Columns

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), the main Opposition party, has not yet taken up a position on foreign investment to develop the Eastern Container Terminal (ECT) of the Colombo Port.

In terms of the latest move, both India, through the Advani group, and a yet-to-be identified Japanese company, are to make a joint investment in the project. The matter was discussed in detail by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa with Indian External Affairs Minister Subramaniam Jaishanker during his visit this month.

This week, during a meeting of the SJB’s management committee, the party’s controlling body that runs the SJB and formulates its campaign strategies, the ECT was the subject of discussion. The issue was raised by Kegalle District Parliamentarian Kabir Hashim, a minister in the former government. SJB leader Sajith Premadasa took up the position that the party should not oppose all the moves of the Government. He said the merits of the project should be studied before the party took up a position.

Colombo Port trade unions and some Government groups are opposed to the move. In 2017, during the yahapalana government, the then Ports Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, opposed the move. He even presented a Cabinet paper urging that the ECT remain in the hands of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. This paper, however, was not discussed.

The issue comes before the SJB at a time when some senior UNP-ers are being wooed by the SJB to join its ranks. They include Navin Dissanayake, Daya Gamage and Arjuna Ranatunga. This is ahead of the conduct of the SJB’s annual convention.

Jaishanker and Devananda did not fish in troubled waters

The Sri Lankan Navy handing over the bodies of the deceased Indian fishermen to the Indian coastguard

Subramaniam Jaishanker

Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda

Old memories were revived when Indian External Affairs Minister Subramaniam Jaishanker, who was in Colombo on a two-day visit, met Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda.

“When we met the last time, we both had black beards. Now they are grey,” quipped Mr. Devananda, the leader of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party. It brought laughter from the Indian External Affairs Minister.

“I have known him from the 1990s when he was at the Indian High Commission in Colombo,” Minister Devananda told the Sunday Times.

He said he discussed the fisheries issue “very cordially” and expressed “deep regret” over the boat incident that took the lives of four people in the Palk Strait.

ICE worries over direct flights to Myanmar

Narcotics top brass are highly worried about the introduction of direct flights from Colombo to Yangon in Myanmar.

The reason — they fear that there will be a steady flow of synthetic illegal drugs from that country which is the largest producer of synthetic drugs, in particular methamphetamine also known as ICE.

While Myanmar continues to be the second largest heroin producer, the methamphetamine production has increased significantly, said a senior Narcotics official who did not wish to be identified. The lower purity meth known as yaba is flooding Bangladesh and West Bengal region, while the crystallised form of methamphetamine is distributed to Southeast Asia, China and Australia. he added. .

The recent detections by the Sri Lanka Navy indicate an increase in methamphetamine consignments to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan drug networks have used a Dubai-centric money transfer capability to conduct the drug business. This has led to the Sri Lankan drug networks having to engage primarily with Pakistan-based networks operating out of Dubai. The presence of a Sri Lankan population in Dubai and the laxed banking system have supported this modus operandi.

However, with a growing methamphetamine consumer base in Sri Lanka, the officer said, the drug networks may look for cheaper and closer options to source methamphetamine to Sri Lanka., noting that Myanmar is a closer option than Afghanistan.

Top job for Cabinet Minister’s daughter

A Cabinet minister’s daughter, quite active these days, has won a plum position.
She is receiving a posting to the
Sri Lanka Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. It will be a nice trade-off for what she does now.

Former Minister raises a question of FEB funds

Former Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka has raised issue over the Foreign Employment Bureau (FEB) at a recent meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE).

He claimed the FEB had deposits up to a massive Rs 14 billion, but so far it had spent only Rs 11 million. Mr Ranawaka asked why the money could not be used to repatriate Sri Lankan workers who were stuck abroad.

One FEB official responded that there was “no room for quarantine.”