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Home » ColumnsBharat-Lanka estate housing project runs into deadlock over contractors
The fourth phase of the Bharat-Lanka housing project was launched recently, with some 1300 houses across 45 plantation estates in ten districts to be built. The Bharat-Lanka project aims to construct 10,000 houses for plantation sector workers. Each house is estimated to cost Rs. 2.8 million, and the Indian government is funding the project. The [...]
Police headed by an accused
My dear Deshabandu, I last wrote to you three months ago when you were first appointed to your job, albeit in an ‘acting’ role. You seem to have acted so well that you have now been appointed in a more permanent capacity. So, I will say ‘congratulations’, despite all the controversy that now surrounds your [...]
Sri Lanka’s foreign policy: Non-aligned or multi-aligned?
The economic downturn in Sri Lanka unleashed a cascade of repercussions across society, particularly devastating for the impoverished and marginalised segments. Recovery from this wreckage seems like a distant prospect, casting a shadow over the country’s future. Amidst this turmoil, a political crisis has emerged, evident from the events post-April 2022. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, assuming [...]
Will US soldier’s death in ring of fire open American eyes to Gaza horror?
Nothing starker could have awoken the American conscience to the relentless massacre of Palestinian innocents by genocidally bent Israeli troops than an active US soldier‘s shocking suicide in a burning ring of fire last Sunday outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington. His fiery protest against his government’s policy on the killing dunes of Gaza was [...]
Two hoots for democracy; for that matter, constitutions too
There is good news and bad news. The good news is that the current Speaker of Parliament, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, in a seeming mood of bravado, was quoted in a local newspaper as saying he would resign if the intended no-confidence motion against him is carried. That is not all. In fact, he set a [...]
Challenging task of strengthening external reserves to meet foreign debt obligations
Although the details of the repayment of the restructured foreign debt obligations are yet unknown, the Central Bank has indicated that this year’s foreign debt repayment obligations will be in the region of US$ 6 billion. Repayment of such a large debt is indeed difficult, as our current reserves are much lower. It is, therefore, [...]
An election on the horizon – but what of large ‘corporate’ buying of the vote?
It is perhaps one of the many painful ironies afflicting Sri Lanka’s political landscape that though an ecstatic song and dance was made about the country’s ‘first ever’ law regulating election expenditure passed by Parliament last year, no elections were held thereafter to practically ‘test’ its legal strength. Morbid fear of elections We cannot blame [...]
Ranil wants UNP revamped but suspense over his candidature for presidency
Appoints five-member team to strengthen the party on priority basis; contacts with other political parties and alliances continue Namal Rajapaksa’s name also emerges in public, but he says decision will be taken by SLPP leadership; Basil returns at critical time Supreme Court rejects Sumanthiran’s petition on Online Safety Act, insists it has no power to [...]
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