President Mahinda Rajapakse had to leave the State Literary Festival, after he suddenly fell from his chair at the event...!!!

Maharaja falls off chair at Literary Festival

2009-09-15 | 4.15 PM

President Mahinda Rajapakse had to leave the State Literary Festival that was held on Monday (14) at the presidential Secretariat without making a speech after he suddenly fell from his chair at the event.

The President had fallen off the chair after he made his way to his seat after lighting the traditional oil lamp. The Presidential Security Division (PSD) personnel have immediately lifted the President and placed him on another chair.

Soon after the incident, members from the Presidential Media Unit together with PSD officers had asked the cameramen covering the event to

delete all footage showing the President falling off the chair and have even taken over videocassettes of several electronic media institutions.

The officials from the Presidential Media Unit have also promised the media institutions to provide them with the necessary video footage of the event.
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PSD chief blamed for President’s fall

2009-09-15 | 4.15 PM

Cultural Affairs Minister Piyasiri Wijenayake has blamed the Presidential Security Division (PSD) for the President’s fall at the State Literary Festival.

He said the PSD was in charge of checking the stage and other issues related to the Festival that was held at the Presidential Secretariat and that members from the Cultural Affairs Ministry and the committee on the Literary Festival had to only be at their seats at the given time.

Therefore, he said the Ministry could not take the responsibility for the President’s fall.

A special committee probing into the President’s fall has so far found the incident to been an accident. PSD officers had even sat on the chair several times before the President had sat on it.

Sources from Temple Trees say several close associates of the President have last evening tried their best to get astrological opinions behind the fall. Sources further said the fall had not had a massive impact on the President’s spine.

The Presidential Secretary and head of the sub committee on the Literary Festival, Buddhadasa Galappaththi had asked media institutions not to carry any details about the President’s fall.

Lanka News Web.com