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No fuel price hike can curtail your freedom of movement if you have a bicycle. A tourist in bicycle is seen passing by the latest tourist attraction — street protests — outside the Fort railway station on Friday. Pic by Indika Handuwala
Cabinet approves maritime security pact with India
A number of proposals, which have received Cabinet’s nod of approval for goods and services on grant from India before Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa left for New Delhi to secure a US$1bn credit line, contain conditions, the Sunday Times learns. These proposals needed to get Cabinet approval for Sri Lanka to secure the Indian loan. [...]
Ranil issued 12-point charge-sheet by Presidential Commission
The Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) investigating the work of the previous Government’s Anti-Corruption Committee and its Secretariat has issued a 12-point charge-sheet on former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Three of the charges against Mr Wickremesinghe are related to alleged violations of the Constitution by aiding and abetting the establishment of political bodies known [...]
Govt. to study TNA proposal for diaspora investment
The Tamil National Alliance’s proposal to establish a North-East Development Fund, to which the Tamil Diaspora could contribute directly, will need further hammering out, with Justice Minister Ali Sabry likely to discuss the technicalities. “It has to go through normal Sri Lankan channels, including banking, not anything outside of them,” Mr Sabry told the Sunday [...]
ST Rs. 100 from next week
Dear Readers Due to a steep rise in the price of imported newsprint, the devaluation of the rupee vis-à-vis the dollar and shipping charges, we are compelled to increase the cover price of the Sunday Times from Rs. 80 to Rs. 100 from next week. We did our best to avoid a price hike. Unfortunately [...]
Amendment to Land Bill: Minister to bring in fresh safeguards to prevent mortgage of grant lands
The Lands Minister has vowed to introduce fresh changes to the new Land Development Ordinance (LDO) (Amendment) Bill after he learned that a clause allowing rural families to mortgage grant lands without State oversight could lead to mass-scale dispossession, with properties everywhere being seized by financial institutions when their impoverished owners are unable to pay [...]
Utility service providers seek approval to raise rates
Tariff increases are being requested for utilities across the board including telecommunications, electricity, water and railways. Buses have already hiked fares. Telecommunication service providers want their rates revised, the regulator said this week. “We have asked them to submit individual tariff revision proposals which we are yet to receive,” said Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC)’s Director [...]
IMF prescribes tax hikes, cuts in government spending
The International Monetary Fund’s latest report on Sri Lanka has painted a dismal economic outlook for the country and recommended drastic cuts to Government spending, the raising of corporate, personal income and value added taxes, the minimizing of tax exemptions and of ensuring greater contributions from high-income earners. The IMF has also urged continued efforts [...]
Children among 25 injured by lightning during funeral
At least 25 people, including children, were admitted to hospital yesterday when lightning struck a funeral at the Beminiwatte Cemetary in Mawanella. The incident had occurred around 5pm while the body of a woman was being buried. The lightning had first struck a coconut tree and travelled downwards into the crowd. The injured were admitted [...]
Dealers, buyers feel hard pinch as gold prices soar
Gold dealers say small-budget weddings are being postponed as families wait for the price of gold to cool off. The prices are soaring, and dealers and buyers are feeling the hard pinch. Within the last ten days, the price of a sovereign or eight grammes of gold has increased by Rs. 35,000. This has caused [...]
SLPI extends agreement with host hotel Hilton
The Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) extended its agreement this week with the Colombo Hilton to be the host hotel for its PRESS CLUB. The PRESS CLUB was established last year with the aim of hosting public events of the SLPI, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic such events had to be curtailed. This week [...]
BASL played lead role in advocating for the protection of human rights: BASL President
The 48th Convocation of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka was held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall on Saturday, March 26. Reelected President Saliya Peiris addressed the gathering which consisted of the Chief Justice, the Minister of Justice, the Attorney General, and other members of the bar and the bench. “The BASL played [...]
Raise electricity tariffs: CEB FM
The Ceylon Electricity Board’s (CEB) Finance Manager has requested its General Manager for an immediate increase in electricity tariffs. Finance Manager Tissa Liyanage on Thursday wrote to Acting General Manager D C R Abeysekera proposing a string of measures to overcome an internal financial crisis. He has suggested Treasury intervention to arrange financing facilities from [...]
Certified copies of final judgments to be made available for free
The Government is taking measures to draft laws to enable certified copies of final judgments in criminal cases to be made available to the prosecution and the defence for free. This decision was taken after the Justice Ministry observed that many parties in such cases did not have money to pay to obtain certified copies [...]
