Sri Lanka’s computer literacy rises

According to a National Survey conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka’s computer literacy of Sri Lanka has increased from 16.1 percent in 2006/07 to 27.1 percent in 2015. 

The urban sector shows the highest computer literacy rate (39.2%) among residential sectors as opposed to 25.5 percent and 9.0 percent respectively in the rural and estate sectors.

According to the findings of the survey, the computer literacy among male is 29.1 percent which is higher than that of female (25.3 percent). In analysing all age groups, those between 15-19 years reported the highest computer literacy rate (58-7%). Among educational levels, the highest computer literacy rate 70.0 percent is reported for the group of G.C.E. (A/L) or above that level of education. The survey results further reveal that the computer literacy is very high (69.5%) along those who are literate in English language.

Issuing a news release, Dr. Amara Satharasinghe Director General of the DCS, has said that one out of every four households in Sri Lanka has a computer not only in urban areas but also in rural areas. The availability of computers in estate area is 4.5 percent.

The highest computer availability is reported from the Western province (38.5%), and the lowest availability from Uva province (12.5%). Colombo District shows the highest percentage (28.1%) of population using Internet and Badulla the lowest percentage. Every 12 out of 100 persons in the age group of 5-69 years have used Internet facility and 9 out of 100 persons have used email facility at least once during the 12 months period of 2015.

Computer literacy among the employed population in Sri Lanka is 52.0 percent in 2015. Computer literacy among unemployed youth is very high. According to the survey results, computer literacy rate of unemployed youths in age groups 20-24 years and 25-29 years is 80.7 and 78.9 percent respectively.

BASL warns of action against errant websites, media

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) told the media yesterday that two Courts of Appeal judges were being defamed by some websites. It said it would resort to legal action against those web publications.

The BASL said the these two Court of Appeal Judges, one or two Court Judges and three or four Magistrates were being referred to by the local media disrespectfully.

The BASL officials said if the media belittled the judiciary, people would lose faith in that institution and the democratic process would be impaired.

The president of the Bar Association, Geoffrey Alagaratnam, President’s Counsel, and the Secretary of the BASL Amal Randeniya participated in the media briefing.

During the briefing the media personnel referred to the High Court trials on the White Flag case and the ‘Duminda Silva’ case. The BASL took up the position that there all litigants had a right to appeal if they did not agree with a ruling of a lower court.

Judges were not politicians. They could not defend themselves in public.

The BASL would resort to legal action against any institution that did not publish the truth. The BASL hoped to gather data in that respect, they said.

The BASL officials also said that the proposed amendment to the criminal procedure court deprived an arrested person immediate access to a lawyer. They said that violated the fundamental rights provisions engrained in the Sri Lanka constitution. They said the BASL had written to President Maithripala Sirisena, calling for a withdrawal of the Bill.

Supreme Court reinstates victimized teacher

The Supreme Court, yesterday declared the violation of Fundamental Rights, of a teacher of Mahanama Vidyalaya, Colombo, who was interdicted by the school authorities on February 2, 2012.

The respondents, the then principal of Mahanama, Premalal Kumarasiri and former teacher Thusitha Thilina Malalgoda were ordered to pay Rs. 100,000 each to the petitioner teacher, Samanthi Manohari Palaketiya.

Paleketiya was accused by the respondents for the holding of a press conference on Nov. 27, 2011 to disco9se the wrongdoings of the school authorities. The media event was organised by the Lanka Guru Sangamaya.

The Supreme Court also re-instated Paleketiya in service, Counsel, J. C. Weliamuna, appeared for this petitioner.

The Bench Comprised the Chief Justice K. Sripavan and Justice Upali Abeyratne.

Mahinda’s ex-CSO granted bail

 Major Nevil Wanniarachchi, the ex-Chief Security Officer (CSO) of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was yesterday ordered to be released on bail by the Colombo Chief Magistrate for alleged failure to declare assets and liabilities for five years.

