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Home » NewsEid Ul Fitr prayers in Puttalam
After a month of fasting, Sri Lankan Muslims yesterday celebrated Eid Ul Fitr. Here people are seen attending festival prayers at Zahira College playground in Puttalam. Pic by Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe
Major move to enhance transparency, accountability
Finance Ministry orders immediate implementation of electronic procurement system The Finance Ministry has instructed all ministries, provincial councils, departments, district secretariats, State corporations, statutory boards and State-owned enterprises to immediately implement the long overdue electronic Government procurement (e-GP) system, in keeping with an International Monetary Fund (IMF) requirement to improve transparency. Procurement notices relating to [...]
Galle Face attack on Aragalaya protestors: Senior DIG to be named as suspect
By Ranjith Padmasiri The Attorney General has informed Police Inspector General Chandana Wickramaratne to name Western Province Senior Deputy Inspector General (SDIG) Deshabandu Tennakoon as a suspect in the case regarding the violence at Galle Face, on May 9 last year. The Attorney General has directed the IGP to charge SDIG Tennakoon with aiding and [...]
Coal crisis averted; 30 vessels with enough stocks here soon
Lanka Coal Company (LCC) has borrowed Rs 20bn from the Bank of Ceylon (BoC) to pay for overdue shipments, but a crisis has been averted as the 2022-23 season will be completed with a total of 30 vessels bringing enough stocks for up to September this year. LCC typically meets the cost coal shipments using [...]
Renewable energy: Power Ministry withdraws proposal
The Power and Energy Ministry has withdrawn its own Cabinet paper on revised feed-in tariffs for renewable energy after deciding it was too complicated, authoritative sources said. Despite the Government’s pledge to generate 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s electricity through renewable sources by 2030, new projects are blocked by the continued failure to introduce “a [...]
Fertiliser subsidy seriously flawed, farmers may use it for other purposes; Ministry warns President
By Damith Wickramasekara The Agriculture Ministry has warned the President’s Office that the proposed scheme to provide a fertiliser subsidy to farmers during the Yala season is flawed. The Government has decided to provide a fertiliser subsidy amounting to Rs. 20,000 to cultivate one hectare of farmland, and Rs. 40,000 for two hectares. The Treasury [...]
Dense cities pose greater health risks in time of intense heat
By Nadia Fazlulhaq In cities where there is a heavy concentration of buildings and other surfaces such as roads and pavements which absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat, people are being asked to be extra vigilant about heat-related illnesses such as respiratory difficulties, and heat exhaustion. Such pockets arising in dense cities are called the [...]
Port City yet to attract investment, incentives for businesses not known
CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd has attracted “zero” foreign direct investments (FDI) since 2021 into the prime property that it is managing because the Government has still not gazetted the legally mandated incentives and exemptions to be granted to businesses, authoritative sources said. The last FDI into Port City was when Browns Investments PLC [...]
X-Press Pearl catastrophe: Sri Lanka to file action in Singapore High Court tomorrow
Sri Lanka will file legal action in the Singapore High Court tomorrow seeking compensation over the 2021 X-Press Pearl disaster, Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam said. The Attorney General’s Department had earlier noted Singapore would be the appropriate forum to institute a claims action pertaining to the X-Press Pearl disaster given that the defendants of the [...]
Grade 5 scholarship appeal application available online
Appeal applications for enrollment in Grade 6 classes based on Grade 5 scholarship exam 2022 results are now available online, the Education Ministry said. Applications are requested to be submitted before noon May 8. Students are encouraged to submit their appeals by logging on to the website through the following url: https://g6application.moe.gov.lk/#/ Additionally, the ministry [...]
Answer scripts marking tangle set to loosen
If university lecturers don’t start marking answer scripts within a week, Govt. to seek alternatives for a fee By Senuka Jayakody The Education Ministry is planning to ask retired university lecturers to mark G.C.E. Advanced Level answer scripts in the wake of a boycott by university lecturers. The Sunday Times learns that some retirees are [...]
Zero tolerance of corruption, wastage critical to save public funds
Justice Yasantha Kodagoda gives hard- hitting speech as chief guest Every public sector decision based on or linked to corruption, costs the national economy, and it is the taxpayers who have to pay for it, Justice Yasantha Kodagoda said yesterday, while speaking at the induction ceremony of the 30th President of the College of Medical Administrators [...]
SLPP appoints new chairman; Prof. G.L. Peiris to take legal action against decision
Ven. Prof. Uthurawala Dhammarathana Thera was appointed as the new Chairman of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) yesterday. He was appointed as Chairman at the 2023 SLPP general meeting which was held yesterday at the party head office in Battaramulla. He replaced Prof G.L. Peiris, who is now sitting as an independent Opposition member. [...]
SLRC and SLBC to be merged, restructured
By Damith Wickramasekara The Government is planning to merge State-run Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) and the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) into one entity as part of efforts to manage a crippling debt burden amounting to more than Rs 1.2 billion. The move comes as the institutions struggle to meet day-to-day expenses. The Media [...]
China asked to share details of company seeking monkeys from SL
By Kasun Warakapitiya Sri Lanka wants to verify details of a Chinese ‘animal breeding’ company which had sought to obtain 100,000 toque macaques reportedly for zoos in China. The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka has been asked to provide complete details of the company, the secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Gunadasa Samarasinghe told the [...]
