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Rehearsing for Independence Day parade

Sri Lanka will celebrate its 74th Independence Day next Friday with the main event being a security forces parade at Independence Square in Colombo. Yesterday, Civil Defence Force’s women units were among those who were rehearsing for the February 4th parade. Pic by M.D. Nissanka

Decreasing water levels at reservoirs deepen power crisis

At Ceylon Electricity Board’s major hydropower reservoirs, water levels are dropping with total storage capacity down on Friday to 56.8 percent from 95.8 percent on November 15, 2021. Of the six reservoirs–Castlereigh, Maussekelle, Kotmale, Victoria, Randenigala and Samanala Wewa–three (Victoria, Kotmale and Randenigala) cater to the irrigation needs of the Mahaweli zone farmers and, therefore, [...]

CEB requests private sector bulk consumers to use generators

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has called on all its bulk supply consumers in Colombo to put into use their standby generators to avert a power crisis. The CEB has offered to pay Rs 36 a unit for power generated between 5.30 a.m. and 10.30 p.m. The rate is higher than a unit bought from [...]

USD 200mn credit line from Pakistan for import of rice, cement and medicine

Sri Lanka is negotiating a USD 200 million credit line from Pakistan to import rice, cement and medicinal drugs, Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardana said. The proposals on the credit line was discussed during Minister Gunawardana’s recent official visit to Pakistan. Importation of goods under the credit line will be carried out by the State Trading [...]

CEB Chief slams officials for self-inflicted power crisis

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Chairman has slammed the utility for the current energy crisis, saying it was entirely ‘man-made’, and called for the responsible officers to be punished. Chairman M.M.C. Ferdinando has also written to Acting General Manager D.C.R. Abeysekara instructing him to buy 300MW of emergency power–the generation capacity of a single unit [...]

Test kits in short supply as Omicron variant spreads

With the new COVID-19 variant ‘Omicron’ showing a rapid increase in positive cases and the lack of Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kits for urgent testing, a high level health official has said they have placed an order for one million and received 150,000 kits on Friday. “We have selected two suppliers through the tender process [...]

Covid vaccines SC says it prefers if DGHS makes statements

To avoid confusion among the people, it would be preferable that the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) makes all state communications regarding COVID-19 vaccination. If anyone makes a statement or communique without the DGHS’s approval, he/she will be responsible for that action, the Supreme Court has observed. A three-judge SC bench made this observation [...]

Selendiva looking for brokers to sell city buildings

Selendiva Investments Ltd–the Treasury-owned property development firm tasked with turning around under-used State assets–is looking for investment brokers to help find backers for its projects. The company aims to start the restructuring process for selected assets in the hospitality sector under a ‘special purpose vehicle’ (SPV) called Selendiva Leisure Investments Ltd “by attracting investors and [...]

Cancellation of Japan-funded LRT project: Govt. yet to pay claims by consultants

The Government has not yet settled a claim of around Rs 5bn from the project consultants for the Japan International Cooperation Agency-funded Light Rail Transit (LRT) for work already done, expenses and loss of profit caused by the cancellation of the project in 2020. The consultants are a joint venture between Oriental Consultants Global of [...]

Four bodies recovered at Gerandi Ella yesterday, one still missing

The bodies of four people who drowned while bathing at Gerandi Ella at Etampitiya in Uma Oya were recovered last evening. A search operation is going on to locate another person who is missing. The Police said the bodies of three females and a male had been recovered during the search operations launched last evening. [...]

No Indian devotees for Kachchativu feast

The annual religious celebrations in the Kachchativu island to mark the feast of St Anthony will be held this year without Indian pilgrims due to the COVID19 situation. The decision was taken this week at a meeting presided over by Jaffna’s District Sectary K.Mahesan and attended by Jaffna’s Bishop the Rt. Rev. Justin Gnanapragasam, health [...]

Freedom Day events with COVID health guidelines

The 74th Independence Day celebration will be held at the Independence square in Colombo keeping with COVID-19 health guidelines, officials said. Due to the health restrictions, the seating arrangements will only be for Ministers, Parliamentarians and other delegates who have confirmed their participation with the Independence Day Organising Committee. More than 2500 seats have been [...]

See what happened in Sri Lanka–Kenyans warned of banning pesticide

Some of the Government’s ambitious policies and decisions met with severe protests locally–internationally they became a textbook case for the consequences of poor policy planning. The Dhaka Tribune of Bangladesh ran an Op-Ed this week titled: “How Sri Lanka became the island of a thousand errors.” It was written by Tim Worstall, a senior fellow [...]

