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Home » ColumnsPresident sacks CEA Chairman for environmental exploitation
As revealed in one of the Cafe items in the recent weeks, the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) Chairman Siripala Amarasinghe and his son came under investigation for their alleged involvement in constructing a hotel within the range of the Knuckles world heritage site. Following these reports, the Environment Ministry appointed a committee to probe the [...]
Amending we will go
My dear Members of the Diyawanna Council, I thought I must write to you to congratulate you on what you achieved this week. On Friday, you passed yet another amendment to our Constitution. We are told this will reduce the powers of your big boss and give you more of a say in running Paradise, [...]
Amidst conspicuous absentees of Govt. MPs and sole dissenting vote, 22A is passed
By Sandun Jayawardana After an exhaustive process of negotiations both within the House and outside, the 22nd Amendment (22A) to the Constitution was finally passed in Parliament on Friday (21) with a two-thirds majority. A total of 174 members voted for the third and final reading after amendments made at the Committee Stage. Only the [...]
People-centred flood mitigation strategies required
With the increasing unpredictability of weather patterns, Sri Lanka has been facing an increasing frequency of floods. While such floods invariably have an impact on the economy due to disruption of daily life and damage to crops, what is often lost sight of is the impact on the lives of mostly poor and marginalised people. [...]
Reviving declining tea production vital for increasing export earnings
Declining tea production and tea exports are a serious setback to the economy. The economy is hampered by declining tea production and lower exports of tea that are of critical importance to the external finances of the country. The development of the tea industry is of utmost importance for the country’s economic development. Tea production [...]
Constitutional yo-yo games and a ‘rehabilitation’ bill in the gutter
This ecstatic rolling about in the Diyawanna mud to celebrate the passing of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution defeats logic if not common sense. No cheers, vigilance needed Constitutional yo-yo games of the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and now 22nd Amendments demonstrate how stupendously unfit the members of Sri Lanka’s Parliament are to hold [...]
President must not repeat Gota’s ‘rehab’ gazette folly
SC rules Rehab Bill vitiates constitution unless amended but it will have no say in final outcome of enactment against personal liberty If the Supreme Court had not ruled the obnoxious Bureau of Rehabilitation Bill inconsistent with the Constitution as it did on Thursday, then Sri Lanka’s legal bible should be consigned to the flames. [...]
Putting the Govt. in the dock
That was a resounding blow to the face of a government that has come increasingly to believe or being pushed into believing, that might over right is the way to rule. Had the Supreme Court not determined that the Bureau of Rehabilitation ACT as presented should rightly rest at the bottom of a waste bin, [...]
Approval of 22A a windfall for President
Big blow to SLPP master strategist Basil Rajapaksa; as most ruling alliance MPs back the amendment Mahinda takes his campaign to Kandy on the theme “let’s rise together”, but he was not present at voting time,while other Rajapaksas vote for it By Our Political Editor Friday’s constitutional changes that restored powers of Parliament from [...]
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