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For the Chinese, May Day is one of the foremost holidays, with millions taking part in rallies and celebrations. So this Chinese man working at his project site in Colombo was apparently shocked when he saw no meetings or rallies to mark International Workers Day. Pic by Indika Handuwala
Kantale sugar factory bribery scam: Top official’s deals exposed
A Presidential Secretariat official at the centre of Thursday’s bribery scandal had allegedly blocked the transfer of machinery, scrap metal and other assets belonging to the Kantale sugar factory to a joint venture company that had signed a US$ 100 million deal to revive the facility. I.H.K. Mahanama, the Chief of Staff of the President, [...]
VAT a way to attract tourists
Tourists, while leaving the country, will be entitled to obtain refunds on Value Added Tax (VAT) payments for goods they buy in Sri Lanka from next month, a senior official said. The Inland Revenue Department’s Deputy Commissioner General, Nadun Guruge, said the Tourist VAT Refund System (TVRS) was aimed at attracting tourists and generating income [...]
Rs. 135 million paid every month to 8,691 local council members
More than Rs. 135 million in public funds is paid every month to 8,691 newly elected members of local councils, a senior official of the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government said. He said that according to a circular, a mayor was paid Rs 30,000 as allowance every month, Deputy Mayors Rs 25,000, Urban [...]
President advises PUCSL to approve more coal power plants
The President’s Office has asked the independent Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) to approve the Ceylon Electricity Board’s (CEB) long-term generation plan which includes multiple coal power plants. The advice was given in a letter from his Secretary Austin Fernando to PUCSL Chairman Saliya Mathew. It was issued after an April 25 meeting [...]
Half a billion dollars spent on gold imports, much of it smuggled to India
Sri Lanka spent more than half-a-billion dollars–or 0.8 percent of the country’s GDP–on tax-free gold imports last year, with much of it being smuggled to India. Gold was Sri Lanka’s second largest import in 2017 in monetary terms after petroleum oils and oils from bituminous minerals (not crude), according to the UN Comtrade database. It [...]
Met Dept warns: Beware of the heat and stay hydrated
The Meteorology Department has issued a severe heat wave advisory in the upcoming weeks for the northern, eastern and north-central provinces as southwesterly winds pass through the region, a senior official of the department said. “Currently the temperature in some parts of the country is recorded as 36 degrees. There won’t be a sudden increase [...]
NSSL in fight to secure jobs for registered dieticians in state hospitals
The Nutrition Society of Sri Lanka (NSSL) hascalled on the Government to employ the Ceylon Medical College Council (CMCC)-registered Nutrition Dietitians as Dietitians in State hospitals, to uplift the nutritional status of the people. NSSL President Dr Anoma Chandrasekera said the Government is yet to recognise the over 500 graduates of the Faculty of Livestock, [...]
World RTI conference in Colombo
The international conference on the Right to Information (RTI), themed ‘Empowering Citizens with RTI – the 1st Year’, will be held in Colombo from May 8-9, in view of the 1st anniversary of the implementation of the RTI Act in Sri Lanka and World Press Freedom day. It is organised by the Sri Lanka Press [...]
Indian grant for Dalada Maligawa cultural academy
The Indian Government has offered a grant to the Sri Dalada Malgiawa for the construction of an academy that will produce dancers, drummers and artistes for the Maligawa’s cultural activities. The work is now in progress in Pallekele and the project cost of Rs. 145 million is met by the Indian grant, the Diyawadana Nilame [...]
Underworld gangster dies in shootout with STF
An underworld gang member was shot dead during a shootout with the Special Task Force (STF) in Miyalapitiya, off Kandy yesterday evening, a senior police officer said. He said the suspect, identified as Dilip Rohana Rodrigo from Hekitta, Wattala, was wanted in connection with several drug cases. Following a tip-off, the STF surrounded a house [...]
Minority parties oppose 20th Amendment
The minority parties in Parliament are up in arms, vowing to oppose the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, to be moved by the Peoples’ Liberation Front (JVP), when Parliament reconvenes on Monday. The primary intention of the Amendment is to abolish the Executive Presidency (EP). Four political parties, namely Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA), Sri Lanka [...]
Lester’s lifetime award found on bus rack
A lifetime achievement award belonging to Dr Lester James Peries that went missing during the funeral of the renowned film maker was found abandoned on an overhead rack of an airconditioned private bus plying from Kollupitya to Kaduwela yesterday morning, police said. The award had apparently gone missing on Wednesday no sooner the coffin was [...]
Sri Lanka bids adieu to the Doyen of Sinhala cinema
The Doyen of the Sinhala cinema Dr. Lester James Peiris was laid to rest amidst a large and distinguished gathering at the Independence Square in Colombo on Wednesday. The funeral was conducted with state patronage and President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa were among those who gathered to bid [...]
May Day and May Days in a political landscape like no other
In keeping with the Government’s decision to postpone May Day rallies, as they overlapped with the Vesak celebrations this week, the major political parties will have their respective rallies and conventions today and tomorrow in Colombo. The United National Party (UNP) is scheduled to hold its May Day rally, sans a procession, at Sugathadasa Stadium [...]
Gas and milk double punch strikes families in the stomach
Salary-earners of the country, now reeling from the worst economic growth in years and with inflation running high, were dealt another body blow by the Government last week. Prices of domestic LP gas and milk powder were increased. The ultimate beneficiary of the price increases is the Government. Following the increases in domestic gas prices, [...]