Five people found dead on Delft Island, another seriously injured
By N. Lohathayalan and Senuka Jayakody Five people, including three foreign passport-holders of Sri Lankan origin, were found hacked to death on Delft Island in the Jaffna Peninsula yesterday. The two males and three females were found in a house near the Delft jetty. They had been murdered by stabbing with a sharp weapon in [...]
Animal removals must be weighed against protection of biodiversity
By Kapila Bandara Sri Lanka’s biological diversity should be taken into account and an evidence-based mechanism set up, rather than taking irrational decisions, to handle any attempts to remove animals from the wild, an environmental lawyer says. Reports show that “56% of mammals’’ are threatened, and that Sri Lanka, which has the highest species concentration in [...]
Lalith Athulathmudali assassination, 30 years on: Murder mystery revisited
Case remains unsolved; reports and investigations are contradictory and inconclusive as to who killed one of Sri Lanka’s modern-day rising political stars Mr Lalith Athulathmudali, lawyer, academic and politician was assassinated 30 years ago on April 23, 1993. He was 57. He was the son of D.D. Athulathmudali, a member of the State Council in [...]
Tests to find out cause of mass fish deaths in Kotmale Oya
By Nadia Fazlulhaq The sudden deaths of hundreds of fish in Kotmale Oya, which supplies water to the Upper Kotmale reservoir have left local authorities baffled. Lindula medical officer of health Dr. Dureirajah Rishinee said dead fish and water samples have been sent to the Peradeniya University’s Veterinary Hospital to test. People have been asked [...]
Micro-finance borrowers in Vavuniya struggle to survive
The pandemic, economic crisis and high interest rates causing severe hardship By Yoshitha Perera Prabhakaran Udayamalar, a resident of Katkulam–three villages in Vavuniya–is struggling to make ends meet as she looks after her ailing husband and three young children. Udayamalar taken a loan of Rs. 30,000 from a micro-finance company prior to the Covid-19 pandemic [...]
Stacking up digital advances to save lives
‘Suwa Seriya’ set to take digital transformation to new heights with ‘Connected Ambulances’ and ‘fall detection devices’ By Kumudini Hettiarachchi With “saving lives” as their unswerving motto, the digitally-driven 1990 Ambulance Service or ‘Suwa Seriya’ has been the helpline for those desperately in need of succour. Looking at the far horizon, this ‘Pre-hospital Care Emergency [...]
Traditional political parties went bankrupt from the time country declared bankruptcy
Opposition MP Patali Champika Ranawaka says a new political party to be launched soon will be based on meritocracy and driven by an innovation-centric economic strategy By Sandun Jayawardana At a time when people’s trust in traditional political parties has eroded enormously, a new political movement based on meritocracy and driven by an innovation-centric economic [...]
Power and energy sector : When small interventions can have positive outcomes
Focusing attention on the prevailing financial crisis, I forecasted that the financial crisis will lead to an economic crisis and as a result an energy crisis by March 2022 in my budget speech on November 17, 2021. I further elaborated and predicted that a people’s uprising will occur which will defy even police barricades. My [...]
Concerns raised as common eye-drop causes infections among 6 post surgery patients
Health Ministry temporarily halts use of Prednisolone Acetate Suspension By Kumudini Hettiarachchi The micro-bug Burkholderia cepacia (B. cepacia) has been identified as the culprit causing the infections among six patients who had undergone surgery at the National Eye Hospital in Colombo this week. This bacterium had been isolated not only in opened and unopened bottles [...]
Semi-luxury bus service charade to end next month
Semi-luxury bus operators have been given the option of converting their services to a super-luxury or normal service by the Transport Ministry, instead of eliminating their services from next month. Already necessary directives have gone out to this effect. Since 2018, the National Transport Commission (NTC) had unsuccessfully sought to suspend the semi-luxury bus service [...]
Five people found dead on Delft Island, another seriously injured
Five people, including three with foreign passports, were found hacked to death on Delft Island yesterday. Two males and three females who lived in a house near the Delft jetty were murdered by stabbing with a sharp weapon in their house, between the night of April 21 and yesterday morning. Another female who was seriously [...]
Man who spread false claims about bomb attack remanded
The suspect arrested for making false claims of a bomb attack during the Ramadan festive season has been remanded until May 4. Police received a warning about possible bomb explosions in areas where Muslims gather on April 18 and 19. Until the fact was confirmed, the STF and Army were deployed in those areas. In [...]
Pera Uni Faculty of Engineering, Railways discuss how to prevent deaths on dangerous part of track
By L B Senaratne The Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, is in discussions with the Department of Railways to plan a warning signal system from Getambe to Mulgampola as a deterrent of using the railway track, which has caused a number of deaths over the years. The last [...]
A season of sharing
By Akila Jayawardena Fasting, feasting and fellowship was seen all around the country during the holy month of Ramazan that came to an end yesterday. Inter-faith iftar (breaking fast) programmes were held in many areas at mosques, temples and at community halls. An iftar at Galle Face Green saw hundreds, including tourists, seated to enjoy [...]
Egg trade weighs pros and cons of novel sales tactic
By Senuka Jayakody Poultry associations are divided about selling eggs by the kilo from this week. On April 19, the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) issued a gazette setting a maximum retail price for a kilo, while leaving the option to sell per egg as well. The MRP for a white egg was set at Rs [...]