The Board of Directors at Lanka Hospitals PLC, which comes under the purview of the Finance Ministry, was replaced by the new government. Venerable Theeniyawala Palitha Thera too has been included in the new 13 member Board of Directors.
Thus, Lanka Hospitals PLC enters history as the first Listed Company at the Colombo Stock Exchange to have a Buddhist monk on its Board of Directors.
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said on 20 February that a 13 member Board of Directors, including Dr. Sarath Paranavithana as Chairman, Deputy Secretary of the Sri Lanka Mahabodhi Society Ven. Theeniyawala Palitha Thera and Dilani Lokuhetti have been nominated and would be announced within a few days.
Ven. Theeniyawala Palitha Thera is the chief incumbent of the Nalandaramaya Temple in Nugegoda and a prominent member of the United National Party’s (UNP) National Bhikku Front and has been involved in several activities like against the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation’s hedging deal and the increase of the electricity tariffs by the Ceylon Electricity Board. He has been closely backed by new Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake in most of these cases.