Lankan doc heads Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health
His forte is genetics but armed with his laptop, his passion has always been computers. This is how the Head of the Human Genetics Unit of the Colombo Medical Faculty, Prof. Vajira H.W. Dissanayake, came to be in the very thick of it when the Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health (CWCDH) was launched recently at [...]
Oddball council results no bar to extending voting system to provinces
When the Hambantota Municipal Council, won by United National Party (UNP) in the February 10 local government polls, convened to elect its mayor last week, it was a councillor from the rival United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) who won the ballot and formed the council. The Hambantota Municipal Council is among more than 30 local [...]
Regulator tells illegal hoteliers: Beach is public property
Illegal structures and hotels on the coastal areas will be demolished after a grace period, the agency that acts as the custodian and administrator of Sri Lanka’s beaches says. Director General of the Department of Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management, B K Prabath Chandarakeerthi said although hoteliers had agreed to remove the structures, there [...]
Hospitals to ban tobacco- chewing on premises
The increasing prevalence of oral cancer due to smokeless tobacco use among Sri Lankans, mostly the poor and disadvantaged, has pushed the Government to take more measures to control the habit of betel-chewing in hospital premises. A Health Ministry directive to all regional and base hospitals and Medical Health Offices has announced a ban on [...]
Parliament seating arrangement changes as 16 SLFPers join opposition ranks
Three of the 16 Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) members who quit the government will get front row seats on the opposition side in Parliament in terms of a new seating arrangement which comes into effect from Tuesday, the day President Maithripala Sirisena ceremonially opens a new session of Parliament. Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian K.Turairatnasingham [...]
The new Cabinet after the fourth reshuffle
President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe posing for a group picture after the Cabinet reshuffle on May 1. The reshuffle was the fourth since the new government took office in August 2015
The fruit of our Grow More Trees Campaign
Around 1983, the then Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa, inspired by the vision of Anagarika Dharmapala, started the Grow More Trees Campaign on September 17, also the birth anniversary of the Anagarika and the birthday of the then President J.R. Jayewardene. Preceding this initiative was a campaign spearheaded by the Gangaramaya temple in Colombo. It was [...]
Gold tax shocks jewellers as sales plummet
Jewellers have been hit with a drastic drop in sales due to the government’s decision to impose a heavy tax on gold and are being forced to lay off workers. There were fewer customers seen browsing through the jewellery shops in Sea Street, Pettah and goldsmiths appeared to be idle when we visited the area [...]
FEO condemns rampant abuse of captive elephants and wildlife
The Federation of Environmental Organisations (FEO) has asked government authorities to enforce laws to prevent the abuse of captive elephants and protect wildlife. The FEO said it was calling on the relevant authorities – the Ministry of Sustainable Development & Wildlife, the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), the Ministry of Tourism, the Attorney General’s Office, [...]
First there were three, then two and then none
A primary school in the Bibile education zone has shut down after the three students who attended it by end last year dropped to two at the beginning of this year and then none. The Illikkumbura Primary school in Ihawa had classes from Year 1 to 5 and excluding the principal four teachers taught in [...]
All aboard, and damn the rules
The number of road accidents, largely due to the failure of private bus drivers to follow traffic laws, have been on the rise in recent months. Most of them are caused when private buses pick up and drop passengers away from designated bus halts. Passengers too are to be blamed as they board buses in [...]
A colourful display for Vesak
The Vesak festival is celebrated in myriad ways, with some people following religious observances, some using their creativity and resources to depict the jathaka katha via pandals, lanterns and other creations, some singing bhakthi gee while others offer free meals and drinks to the multitudes taking all of this in. Our photographer captured some of [...]
Pt. Pedro centre cries for alms to heal 30 years of grief
The hot air sweeping through the palmyrah trees, over the red soil mixed with the sweat of the toiling farmers, speaks of the suffering the people of Jaffna are still going through following 30 years of war. Point Pedro, situated at the northernmost point of the island, formed with sand dunes, is famous for producing [...]
Pick of the Pix
Pix by Indika Handuwala M.A.Pushpa Kumara , Sameera Weerasekera and Jayarathna Wickramarachchi
Kataragama pilgrims harassed, abused by pooja watti touts
Pilgrims to Kataragama complain they are being harassed by touts when they go into town to buy pooja watti (basket of fruits offered at temples). They say it is particularly bad in a place called “Kada Hatahliha” (40 shops) where traders sell these pooja watti. The pilgrims say the touts engaged by these traders accost [...]
Unemployed grads say case hindering their teacher appointments
A group of unemployed graduates who claim that a case filed by a JVP provincial council member was hindering their appointments as teachers, are on a hunger strike demanding that the member withdraw the case. The protest that started on Thursday is being staged opposite the Uva Provincial Council. The graduates claim that though they [...]
‘No-fire’ zone within Matale’s Wiltshire mountain area
The Forest Department has declared a ‘no-fire’ zone within the Wiltshire mountain area in the Matale district to mitigate the damage caused by man-made fires to the knuckles forest reserve, known worldwide for its beauty and biodiversity. With the wind speed increasing, often fires started by hunters and holiday makers spread wide, engulfing parts of [...]