The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption had filed five corruption cases in the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court against Major Nevil Wanniarachchi over non-declaration of assets and liabilities. The Bribery Commission alleged that Major Wanniarachchi had failed to declare his assets and liabilities for a period of five years since 2010 to 2014 while serving as an Army Major.

Wanniarachchi was ordered to be released on a cash bail of Rs.10,000 with two sureties of one million rupees in respect of each case by Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya.

Counsel Sampath Mendis appearing for the accused informed Court that his client was not pleading guilty to the charges and further said he was expecting to raise preliminary objections against the charge sheets on next hearing date. Further magisterial inquiry fixed for January 13 next year.

The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption had filed charges against the former Minister in the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court under Section 9 of the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law No.1 of 1975.

Yoshitha can travel abroad for a month

The Colombo High Court this morning granted Yoshitha Rajapaksa, the second son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa permission to travel abroad.

Yoshitha, on September 20, filed a motion seeking to travel to Melbourne for a period of one month to receive treatment for a leg injury.

When he will travel abroad remains undecided, although High Court permission was granted.

Yoshitha informed Court that he was yet to make the appointment with the medical expert he was seeing and would specify the date after the appointment was given.

Colombo High Court ordered the Kaduwela Magistrate to release Yoshitha Rajapaksa’s passport, which is impounded.

Two women killed in Pubbogama accident

Two women were killed and a one-year-old infant was seriously injured when a speeding jeep veered off the road and knocked them down before crashing into a wayside tree at Pubbogama in Galkiriyagama last evening. 

The two women, one carrying her baby, were walking along the road when they were knocked down. One of the women crushed between the tree and the jeep and her child was seriously injured when he fell into a nearby drain. 

The deceased P.G. Amarawathie (49) and Indika Niroshani (24) were residents of Patthagama off Galkiriyagama. Police said the driver had either lost control of the vehicle because of the excessive speed or by falling asleep at the wheel. The driver was arrested pending investigations. Galkiriyagama police are conducting investigations.

Court asks man to buy books for under-age prostitute

A court in Rome has handed down an unusual penalty to the client of an under-age prostitute, ordering him to buy her 30 books on the theme of women’s dignity, Italian media reported on Friday.

In addition to a two-year jail sentence, the unnamed man (35) will be required to give the 15-year-old victim works including novels by Virginia Woolf, Anne Frank’s Diary and the poems of Emily Dickinson, as well as two feminist-themed films.

Judge Paola Di Nicola’s ruling follows an investigation launched in 2013 into a Rome-based prostitution ring that pimped two girls, aged 14 and 15, in the upmarket Parioli suburb of the Italian capital.

The teenagers were lured into the world of sex work with cash which they used to "buy new clothes and the latest mobile phones", reports said, citing investigators. In the 2014 trial of the sex ring’s mastermind, who was ultimately jailed for nine years, a judge said the girls were "children who got carried away with the debauchery, without restraint, so they could easily earn money". A copy of the latest court ruling was not available on Friday. "But the decision suggests that the judge favoured a remedy that would help the young girl to understand the real ‘damage’ that she had suffered was damage to her dignity as a woman," wrote the Corriere della Sera daily.

Adriana Cavarero, whose Notwithstanding Plato was among the books that the judge ordered the accused to buy for the girl, told the newspaper it would be better if the judge had read the works to the convicted man.

"Adolescence is not the time for reflection, what he did was much worse: an adult who, knowingly, paid for sex with a minor," said Ms. Cavarero, a philosophy professor at Verona university.

Mother, son remanded : school girl rape

Wadduwa police arrested an 18-year-old three wheeler driver in Wadduwa who kidnapped a 14-year-old school girl and raped her over five days, keeping her at his house in Wadduwa.

The girl was admitted to the Panadura Woman’s hospital for treatment. Police arrested the mother of the suspect also on a charge of aiding and abetting her son to rape the school girl. Both suspects were produced before Panadura Chief Magistgrate Chaminda Liyanage yesterday and remanded for 14 days.