In future all state advertising will have to be channelled through Selacine Television Institute, Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said yesterday.

He told the weekly Cabinet press briefing at the Information Department that the Cabinet on Wednesday, approved a Memorandum submitted by him to make mandatory all advertisements and publicity programmes of Ministries, Government Departments and Institutions, produced by private sector advertising agencies and production houses, to be scheduled through Selacine Television Institute.

Ministries, he said, also approved a proposal presented by Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Janaka Bandara Tennekoon, to revest the administration of selected rest houses currently managed by the Urban Development Authority, with the local authorities, who are the real owners.

Accordingly, rest houses in Kalutara, Kuliyapitiya, Chilaw, Balangoda, Kadugannawa, Kegalle, Negombo (Old) Puttalam, Weligama, Vavuniya, Hatton, Talawakelle and Kurunegala (Old), will henceforth be run by the respective local councils.

Among the other Memoranda approved by the Cabinet, was an amendment to the Universities Act No. 16 of 1978, based on proposals submitted by Higher Education Minister Wiswa Warnapala on April 27, 2007. Yapa added "This Act was last amended in 1995."