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A smiling President Gotabaya Rajapaksa greeting and having a friendly chat with the schoolgirls who sang the Jayamangala Gatha to welcome him when he arrived in Parliament on Thursday to deliver the new Government’s policy statement. The President met the schoolgirls at the tea party held after the policy statement was made.
No labour and welfare units in overseas missions for biggest foreign exchange earners
Govt. to shut down these sections in Sri Lanka’s foreign missions in 14 countries as cost-cutting measure Foreign Relations Ministry will take over the task of looking after more than 1.6 million migrant workers As an urgent cost-cutting measure, the Labour Ministry has decided to shut down labour and welfare sections in Sri Lankan missions [...]
IRD under fire for sitting on Rs. 290 billion in defaulted taxes and unpaid penalties
The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) was sitting on more than Rs 290 billion in defaulted taxes and unpaid penalties last year and the arrears are rising every year, the Auditor General’s Department (AGD) has warned. The unclaimed taxes by mid-2019 were more than the Government’s total expenditure on education that year — Rs. 198 billion, [...]
Huge allocation for Provincial Council Ministry; polls likely within months
With Provincial Council elections likely to be held in the coming months, the Public Services, Provincial Councils and Local Government Ministry will get a huge share of the funds in the Government’s Vote on Account (VoA) which was placed on Parliament’s order book on Friday and will be debated on next Thursday and Friday. In [...]
EC rejects applications of 40 parties
Among the 156 applications for the registration of political parties, at least 40 were rejected this week at the initial preliminary level conducted after three years, Election Commission sources said. They were rejected due to documentation errors and failing to meet basic criteria, the sources said. Already 70 political parties are on the list of [...]
Blackout: CEB engineer says multiple tripping prevented early restoration of power
The countrywide power failure this week lasted between six and nine hours because every time engineers attempted to rig various generators to the system, they kept tripping or disconnecting from the grid, a senior engineer said. “The simple answer is that we tried every protocol we had in place but it kept tripping at some [...]
NJC tells Govt. to scrap provincial councils and PR system of voting
The National Joint Committee (NJC) has urged the Government to scrap the provincial council system and do away with the existing proportional representation system of elections. The NJC, while expressing confidence that the Government would fulfil its pledge to remove numerous provisions introduced to the Constitution through many amendments, expressed concern about a reported statement [...]
Police hope to seize hundreds of millions of rupees from drug lords
Extensive investigations have been launched to identify and seize the assets of known drug lords who are known to have made hundreds of millions of rupees through this illegal trade, Police say. The Western Province’s Senior Deputy Inspector General Deshabandu Tennakoon said that under the Money Laundering Act, the Police would charge the underworld narcotic [...]
Opposition requests Chair in COPE, COPA
The Opposition has requested that the posts of Chairmanship of the Parliament’s Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) be given to them. The request was made when the Parliament’s Selection Committee met under the Chairmanship of Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Friday evening. The Selection Committee is tasked with appointing [...]
Luxury cells for Rs. 200,000: DSG reveals Sampayo’s alleged prison rackets
The Negombo Prison’s interdicted superintendent, Anuruddha Sampayo, had allocated luxury cells to inmates for sums ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 200,000, the Attorney General’s Department told court this week. When the case was taken up before Negombo Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya, Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) Dileepa Peiris said some of the cells resembled hotel rooms [...]
No development projects should be carried out without his approval, says Jaffna DDC Co-Chair
A District Development Committee (DDC) Co-Chair wrote to the District Secretary this week instructing him not to implement any ministerial development programmes or authorised projects without his approval in the district. Parliamentarian Angajan Ramanathan, who was appointed as Jaffna DDC Co-Chair last week by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa during the Cabinet swearing in ceremony, wrote to [...]
Faith before health?
