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Home » NewsA flicker of light amid pandemic’s darkness
In Sri Lanka and all over the world, millions of Buddhists will celebrate the thrice-blessed day of Vesak on Wednesday and Thursday. The COVID-19 pandemic now on its third and worst upsurge in Sri Lanka has restricted Vesak celebrations, but these two boys are seen carrying home-made lanterns for sale to many families which hang [...]
No more big foreign loan projects
Sri Lanka will no longer go for expensive foreign loan-funded projects, the financing model that was its key recourse in the past, particularly under the administration of now Prime Minister and then President, Mahinda Rajapaksa. The solution now is to have a “new model” and to “go slow”, said P B Jayasundera, Secretary to President [...]
Health Minister asked to redraw plan to produce Chinese vaccines here
Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi has proposed to the Cabinet that a joint venture with a Chinese company be set up to produce COVID-19 vaccine for five years, but the Cabinet wants the Minster to review the proposal as the pandemic may not last that long. The minister’s proposal seeks permission to produce in Sri Lanka [...]
A gloomy Vesak
Street vendors on Friday were seen selling Vesak lanterns and decorations around Colombo and suburbs ahead of a three day lockdown coming into effect until Tuesday morning, and to be reimposed by night on the same day covering the Vesak days. The Vesak festival holds a very special place in the hearts of Buddhists.Vesak is [...]
Lockdown to be reviewed mid next week
The Government will review mid next week if the islandwide lockdown will be continued over the next weekend depending on the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths reported, Army commander Shavendra Silva, head of the National Operations Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO), said yesterday. He said the deaths and the number of cases [...]
224 covid bodies buried at Oddmavadi; community leaders seek another site
As of yesterday morning, the number of COVID-19-infected bodies interred in the Muslim burial site in Oddamavadi had risen to 224 and community leaders have called for the Government to approve at least one more identified site to ease the burden of officials and workers at the present location. There were 14 new bodies on [...]
Major fire on ship carrying dangerous chemicals off Colombo Port
Sri Lanka Air Force, Navy and Ports Authority firefighters were yesterday battling a major fire off the Colombo Port on a Singaporean vessel carrying chemicals. A senior navy official said the intensity of the fire was increasing after leakage of the chemicals inside the vessel. However, 25 crew members including Indians and Chinese were still [...]
Motor traders’ body flashes red light over move to assemble vehicles with used parts
The Ceylon Motor Traders’ Association (CMTA) has protested to the Government against a proposed Cabinet memorandum to allow the assembly of vehicles with used parts by one company, saying it is a violation of multiple local and international laws. The CMTA, which states it is a Ceylon Chamber-affiliated body that has represented manufacturer-authorised franchise holders [...]
Decision on tourist arrivals in two weeks, after COVID situation is reviewed
A decision on whether to allow tourist arrivals into the country will be taken in two weeks after reviewing the country’s COVID situation, a senior Tourism Ministry official told the Sunday Times. As at present, all passenger flights into the country have been halted until May 31. However, Tourism Ministry officials are hoping to discuss [...]
Parliament has legislative powers over Port City, rules SC
The Colombo Port City is part of the territory of Sri Lanka in terms of the law and Parliament has legislative power over the reclaimed area on which it was built, the Supreme Court (SC) has held. These were two of the main highlights of the landmark ruling the five-judge SC bench delivered after hearing [...]
Pick of the pix
Saliyaweva: Eco-friendly light Orugodawatte: Vesak baubles Gothatuwa: Wading pool Dematagoda: Stayin alive Fort: Shuttered city Marawila: Transport trap Kandakuliya: Play time Puttalam: Help needed
New rules to protect fisheries sector from foreign domination
The Government has passed regulations to ensure that any entity engaged in the export, import and re-export of fish and fishery products has a majority Sri Lankan shareholding after observing a trend of foreign interest in the industry. An amendment has been introduced to regulations first promulgated in 2017 to state that any establishment that [...]
Agriculture economists praise switch to organic farming but concerned over blanket ban on chemical fertiliser
Sri Lanka’s agriculture economists have welcomed a decision by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to adopt a Green Socio-Economic Model enabling the switch to organic farming from a chemical fertiliser-based model but have raised concerns on its application without due thought. In a letter to the President, the Sri Lanka Agricultural Economics Association (SAEA) said the new [...]
UNP objections upheld; Court of Appeal dismisses ex-member’s petition against expulsion
The Court of Appeal dismissed a writ application by a former United National Party (UNP) member challenging his expulsion from the party without issuing formal notice on the basis of preliminary objections raised by the party’s senior counsel. Some forty (40) similar petitions were also dismissed as parties agreed to abide by the decision of [...]
Rajaratnam new Attorney General
Acting Solicitor General Sanjay Rajaratnam, PC, will be the next Attorney General (AG) of Sri Lanka. Educated at St Peter’s College and Royal College, Colombo, he has served the AG’s Department for the past 34 years, having joined in April 1988. Mr Rajaratnam has held the post of Senior State Counsel, Deputy Solicitor General, Additional [...]
