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Home » ColumnsYala safaris: PM roars at Minister’s decision
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has issued an ultimatum to Sustainable Development and Wildlife Minister Gamini Jayawickrema Perera to immediately revert to an earlier decision to allow only 300 vehicles a day to the Ruhuna (Yala) National Park. In the alternative, he told Minister Perera at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management [...]
UNP-SLFP coalition to continue despite bumpy road ahead
Sirisena rules out any reunion with Rajapaksa faction; tells UNP ministers the two parties should work together PM to appear before bond commission tomorrow, UNPers to hold demonstration to express solidarity with him Three special high courts to hear high-profile cases of fraud, corruption and other crimes; committee to review every month on progress of [...]
Leaving home
My dear Ravi, I thought I must write to you, firstly because I don’t think anyone wants to write to you these days but also because you seem to be in the news although you are just a backbencher who was once powerful who is now trying his best to become powerful once again- in [...]
Bond revelations, Budget proposals widen cracks within Unity Govt.
The Second Reading of Budget 2018 was passed by a two-third majority in Parliament on Thursday (16), but the growing unease between the partners in the Government of national unity- the United National Party (UNP) and President Maithripala Sirisena’s faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in Government- became more evident as the debate [...]
Budget concerns: Fiscal deficit, greening environment, techonological capacity and medical education
The financial objectives of the 2018 budget are to reduce the fiscal deficit, increase revenue and move towards a more progressive system of taxation. It also attempts to reduce the massive debt servicing burden. Trade liberalisation to expand exports and strengthen the current account of the balance of payments is also an important thrust of [...]
Looking at the cold, bare facts of state torture
A fracas has arisen over a recent investigative news report (Associated Press) finding credible claims of Tamil torture victims that they had been raped and branded by Sri Lanka’s security and policing agencies. Not something to be dismissed with a casual shrug Let me be unequivocal on this point. Take the issue away from the [...]
How cells spelt out the names of top scorers in COPE’s bond game
First a legal DISCLAIMER to alert the reading public that nothing in today’s SUNDAY PUNCH 1 is intended directly or indirectly, by innuendo or imagination howsoever farfetched to suggest or convey in any manner whatsoever or to create the impression in any wise or dumb mind that those named in the Presidential Bond Scam Commission [...]
This mad, mad world of palanaya
So now we know, don’t we! As winter approaches and the temperatures drop in Europe Dr. Harsha de Silva tells a gathering of states in Geneva that promoting and protecting human rights cannot be done overnight. For sheer brilliance he deserves a whole bag of coconuts. Either that or the climate is beginning to affect [...]