Grade 5 Scholarship Exam: Alleged injustice to students being probed, says Exams chief

Three separate inquiries are being carried out into parents’ complaints that student who sat the recent Grade 5 Scholarship Exam at three centres in Galle, Welimada and Galgamuwa were given the papers late, had to handed them over early and were not allocated extra time to tackle the answers. Two investigations by the zonal and [...]

Government agency heads get strict orders on vehicles

The Finance Ministry has instructed the heads of all Government agencies to take immediate measures to dispose of vehicles not in running condition and repair vehicles that can be repaired economically. Issuing a circular, Treasury Secretary S. R. Attygalle said the Cabinet has observed that the progress of the repair and use or disposal of [...]

Accident on Outer Circular Highway claims two lives

Two people were killed on the Outer Circular Highway stretch between Kaduwela and Kadawatha early yesterday morning, after a lorry collided with another lorry that had broken down along the route. Police officers said the lorry driver died after being thrown out of the vehicle, and another person died as a result of a fire [...]

Relatives of fishermen arrested in Myanmar call for justice

The relatives of Sri Lankan fishermen who were arrested and detained in Myanmar have urged the government to take steps to ensure the fishermen’s immediate release. A group of seven fishermen who set sail from the Trincomalee harbour on November 15 last year were arrested on November 29 by the Myanmar Navy. They have been [...]

Hit by manpower shortage services run on low gear

A private bus conductor recently issuing tickets on the 120 Kesbewa-Pettah route was questioned by a passenger on the ticket price to Colombo Fort as he had given the wrong balance. Midway through the journey, the pair had a roaring argument. The reason for the error, it transpired, was that the bus conductor was temporarily [...]

Holiday spoiler in ‘paradise’: Colour of your skin or unruly behaviour?

Lounging at a beachside restaurant with his wife and three-year-old son, Dushmantha Gunasingha watched as foreigner after foreigner was served their orders while his family was left unattended. It was a beautiful day in December 2021. The stretch of Unawatuna beach they were on offered a clear view of the sea. Tourists on recliners soaked [...]

Despite Omicron surging and more people contracting COVID, the important health precaution of washing hands appears to be a thing of the past in some public places as seen in these pictures where wash basins are sans soap or any kind of hand wash.

Rapidly rising dengue patient tally prompts epidemic warning

The number of dengue patients remained high in the Western Province with more than 50% reported from the three districts in the province. Nearly 7,000 dengue patients have been reported as at January 27. And 53.4% are from the Western Province. There’s an increasing number of patients infected with the dengue virus type 3 (DENV-3), [...]

Double murder-suicide: Lankan father accused of killing his children

Police officers at Huntingdale in Australia, have opened a murder-suicide investigation into the alleged killing of two children by their Sri Lankan father, who took his own life. Indika Gunathilaka, and the bodies of his four-year-old daughter and six-year-old son, were found at a home in Essington Street at Huntingdale in the south-eastern part of [...]

Dengue prevention: Presidential Secretariat issues tough new regulations

A Presidential directive has been issued to strengthen the multi-sectoral approach for dengue prevention and control initiatives across the country as dengue has become a major public health issue, with the number of cases increasing to an alarming level, according to a circular issued by the Presidential Secretariat. Issuing a circular during his last days [...]

Local rice prices leap amid influx of cheap Indian imports

Retail prices of local rice varieties are continuing to jump from one week to another, despite the availability of Indian produce. The Government claims that imports are being allowed to stabilise prices. More than 30,000 metric tonnes of Indian rice varieties, not known to be organic, have been imported in the past few weeks, and [...]

Narcotics smuggling on the rise via Lanka’s sea routes

Despite regular detection, Sri Lanka’s sea paths are increasingly being used by local and international narcotics traffickers, investigations have revealed. The revelations came as latest statistics showed that most of the detections were made in operations at mid-sea. Last year, 1594 Kg of heroin was detected in the country and of them 1.2 million Kg [...]

Local beetroot farmers beaten by smugglers who brought in 16,000kg

Farmers have expressed concern over the smuggling of beetroot into the country with the harvest due to come up next week. Vegetable farmer Welandage Reginald Kristy, who was waiting to collect the harvest of his beetroot cultivation lamented that he would be forced to sell beetroot for lower prices as imported varieties were already in [...]

Seed farm worker gripes shut Sandathenna

A tourist attraction in Nuwara Eliya, the mini-world’s end at Sandathenna (Moon Plains), or ‘punchi lokanthaya’, from where nine of Sri Lanka’s highest mountains including Pidurutalagala, Kikiliyamana, Great Western, Single Tree, Hirigalpoththa, Namunukula, and Thotupolakanda, could be observed, has been shut down from yesterday due to a dispute over payments for staff. Visitors reach the [...]