Paying little heed to COVID concerns, hundreds of devotees gathered at the iconic Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna to worship Lord Murugan as its annual festival came to a close this week. Special religious prayers were also held for the wellbeing of the people and the country. Pix by Romesh Madhushanka
Taskforce to roll out major reforms across secondary schools
The taskforce appointed by the government to bring reforms to the education sector has come up with major reforms to around 1,000 secondary schools. The head of the taskforce, Dr. Upali Sedera, said critical outcomes of the programme will be to provide quality education across the board and prevent congestion in popular and overcrowded national [...]
OMP head resigns to contest BASL presidency
Saliya Pieris, PC, said yesterday he was stepping down as head of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) to focus on his campaign to lead the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL). The letter of resignation, which will become effective from September 30, has already been sent to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Mr Pieris is the [...]
Shedding light on ‘black’ Monday
The Ceylon Electricity Board’s (CEB) systems control centre (SCC) is a spanking new, Rs 3bn state-of-the art office in Kotte. Its remote terminal units collect data from different points in the grid, allowing for real time data analysis and decision-making. And it monitors 63 grid substations and 15 power plants. On Monday, the room was [...]
Eight lives lost in accidents yesterday across the country
Eight people were killed and ten others sustained injuries in road accidents reported from different parts of the country, Police said. Five people returning from a funeral were killed when the car they were travelling in collided head-on with a tipper carrying sand, at Walakumbura, Alawwa. The group was returning to Kurunegala having attended a [...]
Meet your new parliamentarians
Sagara Kariyawasam (SLPP) General Secretary SLPP Lawyer by profession Mohamed Ali Sabry Deputy President, Bar Association of Sri Lanka Chief legal adviser to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Chief legal adviser of the SLPP Jayantha Weerasinghe (SLPP-National List (NL)) Legal advisor to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa Professor Ranjith Bandara (SLPP-NL) Professor, Department of Economics, University of [...]
COVID guidelines thrown to the winds of joy: Most MPs set bad example
The Ninth Parliament’s inaugural session on Thursday and the ceremonial sitting held later in the day, were scaled down affairs, devoid of the usual pomp and pageantry associated with the event. In the lead-up to the inaugural session at 9.30 a.m, the entire complex was a hive of activity, as the newly elected MPs and [...]
Archbishop of Canterbury to appoint Church of Ceylon bishop as election ends inconclusively
The election of a new Bishop of Colombo by the Church of Ceylon has been referred to the Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Rev. Justin Welby after the election held here ended without a clear decision. “Since we were unable to come to a conclusion with the election we have referred the matter to His [...]
Child dies of accidental strangulation while playing with belt
A six-year-old child died of accidental strangulation when a belt she was playing with got fastened around her neck, a coroner’s court was told this week. The child had been left in the room alone while the mother was taking a bath in their home in Colombo 14. The court was told the child was [...]
Heavy price to pay for golden culinary spice
An average Sri Lankan’s meal is not complete without a dhal curry, but finding a pinch of turmeric, the essential condiment that adds colour, aroma, and healthy goodness has become a rarity. Those desperate for a piece of the rhizome that belongs to the ginger family, should either pay an exorbitant price or settle [...]
Oh! Island in the sun
Elections are now over and the country has a new Government. Voters have sent their representatives to Parliament to serve them for the next five years. While the representatives sit in the hallowed chambers debating policies that affect the country, voters continue to live their lives. For them, the daily struggle to make ends meet [...]
No decision yet on airport opening
No concrete decision has been taken yet as to when Sri Lanka will open its points of entry fully and extensive discussions are underway among all stakeholders to work out the pros and cons, the Sunday Timeslearns. The Health Ministry’s Chief Epidemiologist, Dr. Sudath Samaraweera, said that no specific date has been set to open [...]
Botched graduate jobs scheme leaves thousands stranded
The government’s scheme for unemployed graduates is mired in confusion this week after thousands of job-seekers who received appointment letters before the election were booted off the list. And, while Cabinet on Wednesday approved 10,000 more slots in addition to the pre-poll quota of 50,000 after protests, rejected candidates were informed they would have to [...]