Srilanka

President Maithripala Sirisena says it is the responsibility of every minister to implement necessary development projects in their respective districts utilizing allocated funds. The President made these remarks participating at the progress review meeting on the development programmes carried out in Polonnaruwa district held at the Polonnaruwa District Secretariat, yesterday (27).President Sirisena pointed out the importance of taking steps to look into the issues of the people living in the rural areas by regional political leaders in collaboration with the field officers. He also gave instructions to select villages with the highest poverty level in their respective villages and to implement a programme to develop those as model villages.

Except for the light showers in the Sabaragamuwa province and in Kaluthara, Galle and Matara districts, mainly fair weather will prevail over most parts of the country.Fairly strong gusty winds up to 40-50 kmph are likely in Northern, North-central and North-western provinces and in Trincomalee, Hambantota and Matara districts.

The extension of the emergency regulations by another month was passed in Parliament without a vote yesterday.The proposal was tabled by Leader of the House Minister Lakshman Kiriella. By the time the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) raised objections to the extension and called for a division, the proposal was already passed. Speaker Jayasuriya said TNAobjection will be recorded.

An All Night Pirith Chanting Ceremony was held at the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) headquarters yesterday to mark the opening of the main office of the United PeopleFreedom Alliance (UPFA) at the SLFP headquarters. President Maithripala Sirisena joined in listening to Pirith. President Sirisena opened the main office of the UPFA and signed the Guest Book at the venue.General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Dayasiri Jayasekara, General Secretary of the United PeopleFreedom Alliance Mahinda Amaraweera, Senior members of the SLFP including Kumara Welgama and Douglas Devananda were also present on the occasion.