fourteen schools out of 54 schools closed for the 62nd Independence Day Celebrations and Dayata Kirula Exhibition in Kandy will be reopened from today.

They are Kandy Dharmaraja College, senior section of Mahamaya Girls College, Kingswood College, D.S. Senanayake, Viharamaha Devi, Mahanama, Lumbini, Royal, Dharmawickrama Girls, Gothami Balika, Dangalla, Wimalabuddhi, Ampitiya, Beravets, Girls High School, Katugastota Rahula and Mawilmada Vidyalaya.

Security Forces personnel housed in these schools have left them to enable the authorities to reopen them today, and the other schools will be reopened on February 15, Provincial Education Director Wijayasiri Herath said.

Two killed

Sandasen Marasinghe

Two people died yesterday in two separate traffic accidents, Police Spekesman SP Prishantha Jayakody said.

A private bus had crashed against a wall at 1.30 am yesterday at Baladaksa Mawatha, Ahungalla in Balapitiya killing its driver. The driver Priyanka Lasantha (34) dropped all the passengers at the bus stand and was on his way home when he met with the accident.

In another accident at Pandiwatta in Kandy, a car had gone off the road killing its driver.

Two private buses collided head-on, on a bridge at Kirimeti junction in Menikhinna, Kandy causing injuries to 43 commuters. One of them is in a critical condition.

Twenty of the injured were admitted to Menikhinna, Peradeniya and Kandy hospitals. According to the Police the bus bound to Menikhinna had fallen into the stream.