Russian bio-pirates nabbed with rare animals haul fined Rs 8.5m

Three Russians convicted of attempting to smuggle hundreds of endangered plants in 2020 from a number of national parks and 529 species of animals from the National Wildlife Sanctuary in Horton Plains, have been fined a record Rs 8.5 million by a court in Nuwara Eliya in a large-scale biopiracy case. Russians Ignatenko Alexander, Artem [...]

Being a ‘good’ doctor: Steering CCP into 2022 with simple but important message

Many of them have been tried and tested and been pushed to the edge, for they have been the front-liners facing the onslaught of the pandemic. They have battled hard to save all those gasping in agony, sometimes even at great danger not only to themselves but also to their families. They have watched in [...]

Graft drags Sri Lanka below Ethiopia

State corruption in Sri Lanka has degenerated to the extent that the all-pervasive rot in the country is now worse than that in Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and Rwanda, a study widely consulted by international investors shows. The 2021 score for Sri Lanka, in the Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International, has worsened in [...]

Tearing apart myths and fake stories about Pfizer booster as Omicron surges

“Only way” to escape severe disease, hospitalisation and death is to get fully vaccinated – the two-dose vaccine topped up by the booster, reiterates expert Prof. Neelika Malavige Urges those who say Omicron is causing mild disease and not taking their vaccines to look towards the USA, where each day nearly 2,000 people are dying [...]

Be careful with drinking water, don’t use it to water plants

In view of the prevailing dry weather, the Irrigation Ministry has urged people to use water sparingly as the Government is striving to preserve water until the inter-monsoon as expected comes in April. Irrigation Director D. Abeysiriwardena said the water management committee had decided to prioritise the preservation of water for drinking and cultivation. He [...]

Cement shortage: Building industry collapses, Govt. compelled to pay 20 percent more for projects

The escalation in the prices of construction materials, including cement and steel, in recent months has compelled the government to pay 20 percent extra to contractors who have undertaken its mega projects. Projects awarded by the government during the three months before December 6, 2021 will qualify for a 20% increase or the compensation due [...]

Need to make school environment safe to hold A/Levels without disruption

Consider holding the Advanced Level (AL) examination a priority and make arrangements to facilitate a conducive environment at school-level to do so in February, is the strong plea of Consultant Paediatrician Dr. LakKumar Fernando. Cautioning that he is expecting the Omicron wave to peak in mid or late-February, he urges that there should not be [...]

Spike in cases

Here are the highlights of Friday’s media briefing at the Health Promotion Bureau chaired by Director Dr. Ranjith Batuwanthudawe. Clinical Technical Lead of the Home-based Care System and Consultant Family Physician, Dr. Malkanthi Galhena said that there is an increase in COVID-19 patients seeking home-based care. The highest number of cases was reported on January [...]

DMH is ready

Foresight and dedication have paid off at the De Soysa Maternity Hospital (Teaching) in Colombo. Timely has been the setting up of the 40-bed spacious and airy COVID-19 complex, a ‘people’s gift to the people’ to provide comfort and to expectant mothers who have got infected. “At one time we had 36 mothers in the [...]

Possible reasons for faster spread of Omicron

The Omicron variant can remain on a person’s skin for over 21 hours and more than eight days on plastic surfaces, which may be contributing to its faster spread compared to other strains, a study by the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Japan said. The yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study posted recently on the preprint repository BioRxiv [...]

DG gives clear guidelines on patients & contacts

The latest ‘exit strategy’ released by the Director-General of Health Services, Dr. Asela Gunawardena for COVID-19 infected and their contacts. COVID-19 patients If admitted to a Treatment Facility – If he/she has improved from mild/moderate symptoms and is fever free for 48 hrs without antipyretics (which reduce fever), he/she can be released from isolation after [...]

Top economist warns against ostrich approach to worst crisis since Independence

Sri Lanka is now in the midst of the worst balance of payments crisis since Independence. Admitting the severity of the problem was the first step towards finding a solution. The ostrich approach to crisis management would not help the country, said National University of Australia Economist Premachandra Atukorale. Prof. Atukorale was addressing the 10th [...]

Short-term and long-term resolution of external finances

The perilous state of the country’s external finances has not disappeared with a bang. Foreign reserves have fallen, foreign debt has increased and the balance of payments deficit continues to widen. Foreign assistance However Chinese and Indian currency swaps and trade credit have provided a breathing space to resolve the financial problem and provide essential [...]

Desperate Sri Lanka ponders ‘something’ and anything when more creditors come calling

Sri Lanka, which has continued to kick the crushing debt can down the road, is now trying everything in the financial playbook, including seeking IMF support to dodge an ignominy. Finance minister Basil Rajapaksa has told London’s Financial Times, that Sri Lanka is “negotiating with everybody”, and “trying all our options”, to avoid default and [...]

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