News
Home » NewsNot facing the crisis seriously
With a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic gripping Sri Lanka, the Government has issued tough regulations including jail terms or fines for those who do not wear facemasks and follow other health guidelines. But some people are still not taking the issue seriously as seen in these pictures taken yesterday in Colombo. Pix by [...]
SLPP to hold crucial meeting today, as opposition grows against 20A
With pressure growing on the Government to make major changes to the 20th Amendment, a party leaders’ meeting of constituent parties representing the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has been summoned this evening (18) to further discuss the issue. This is ahead of tomorrow’s separate meeting of the SLPP’s parliamentary group. The SLPP party leaders’ [...]
CID goes east to track down Bathiudeen
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) yesterday extended the search for All Ceylon Makkal Congress leader and opposition Parliamentarian Rishad Bathiudeen to the Eastern Province, after they failed to arrest him for the fourth consecutive day. CID teams visited Mr. Bathiudeen’s close associates’ houses in the Pothuvil, Ampara, Sammanthurai, Ninthavur and Kalmunai areas in search of [...]
Airport imposes strict rules for departing passengers
Airport and Aviation Services Limited yesterday announced that from 6 pm today, all departing passengers would be required to have their Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests done within 72 hours prior to their departure. All passengers have also been requested to strictly adhere to the guidelines issued by health authorities on wearing facemasks, maintaining physical [...]
Tougher new measures at factories to curb COVID spread
Factories with more than 500 employees must conduct compulsory PCR tests for a selected group of its employees on a daily basis, according to a gazette notification to be issued soon. Health Ministry Secretary Major General Dr Sanjeewa Munasinghe said the move was part of stringent measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, [...]
Govt. delays report on GDP rate, amid IMF’s negative forecast
Despite the International Monetary Fund’s forecast this week of a negative Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate (-4.6) for Sri Lanka, the Department of Census and Statistics postponed the release of the report on the second quarter GDP growth rate till the end of this year along with the third quarter rate. In the Asian region, [...]
COPE to probe irregularities in Central Expressway project
The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) will next week consider the Auditor General’s special report on the feasibility study and procurement activities of the Central Expressway Project (CEP). Among other things, the report concluded that public procurement guidelines had been violated in selecting a consulting company and contractors for sections I, II and III. CEP [...]
Curfew being imposed
The road block and the desolate road in Veyangoda indicate that the police are strictly imposing the local curfew to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Veyangoda and 18 other police areas in the Gampaha District, has been put under a police curfew for the past one week. Pix by Ananda Jayakody.
Sunday mass cancelled in Western Province
Sunday mass in the entire Archdiocese, which covers the Western Province, have been cancelled for the next two consecutive Sundays (October 18 and 25), the Archdiocese of Colombo announced last evening. The decision was taken by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith in consultation with Auxiliary Bishops, the Archdiocese added. The daily mass, wedding ceremonies, funeral and other [...]
Minuwangoda COVID cluster exceeds 2000 cases
The number of COVID-19 cases linked to the cluster from the Brandix apparel factory in Minuwangoda passed 2000 last night, with 115 cases being reported for the day. Of the cases reported yesterday, just 24 were from quarantine centres, while 91 were the apparel factory workers’ close contacts found from outside. These cases raised the [...]
United they fall: What led to the Yahapalana crash
The Commission of Inquiry (COI) now sitting into last year’s Easter Sunday massacres has seen a blame game publicly exchanged between the former President Maithripala Sirisena and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe apportioning responsibility for the incident on the other. The evidence so far in the public domain has spilled over to sparing of a [...]
Sri Lanka seeks compensation for dumping of garbage here
The Ministry of Environment has written to the Secretariat of the Basel Convention in Switzerland on seeking compensation from relevant parties involved in bringing down 263 containers of waste from the United Kingdom, thereby violating the “Basel Convention for the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste.” Both the UK and Sri Lanka have ratified this treaty. [...]
Bail denied for suspects who attacked journalists investigating timber smuggling
The Mullaitivu Magistrate on Friday refused to grant bail to two suspects arrested over the attack on two local journalists. On Monday, two journalists based in Mullaitivu, Sanmugam Thavaseelan and Kanapathippillai Kumanan were attacked by illegal timber sellers while they were gathering information on timber smuggling activities in the district. When the case was taken [...]
“Every one has the right to live peacefully and without hunger,” reiterates WFP Country Director
The COVID-19 crisis has added to global food insecurity with an increasing number of people going hungry. The pandemic, with its brutal impact on economies and communities is pushing millions of people worldwide to the brink of starvation, said the World Food Programme as it accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. “Every one of the 690 [...]
COVID-19: Officials confident of controlling outbreak
As many health experts reiterated that the probability of community transmission of COVID-19 having begun in Sri Lanka was “very high”, officials in all sectors battling the latest Minuwangoda cluster flare-up were adamant that it was not so. Referring to data issued by Health Ministry’s Epidemiology Unit and the Operations Centre, ministry spokesperson & Deputy [...]
