Juvenile marriages come under scrutiny

by Ananda KANNANGARA

The Child Development and Women's Affairs Ministry has focused attention on the increasing number of juvenile marriages and pregnancies which has posed a serious problem to society.

Apart from the increasing number of child abuse and rape cases reported, an increase in juvenile marriages and pregnancies too have been recorded from various parts of the country during the past five years.

As this is a matter of grave concern it was also raised in Parliament recently by Child Development and Women's Affairs Deputy Minister, N.LA.M. Hisbullah.

The Deputy Minister, Hisbulla told the Junior Observer that steps will be taken to create the awareness of school children, parents, elders and members of civil societies on such uncivilised activities, to take measures to prevent such activities from taking place.

He said according to records, mainly males are responsible for committing such offencesand therefore his Ministry has commenced a special programme for the first time in Sri Lanka under the theme 'Only for Males'.

“The programme will be conducted with the aim of educating males on the gravity of committing such offences which will be a threat to a civilized and cultured society such as ours”.

The Minister said awareness programmes will be conducted also at village level for the benefit of parents, and steps will be taken to discourage juvenile marriages which generally take place with the consent of parents.

“Strict regulations will also be imposed on people who are responsible for juvenile pregnancies,”.

He said according to a recent survey there were 6,343 rape cases and 15,158 child abuse cases reported from various parts of the country during the past five years and steps have been taken to minimize them to a great extent in the coming years, by launching the programmes with the assistance of teachers, children and elders.

Plant growth without light control

Plants are dependent on the sun. Sunlight does not only supply them with energy, but also controls their development steps. So-called photoreceptors activate the processes of germination, leaf development,

bud formation, and blossoming in the cells. The light-absorbing component of a photoreceptor may be replaced by a chemically similar synthetic substance.

For the first time, the effects on complete plants are now described in the The Plant Cell journal.

“The plants developed in the dark as if they were in light,” says the Director of the studies Tilman Lamparter, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

The seeds and seedlings of thale cress were fed with a synthetic substance named “15Ea-phycocyanobilin”. In the plant cell,

this substance replaces the natural, photoactive component of the photoreceptor, the “phytochromobilin”.

Incorporation of 15Ea-PCB activates the photoreceptor and the plant is made believe it is exposed to light.

In spite of the darkness, model plants germinate and grow similar to a control group exposed to light. “It was shown for the first time that synthetic substances can cause light effects in entire plants.”

Synthetic photoreceptors might be valuable tools for research, as they facilitate studies of many chemical plant processes compared to conventional genetic engineering methods. Apart from growth, photosynthesis can also be investigated much better. “Blossoming of flowers or development of the photosynthesis system may be controlled much better in the future,” predicts Lamparter.

“These findings would be of high use for agricultural industry in the cultivation of flowers or biomass production, for instance.” In the future, it is planned to study related aspects in further detail.

-ScienceDaily

[News in Brief]

by Rohana JAYALAL

Free distribution of milk among schoolchildren

The Ggovernment has launched a programme to distribute milk free among school children countrywide with the objective of raising their nutrition levels . The first such programme will be held in the Nuwara Eliya District.Accordingly, 159,403 children in 523 schools in the district will be given fresh milk under the auspices of the Economic Development Ministry.

Sri Lanka has 9,662 state controlled schools where nearly 3.9 million children study. Under the programme each student will be given 150 millilitres of milk. The programme will be extended to cover all schools with the assistance of the Education Ministry, according to Economic Development Ministry.

According to the Nuwara Eliya District Secretary P. P. Kumarasiri, 120,000 litres of milk per day is being produced in Nuwara Eliya and the recent problem involving 30,000 litres of milk has now been solved since milk produced in each village will be sold among the people under the new programme.

Its objective is to make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in fresh milk and make it available to school children through dairy farms in the respective areas. It will also benefit local farmers and secure their economic future.

School mid-day meal to be supplemented with eggs

The mi-dday meal of schoolchildren in the rural areas will be supplemented by the addition of an egg, with the aim of improving their nutritional level and also providing a good price for the eggs of the poultry farmer. Co-operative and Internal Trade Ministry sources said.

According to Ministry sources ,this will be done on the directive of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Elephant sanctuary in the Anuradhapura district

The Government will set up a sanctuary in the Anuradhapura district in the North Central Province, as part of the elephant conservation programme,Agrarian Services and Wildlife Ministry sources said.

The sanctuary, which will be located in an extent of 3,000 acres in the Horowpathana area would cost the Government Rs. 250 million. According to the Ministry, funds collected from foreigners and visitors to the sanctuary will be used for the welfare of the elephants, and also to maintain it .This in turn will help develop the tourism industry. 

The food for the elephants will be purchased from the people of the area. Statistics have revealed that the human-elephant conflict has resulted in the death of a number of elephants during the past few years. The Government has taken measures to protect both humans and elephants, while minimising deaths and the damage to property from such conflicts.