The Kandy News

The Kandy News Online Edition
January 2010
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An article titled “Waiting for April” authored by The Kandy News Editor Professor S W R de A Samarasinghe that analyses the January 26th, 2010 presidential election appears in The Indian Express, January 29th 2010 issue. To access go to www.indianexpress.com/
news/waiting-for-april/572678/1
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CPC felicitates Chief Minister Ekanayake and Minister Radha Krishnan
Radhakrishnan says he is a Decedent of King Kirthi Sri Rajasimha

Chief Minister EkanayakeThe Central Province Minister of Industries and veteran politician Mr. Velusamy Radhakrishnan revealed that he can trace back his ancestry to Kirthi Sri Rajasimha the Nayakkar king who ruled from Kandy between 1747-82. He made this statement at a ceremony that the Central Province Ministry of Industries organized recently to felicitate the Central Province Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake and Mr. Radhakrishnan on their completion of ten years of service to the province.

Minister Radha KrishnanThe Thelugu speaking Nayakkar got a foothold in the Kandyan kingdom when the last two Sinhalese kings of Kandy Vimaldharma Suriya II (1687-07) and his successor Narendra Simha (1707-39) got brides with Dutch assistance from Nayakkkars who lived on the Coromandel coast in South India. From 1739 to 1815 when the British took over the Kandyan kingdom all of the last four kings of Kandy were Nayakkar. Read More>>
Mini Hydropower Plant to Come Up in Getembe

Landslide threatens life and property
Exclusive to The Kandy News by Sunimal Liyanage

Plans are underfoot to construct a mini hydropower plant to tap Mahaweli water 1.3 km downstream from Getembe to generate 56gWh of electricity annually worth an estimated Rs 250m. The goal is to tap the power of the rapids found in the stretch of Mahaweli that narrows with a steep slope.

A private company Asian Hydro Power Generation (Pvt.) Ltd is to construct the power generation plant and sell the electricity to the CEB to be added to the national grid. The power generation plant will be located towards the end of the rapids. The project is estimated to cost Rs 1,2000m but inflation may increase the final amount.
Read More>>
Chambers Want SME Loans Scheme to be More Transparent

The problems that small businesses face in getting SME loans from banks was the principal theme of discussion when presidents of district and provincial chambers of commerce and industry met recently in Kandy to review the current business and investment climate and the role that the Chambers could play to help businesses. Most of the business leaders present complained that although the government gave media publicity to SME loan schemes, businesses found it difficult to get SME loans from banks. The usual excuse the banks gave, they said, was that either the fund has been already exhausted through lending or that the money has actually not reached the bank as yet. Either way many small businesses that are entitled to such loans lose out, they noted. Read More>>
CEB Invests Rs 380m to Upgrade Central Province Electricity Supply

Deputy General Manger of the CEB Bandula PereraThe Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) will invest Rs 380m over the next three years in four electricity projects to improve the supply of electricity in the Central Province said the Deputy General Manger of the CEB Bandula Perera when he addressed the Central Provincial Council Business Community Forum that convened at the KMC recently. The Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake presided. Read More>>
Keheliya Willing to Help Businesswomen
Editorial

Presidential Election

Master Politician vs. Anti-Politician

The presidential election is turning out to be something quite novel for a country that has an unbroken history of almost 80 years from 1931 in choosing its political leadership through the ballot box. Usually the choice for the top political office is between two experienced politicians. This time it is between the master politician Mahinda Rajapaksa and an anti-politician General Sarath Fonseka.
Anti-politicians have been elected to high office in democracies when people lose faith in politicians. For example, Obama who had very little national level political experience campaigned for the US presidency as a kind of anti-politician. His opponents then Senator Hilary Clinton in the Democratic primaries and the veteran Republican Senator John McCain in the general election argued that Obama had no political experience to be the president but both lost.

In popular chatter very many Sri Lankans condemn politicians of all parties as thieves, crooks, liars and worse. However, that does not mean that the average voter would necessarily choose the anti-politician.

In this election politician Rajapakse is a known quantity. Fonseka acquired fame as the General who won the war. But that was a recent event. Before that he was an obscure military officer. In politics people often prefer the candidate that they know. In the case of Rajapaksa the public likes his easy going friendly style and avuncular personality.

Read More>>
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