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A state ceremony to mark the festival of Deepawali was held at Temple Trees on Friday. President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Tamil National Alliance leader R. Sampanthan, Minister D.M. Swaminathan and others wearing traditional shawls are seen observing Deepawali rituals. Opposition Leader Sampanthan in his speech thanked the National Unity Government for taking [...]
Perpetual Treasuries on buying spree with its billions
Perpetual Treasuries, the controversial primary dealer at the centre of the Central Bank bond scam, is on a buying spree. In the past two months, the company has directly and through related parties bought large volumes of shares in at least three entities. Perpetual Treasuries and Perpetual Equities have bought around ten million NDB shares [...]
Sri Lanka joins 70-nation Open Government Partnership
Move to empower citizens, foster 21st century state; Sirisena heads steering committee President Maithripala Sirisena will head a National Steering Committee that will monitor the Government’s ambitious Open Government Partnership, a programme that links 70 countries. Sri Lanka was invited to join the Partnership this month. The Cabinet of Ministers endorsed a declaration two weeks [...]
TRC blocks Tamil website for incitement
The Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) yesterday blocked a Tamil website following complaints from the Media Ministry and the Justice Ministry, TRC Director General Sunil Sirisena said. Mr. Sirisena said the complaint was that the website was carrying false propaganda about judicial decisions given in the north, criticising judges and lawyers and posting news inciting the [...]
Tax holiday: Brakes on Volkswagen project in Sri Lanka
The much heralded multi-million dollar investment by the troubled German car manufacturer Volkswagen has run into further problems with the Finance Ministry refusing a tax holiday to the local collaborator. The Ministry has said tax concessions cannot be extended to Senok Automobiles, which has entered into an agreement with the Board of Investment (BOI) as [...]
Jaffna student killing: Academics, civil society call for police reforms and tough measures
Condemnation continued to pour in yesterday over the killing of two Jaffna University students allegedly by policemen on patrol, with university teachers and civil society activists calling for police reforms and tough measures to prevent recurrence.Twenty-four-year-old Wijayakumar Sulakshan of Kandarodai in Jaffna and 23-year-old Nadarasa Gajan of Kilinochchi were killed on October 21 when police [...]
Fishing crisis: Top level talks but undercurrents of scepticism
By Sandran Rubatheesan
Ministerial level talks between India and Sri Lanka to resolve the long standing fisheries disputes are scheduled to be held next Saturday in New Dehli. Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera will meet India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The ministerial meeting will be preceded by talks between fishermen’s [...]
Fishing: Catch and with what
Small scale operators say unfair methods affecting their livelihood By S. Rubatheesan The Fisheries Ministry has decided to introduce new regulatory mechanisms for fishing methods and fishing gear when issuing permits for fishing in the aftermath of violent clashes between fishermen’s groups in Kalpitiya last week, a senior Ministry official said. “Following a meeting with [...]
Six prisoners escape in Negombo
Six convicted prisoners escaped from the Dalupotha Open Prison in Negombo in the early hours on Saturday. The prisoners had escaped after breaking open their ward. Prison Spokesman H.M.T.U. Upuldeniya told the Sunday Times that the Prisons Department had alerted police to arrest the escapees. All the escaped prisoners are youths who had been serving [...]
Jaffna killings: Students want to meet President
By Chris Kamalendran
The Jaffna University Students’ Union, through the University’s Vice Chancellor, is seeking an immediate appointment with President Maithripala Sirisena to ask for a fair inquiry into the alleged police killing of two undergraduates and for reasonable compensation to be given to their families. Meanwhile, more than 5,000 university students have been boycotting [...]
Budget 2017: SLFP wants VAT threshold to remain
By Chrishanthi Christopher
A proposal that the threshold to the Value Added Tax (VAT) to wholesale and retail markets remain intact as per the 2015 Budget is among the proposals submitted by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to be considered for next year’s Budget. The SLFP has sent its proposals in response to the [...]
Govt. must immediately implement COPE recommendations: Sunil
By Chandani Kirinde
COPE Chairman JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti said the Government must take immediate steps to implement COPE’s recommendations contained in the Report he presented to Parliament on Friday after a thorough investigation into the controversial Central Bank bond issue. “In my recommendations, I have specifically said that COPE will engage in a post-supervisory [...]
Auditor General: Facts will be out within a few days
Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe said the truth regarding the allegations that he was put under duress by UNP MPs on the COPE will come to light once the verbatim reports of the Committee that inquired into the Treasury bond issue are made public. This is intended to clarify reports that he was put under duress [...]
Drug price slash: A quick fix eyewash
By Kumudini Hettiarachchi and Minushi Perera
The recent decision to slash prices of 48 medicinal drugs in Sri Lanka has unexpectedly triggered a barrage of criticism far more than praise from a cross-section of stakeholders including doctors, patients, drug-importers and pharmacists. Most of them who spoke to the Sunday Times on condition of anonymity, said [...]
Central Bank bond issue: COPE recommendations
Recommendations: Evidence has been placed before the COPE, which gives rise to reasonable suspicion that former CB Governor Arjun Mahendran made an intervention or, used pressure, in the transaction of TBs that took place on February 27, 2015, examined by the COPE. Evidence placed before the COPE also gives rise to reasonable suspicion that, there [...]