Floating armouries murky not just in SL but worldwide, says HC as Avant Garde Chairman and 6 others freed
Avant Garde Chairman Nissanka Senadhipathi and six others were unanimously acquitted by the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar on Friday over the Avant Garde floating armoury case. Delivering its verdict, the Bench comprising High Court Judges Adiya Patambendige (President), Manjula Thilakaratne and M.W.J.K. Weeraman noted that former Defence Ministry Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi, who testified at the [...]
Doctors who see the horror of this disease day in and day out at COVID HDUs
Their plea to the public– reduce our burden, the virus doesn’t travel by itself Warn of the unpredictability of the new wave; those who seem to be recovering can suddenly take a turn for the worse and even die, while someone who arrives in terrible condition can get better COVID-19 is escalating in Sri Lanka. [...]
Dropout rate rises as online teaching fails rural pupils
The Government’s failure to adopt an effective plan to take classroom learning to the homes of students during pandemic times has resulted in many children dropping out of schools, the main education union said. Reports are coming in that Ordinary and Advanced Level students, predominantly from rural areas in the plantation sector, have left school [...]
Subdued Vesak celebrations once again due to COVID-19
Preparations to commemorate Vesak under tight Health Ministry guidelines, due to the worsening COVID-19 situation in the country were underway over the weekend. Buddhists all over the world commemorate the birth, enlightenment, and passing away of the Lord Buddha with religious events. Hanging Vesak lanterns, putting up pandals and lighting traditional oil lamps are some [...]
Urgent call for 14-day lockdown by powerful medical professionals
From the south, the Sunday Times hears of an active fruit seller from whom many including healthcare staff used to buy mangoes. She would personally choose the most luscious of the mangoes and in her own small way give a discount of a few rupees. Suddenly, she is not seen at the small lean-to [...]
Lockdown should be at least 14 days now, otherwise it won’t work – expert
There is a major deterioration in the global COVID-19 situation largely driven by outbreaks in South and South East Asia, warned world famous virologist, Prof. Malik Peiris. Now there are outbreaks not only in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka but also in Malaysia and Thailand, this expert who was recently awarded the John Dirks [...]
Public health measures implemented after considering all implications – Dr. Hemantha Herath
All public health measures that are implemented follow the risk-benefit ratio being weighed carefully, said a high-level health official on Thursday evening. “Anything can be suggested and ideas formulated, but we have to take all other implications into consideration. We need to deliberate, weigh the cost benefits, the adverse problems and risk ratios,” said the [...]
Pandal makers see little light although Govt. assures relief
Danuka Rukmal De Silva first started working on pandals at his father’s workshop when he was 12 years old. “It is more than just a business for us, but a form of art and an expression of culture,” said Mr De Silva, now 43. Most pandals were built for the Vesak season. There were times [...]
Hair-raising ordeal highlights tour sector’s crash
A Negombo tour guide’s family’s terrifying ordeal has highlighted the grim situation of guides and drivers who have suffered the double blow to business of the Easter Sunday bombings and the pandemic and find themselves unable to pay back loans. Tourism workers’ associations have called on the government to ensure that a loan moratorium granted [...]
Another cyclone brewing in our skies today
A depression over North Andaman Sea and adjoining East Central Bay of Bengal has moved westwards and it is likely to intensify into a deep depression in the next 12 hours and into a cyclonic storm over the next 24 hours, days after Cyclone Tauktae hit the island. The storm is due by tomorrow (May [...]
Vaccine chaos: Too many decision-makers and lack of coordination – CCPSL
Ad hoc decision-making without a clear strategic plan in the vaccination campaign has created chaos and will lead to short and long-term repercussions, the Community Physicians warned yesterday. In a critical media release titled ‘Vaccine politics: COVID-19 vaccination campaign’, the College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka (CCPSL) has stated that this ad hoc decision-making [...]
Born to a COVID-19 mother a little heart beats with hope after life-saving op
A ray of sunshine and hope amidst the doom and gloom of a cyclone of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka. A tiny newborn of a COVID-19 positive mother, just six days old, having undergone major and complicated heart surgery is now recovering in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CISU) of the premier Lady Ridgeway Hospital [...]
‘First he pleaded, then screamed and cried’
Twenty-six-year-old Kavindu Perera’s memories of his father’s battle with the COVID virus are a living nightmare. “My father’s final words still haunt me,” the young Moratuwa man said. “The day before he died he called me thrice from the ICU saying, “Puthe, mata wathura tikkak denna kiyannako” (Son, ask them to give me some water). [...]
National Census postponed for June next year due to admin issues and pandemic
A string of administrative issues, a delay in purchasing tablet computers, funds not being allocated as budgeted, and the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in the Population and Housing Census scheduled for this year being postponed for next year. Census and Statistics Department Director General P.M.P. Anura Kumara told the Sunday Times the Census would be [...]
Preparations underway to launch vaccination programme in CP
Meeting underway at the governor’s office to discuss the vaccination programme A command room is being set up and health service officials are being given special training as part of preparations to launch the COVID-19 vaccination programme in the Central Province, Governor Lalith U.Gamage said. He said the programme would be carried out in keeping [...]