A private higher education institute for medical education:Minister Kiriella
SAITM would gradually be abolished and a parallel not-for-profit private higher education institute would be newly established for medical education, Higher Education and Highways Minister Lakshman Kiriella said.
The Minister who was speaking at the Committee Stage debate of Budget 2018 in Parliament yesterday when Finance Heads of his Ministry were taken up, said SAITM students and other students seeking private sector medical education could enrol to this new non-governmental institution.
Observing that private sector investment for education is important to broaden higher education opportunities for students who do not get a chance to enter State universities, Kiriella said free education in the country would not be affected by private sector involvement.
“Many accused our Government of trying to hamper free education, but anybody who goes through the budgetary proposals for the next year, would be convinced of our commitment to protect and strengthen the state sector education.
We have proposed to set up three new medical faculties and seven new technological faculties.
A health insurance cover would be granted to University students. We have increased the number of students who are entitled to the Mahapola by another 3,500,” he noted.
Replying to the concerns raised by JVP MP Dr Nalinda Jayatissa, the Minister also refuted claims that there was a severe shortage of academic staff at State universities.
“The total number of approved academic staff is 10,875, while currently there are 6,097 permanent lecturers. There are 4,768 vacancies, but we have recruited 5,236 lecturers on probationary, contract and assignment basis and as visiting lecturers,” he explained.
Speaking on the subject of Highways, the minister said that the contracts for all three stages of the Central Expressway were awarded after adhering to proper tender procedure. “This was not the practice during the previous regime. No tenders were called for the Southern or Katunayake Expressway and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa selected the contractor,” he said.
He said under the Road project, 6,886km of roads would be constructed by the end of 2019.
Solar power generation to reach 1009 MW by 2030: Dy Minister Ajith P. Perera
Under the power generation plan, 1009 MW of solar power is expected to be generated by 2030, while currently, tenders have been called for the establishment of 60 solar power plants, said Power and Renewable Energy Deputy Minister Ajith P. Perera in Parliament yesterday.
While currently, the lowest power source is solar power, we have provided all facilities to generate solar power by installing solar panels on the roof tops of low income family homes, while providing them the chance to earn an extra income too. “There are three methods of solar power generation. Today we celebrate the occasion where 100 MW of solar power is added to the national grid within aa year,” he said.
“In addition, 51.3 MW of power is being generated by the private sector through seven power stations.
According to the power generation plan, 410 MW of power is expected to be generated by 2020, 685 MW is expected by 2025 and by 2030 1009 MW of solar power is expected to be generated.
“Under the solar power plan (Soorya Bala Sangramaya), second stage tenders have been called for the establishment of 60 power stations generating 01 MW each.
By next week, tenders would be called for another 90 power plants generating 01 MW each,” said, the Deputy Power and Energy Minister.
Deputy Minister Ajith P. Perera said so in response to a verbal question posed by MP Ajith Mannapperuma in Parliament yesterday.
'Supporters of white Van culture have no ethical rights to talk of Treasury bond issue'
State Enterprise Development Minister Kabir Hashim said that those who hid themselves when they were called to the Bribery Commission and supported the white van culture, have no ethical right to talk about the Treasury bond scam.
He said so in Parliament yesterday, in response to the joint opposition objecting to the Speaker appointing a committee to look into whether parliamentary privileges were being violated by exposing telephone records of MPs.
Kabir Hashim further said, “Today Udaya Gammanpila is talking about transparency, but earlier, when they were summoned by the Bribery Commission, the MPs went into hiding. They sent letters claiming that there was parliamentary sittings. When information was sought, they sent white vans. Where were you then? When your side was doing all this, you did nothing. Now you are trying to talk about transparency?”
In response, Gammanpila said, “We are against appointing a privilege committee over telephone records. Why is the government that brought in the Right to Information, now trying to hide this information?”
Pitching in on this heated argument, Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella said, “I said this earlier as well. We are not against investigations. However, we are against Bond Commission evidence being put out without being found guilty.”
Meanwhile, Chaminda Wijesiri said, “It is a decisive moment for the whole country. Our Prime Minister set an example to the country and to the whole world, that we will not safeguard rogues and fraudsters. The Prime Minister did all he had to do. But the previous government was not like him. When they were summoned before the Bribery Commission, they claimed to have been bitten by a snake and hid.” MPs Bandula Gunawardena, Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Ranjith Soysa also joined in the heated argument.
Govt. has focused on human resources development: Minister Wickramaratne
This government unlike the previous govt., has focused on the development of human resources, since it had a direct impact on economic development, said Finance State Minister Eran Wickramaratne in Parliament yesterday. He added that the previous government had spent mostly on infrastructure development, including roads.
He made this observation in Parliament, joining the Committee Stage Debate on Budget Proposals 2018, under the financial heads of Higher Education and Highways Ministry and Skills Development and Vocational Training Ministry. This government had not promised to provide 1 million employment opportunities, but to create such a number of employment. The Census Department had pointed out that 300,000 employment vacancies have been created during the last two and half years.
Minister Eran Wickramaratne further said that it had been planned to grant 196,000 laptops to school children.
He added that it had also been discussed to provide free Wifi with these laptops for students take the maximum use of them. He also added that 21,000 laptops have already been granted to University students by way of an interest free loan scheme, which is 20 percent of the entire university population.
Intake of university students to increase by 50,000 annually: State Minister Grero
The government has plans to increase the intake of students to universities to 50,000 annually by 2020, said Higher Education State Minister Mohan Lal Grero in Parliament yesterday.
He said the government had been able to increase the intake by 19 percent this year. The government has recruited 30,500 students to universities this year.
He made this observation in Parliament, joining the Committee Stage Debate on Budget Proposals 2018, under the Financial Heads of Higher Education and Highways Ministry and Skills Development and Vocational Training Ministry. He said though this was reality, some groups attempt to charge us that the government was attempting to destroy free education in the country.
"We maintain that facilities in universities was not sufficient and we should take measures to develop them," the State Minister said.
"We also have a mechanism to coordinate the university students with factories, investment projects and mass business institution around universities."
Privilege Committee to look into MP's privileges- Speaker
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said the matter on whether MPs privileges were being infringed upon by revealing telephone information on the Bond issue investigations, would be put forward to the Privilege Committee.
He made this statement in Parliament yesterday in response to a statement made by Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella in Parliament on Monday. Accordingly, the Speaker said a meeting with party leaders would be convened and this issue would be discussed at length.
Over 200 fatal accidents last year- Gayantha
Two hundred and one of the 35,199 accidents reported in 2016 were fatal accidents, said Minister Gayantha Karunatillake.
He said this in Parliament yesterday in response to an oral question posed by MP Udaya Gammanpila.
He said the number of accidents reported in 2014 were 35,966, in 2015 the recorded number of accidents were 35,160, and in 2016 there were 35,199 accidents that were recorded. The deaths that occurred due to these accidents in 2016 were 3,233, 2,816 in 2015 and 2,240 in 2014.
Jint Opposition MP Udaya Gammanpila asked Minister Karunatillake what the reasons were for these accidents, to which he responded that there were many factors that had contributed to the increase in accidents, including the increase in the number of vehicles,road conditions and the large number of three wheelers in operation.
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