Central Expressway: High ways above and beyond the call of tenders
By Namini Wijedasa
The Government is to call for “Limited Tenders (LT)” from Japanese companies for the construction of the Section III of the Central Expressway (CE), in a clear departure from the open bidding principle. LTs, as defined online, are not advertised in newspapers. As a result, other bidders generally do not come to [...]
Tit-for-tat killings over drug turf rivalry in Mattakkuliya
By Damith Wickremasekara
A six-year-old rivalry over narcotics distribution between two gangs, erupted again in Mattakkuliya last Sunday, with the murder of four more persons, police investigations have revealed. Nuwan Sanjeewa, 30, alias Chuti Ukku, one of the victims in Sunday’s shooting was believed to be one of those responsible for leading a gang attack [...]
They have flown a long way – be kind
By Malaka Rodrigo
As the bird migration season begins, experts are urging the public to watch out for exhausted migrants found in their gardens and neighbourhood in coming weeks.A number of exhausted or dead birds were found this week. A disorientated dead Indian pitta, commonly known as avichchiya, was found dead after having flown into [...]
CEB’s tardiness to avert power crisis generates angry rebuke from Ministry
By Sandun Jayawardana
Power and Renewable Energy Ministry has expressed dissatisfaction with the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) over the latter’s slow progress in taking immediate measures to avert an anticipated power crisis in 2018. The sentiments were conveyed in a strongly worded letter sent by the Ministry secretary, Dr. B.M.S. Batagoda to CEB Chairman Anura [...]
3-5 innocents sexually abused every day
By Anushiya Sathisraja
At least three to five children are sexually abused every day, with police statistics showing that approximately 800 cases of child rape were reported between January and October this year, while more than 1,550 such cases were reported last year. According to UNICEF, more than 85 per cent of all reported abuse [...]
Eastern schools face teacher crisis
Dropouts, low literacy add to education concerns By Ravi Shankar in Batticaloa A huge shortfall of English, Mathematics and Science teachers in Batticaloa schools is resulting in a severe deterioration in education levels. There are 355 schools in the district’s three education zones, Kalkudah, Paddiruppu and Kannankuda, 340 schools in the Tamil medium and 15 [...]
Honeymoon ends in nightmare
A newly married Japanese couple who were spending their honeymoon in Sri Lanka, had a narrow escape last morning when they were heading to the airport to leave the country. The car they were travelling in had skidded off and smashed into the railing at the 42nd mile post in Welipenna, on the Southern Expressway.The [...]
Driver who hit railing to avoid container dies of injuries
A driver who veered off the road trying to give way to a container on the Southern Expressway was killed when her vehicle crashed into the iron railing in the Dodangoda area early this week, a coroner’s inquiry was told. The victim was identified as Geethani Nilanthika, 36 from Hokandara. The vehicle was heading towards [...]
Exigencies of war keep child-bride custom alive in the east
By Chrishanthi Christopher
In Sri Lanka, 20,870 girls between the age of 12-17 years are married or are in cohabiting relationships, many of them in the East as a disturbing hangover of the long civil war. Fifteen million children around the world marry before the age of 18, UNICEF also said; of these, 2 per [...]
Muslim marriage reform should not be a trade offer
A Cabinet sub-committee will be appointed to make proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers regarding suitable amendments to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA), the government said last week. The new committee is to examine provisions in the Muslim law, including the minimum age of marriage, which is believed to be in contravention to [...]
We can’t deal with our plastic waste
By Anushiya Sathisraja
Polythene, plastic and electronic waste collected under an islandwide campaign which ends today is to be exported as Sri Lanka lacks sufficient recycling facilities, a Central Environment Authority (CEA) official said. The collected electrical waste will be exported to UK, Norway and Hong Kong because Sri Lanka lacks recycling process, Director of [...]
China Communications Construction’s new projects value rises
From Kapila Bandara in Hong Kong Chinese government-owned China Communications Construction Company, which is building luxury real estate on reclaimed land under a controversial offshore financial centre proposal in Colombo reported today that new overseas contracts on its books were worth 130.09 billion yuan (Rs 2.84 trillion) in the nine months to September. Foreign deals [...]
Dreaded ‘Aava’ motorcycle bandits boast about terrorising Jaffna
Families hunker down behind locked doors in fear of midnight attacks By Sandran Rubatheesan Seven years after armed conflict ended in the north, tension and uncertainty have re-emerged in the minds of Jaffna people with reports of attacks by motorbike gangs and groups of thugs operating in the region. The violence has seen smaller towns [...]
Sailing the wind on a voyage of growing up
Sandun Jayawardana reports from the world’s oldest fully rigged ship in operation, which is also a school, when it called at the Colombo Port this week Watching the sails of a ‘Tall Ship’ being unfurled is a thrilling sight. The operation takes endurance, speed, communication and, above all, teamwork. The sight of such sails being [...]
Jayalalithaa being flown to London for treatment
Dateline Chennai By Kumar Chellappan A chief minister who can not sign on official files because of his or her poor health is a matter of serious concern for the people. Whether it be the chief minister or any member in the council of ministers, he or she should be replaced immediately with a person [...]
Stop the environment degradation
The Hakkida Islands in the Mahaweli river close to Peradeniya are in danger of disappearing, Environmentalists point out, that of the 20 islands originally comprising the group, which stretched from Getambe to Dodamwala, only 12 remain today. They added that waters surrounding the islands are home to the Green Labeo (Kolagadaya), a critically endangered species [...]