Dire shortage of water looms as levels drop drastically in hydropower reservoirs
The rapid, continuous drop of levels in hydropower reservoirs could cause water scarcity and remaining reserves must be managed well at least till May, when rains are due. Meanwhile, the dire shortage of water will further hamper power generation in the coming weeks. But reports of power cuts up to 10 hours next week were [...]
1,000 ‘national’ school plan deprives funds to existing ones
The Government’s proposal to create 1,000 national schools has deprived funds to the existing national schools. It is learnt that handpicked schools have been refused funds for 2022 from respective provincial councils, while the line ministry which had absorbed the schools have not allocated funds. “The schools are in limbo without funds from the provinces, [...]
Highways Ministry speeding ahead with controversial bid to local consortium
Central Expressway third section The Highways Ministry is barreling through the controversial bid to award part of the Central Expressway Project’s (CEP III) third section to a local consortium at a price higher by US$ 822mn (Rs 238.5bn) than its competing bid. The details are so guarded that meetings of the Cabinet Appointed Negotiating Committee [...]
Away from Parliament, president holds his first APC to ‘solve crisis’
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa held his first All Party Conference (APC) at the President’s House on Wednesday to find solutions to the economic crisis, even as a host of parties boycott the event. The conference is a genuine effort to find solutions, not a “political gimmick,” President Rajapaksa said in his opening remarks. It was important [...]
Life and death struggle for cooking gas and fuel
Heated arguments, fisticuffs, verbal abuse and clashes with police have become common at fuel stations and at gas dealers because of unprecedented shortages that have paralysed homelife, and hobbled economic activity. People who have waited in queues for hours, even days, for gas, are angry. Despite daily assurances from Energy Minister Gamini Lokuge about a [...]
Warning against selling fuel at residences
Sales of fuel at homes are against the law. Media spokesman SSP Nihal Thalduwa said, adding that, however, for practical reasons, the police are not being strict with those breaking the law for now. “Whenever vehicles break down without fuel, people take a can to buy fuel,” he pointed out. “There are also farmers who [...]
Night of the journalists
The Journalism Awards for Excellence 2019 and 2020 were held on Tuesday at the Colombo Hilton Hotel. The 21st and 22nd editions of the awards were held together this year as the events could not be held over the past two years owing to the COVID pandemic. The awards were organised by the Editors’ Guild [...]
COVID-19: Moving on with lessons learnt
With the COVID-19 pandemic swinging this way and that like a swift pendulum whenever a virus ‘variant of concern’ strikes, it was a look back and forward on pandemic issues with specific relevance to Sri Lanka and how we could move on with the lessons learnt. “COVID-19 is an infectious disease and most of the [...]
Omicron sub-variant, BA.2 sees surge of cases in Europe
The highly-contagious Omicron sub-variant, BA.2 is helping to drive another surge of coronavirus cases in Europe and has become the dominant version of Omicron around the world, reports indicated. Globally, BA.2 made up about 86% of cases reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) between February 16 and March 17. The previously dominant sub-variants, BA.1 [...]
Public response to ‘A health contingency plan essential to face SL’s economic crisis’
The Sunday Times this week received many calls from the public that the economic crisis has already heavily impacted on the health sector and that state hospitals were requesting patients to buy their own drugs privately. This followed the publication of ‘A health contingency plan essential to face SL’s economic crisis’, a succinct analysis of [...]
Kandy’s old prison now a no man’s land
During a visit to the eight-acre Bogambara Prison complex that now seems to be a no man’s land, Central Province Governor Lalith U. Gamage said the entire complex should be cleaned, before further action is taken. The Governor was on an official tour of the premises with Urban Development Authority (UDA) officials. The prison complex [...]
Religious ideologues poison student sexual health info rights and debate
Overwhelming support for the introduction of sex education in schools is being stymied by religious and other groups who fear this will lead to unbridled sexual activity. Education authorities and most teachers support separate sex education, the Sunday Times found. But this has been consistently blocked. “It is being opposed because of ‘culture’ and because [...]
Reconstruction of Muruthana-Bamukuliya Road goes awry
Reconstruction of the 3.5km Muruthana-Bamukuliya Road by Consulting Engineers and Contractors (CEC), is estimated at Rs. 68,402,500.00, but people complain that the road has not been planned properly. The road, which lies on the border of the Western Province, begins at the newly built Maha Oya Bridge at Kochchikade in Negombo, and is used by [...]