Public services curtailed in Colombo
Public services at state offices will remain restricted this week in the wake of the Coronavirus re-emerging in Colombo. The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) will be closed until October 31, the commissioner of the council, Roshini Dissanayake, said in a statement. The building will be off limits. An employee of the Charity Commissioner’s office in [...]
Teachers describe gaping holes in exam COVID safety
Despite government assurances that students sitting national examinations would be kept safe from COVID-19 infection, education unions say health measures are sadly lacking. Basic facilities for invigilators and exam administrators during the exams have not been provided, nor is there sufficient cleansing equipment, disinfection or monitoring of health protocols with more than half a million [...]
Plant and earth barriers to help deter elephant intrusions
With more than 170 elephant deaths and about 60 human deaths, reported so far this year, the ravages of the human-elephant conflict has gone unnoticed due to the many months of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, environmentalists say. Sajeewa Chamikara, environmentalist and director of the Environmental Conservation Trust, said the deadly conflict is mainly [...]
5,000 Puttalam District coconut trees destroyed by intruding elephants
A herd of elephants tore through a village in the Puttalam district this week and caused damage to crops and coconut plantation, Divisional Secretary Dulanka Athukorala said. She said more than 400 coconut trees were damaged by the wild elephants at Sembukuliya in the Mahakumbukkadawala area in what she described as a serious escalation in [...]
Rajarata Don urges changes in COVID-19 management strategy
A strong voice of reason based on science and numbers with regard to the current COVID-19 crisis in Sri Lanka comes from a don in Rajarata. “All indicators are that community transmission has been around in the country for some time and it would be very difficult to pinpoint whether the infection started in the [...]
‘Dragged away like criminals’
Weeping garment workers abruptly shoved into quarantine Unions call for immediate inquiry into factory COVID ops Twenty-eight-year-old Kasuni is among hundreds of garment workers hustled off unprepared to quarantine centres from their boarding houses. “Most of us are still in a state of shock and disbelief over how we were dragged away to these quarantine [...]
A shortage of nuts; use alternatives, says Coconut Growers Association
The public will have to cut down on consumption of fresh coconut for the next two months, as the shortage will remain till early January next year, Vice President of Coconut Growers Association, Chryshantha Jayawardene said. Coconut prices kept fluctuating between Rs80-100 this week, despite a gazette notification stipulating that traders cannot sell a nut [...]
Govt.’s price controls useless as merchants hold onto stocks
Stocks of sardines, onions and oil have all but disappeared from shops as wholesalers hold onto stocks rather than sell at the new lower prices announced by the Government, creating a false shortage that keeps prices high. While consumers are calling for the new prices to be gazetted so that traders and wholesalers would be [...]
Lone survivor of hand-painted film poster art
Nearly a decade ago, sketches and banner paintings were part of the scenery in front of local cinemas and shops along the main streets of the north. As the printing industry blossomed using digital printing technologies, the art of sketching and portraits started to wane, forcing those who depended on it to seek other jobs. [...]
Returned workers offered cash leg-up to start work
Outright grants of up to Rs. 50,000 will be offered to migrant workers who left their jobs over the pandemic and now wish to make a new start in their home country. Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) General Manager Mangala Randeniya said the funds would be given out under the government’s COVID-19 Action [...]
More rains, heavy winds expected this week
The windy and showery conditions over the island are expected to intensify during next few days due to a fairly active south-west monsoon, the Meteorology Department’s Deputy Director, Meril Mendis, said. He said the southwest monsoon was still active although this time of the year usually experienced the inter-monsoon conditions. “By Tuesday, the rains may [...]
Be a partner in palliative care
The Sahana Sevena Hospice, a transit home for patients seeking treatment at the Apeksha Cancer Hospital in Maharagama, yesterday marked the world palliative care day, with medical practitioners who run the facility appealing for donations. This year, the Palliative Care Association of Sri Lanka (PCASL), which supports the hospice, marked the day on a subdued [...]
Pick of the Pix
Pix by M A Pushpa Kumara Pix by Amila Gamage Pic by M N Piyaratne Pix by Champika Fernando
Rainy day blues at the Kottawa bus stand
Home for one of busiest bus routes in the Colombo district, the Kottawa bus stand has been badly neglected. The bus stand is full of muddy puddles which attract more pigeons flying in for a dip, than bus passengers. There are plenty of buses operating between Pettah and Kottawa (the 138 bus route), and between [...]
Keeping the habit of reading alive: Nana kirana mobile libraries
The Kochchikade old Public Library in Kochchikade at Negombo has recently launched a series of projects to keep the habit of reading alive among the people in this area. “We started mobile reading libraries called ‘nana kirana’,” the Kochchikade library’s Chief Librarian C. S. M. Fernando told the Sunday Times. “Most of the people who [...]
Parallel class for grade six, one of several new education proposals
This week the Cabinet has given approval to open an additional parallel class for grade six, to accommodate more students passing the Grade five scholarship examinations. The proposal is among a series of other recommendations approved by the Cabinet to resolve the issue of student admissions to national schools. A proposal for the student number [...]