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During his two-day official visit to the North, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake undertook an inspection tour of the uninhabited Kachchativu islet, where Catholic fisherfolk from across the Palk Strait meet once a year in the third week of March to host the annual feast of St Anthony.

The presidential visit turned out to be historic, making President Dissanayake the first president to visit the islet since the bilateral and maritime border agreements between Sri Lanka and India were signed in 1974.

Safety first, but President Dissanayake and the two ministers are not wearing safety jackets

Accompanying him on the wartime naval vessel, P211, were Fisheries Minister R. Chandrasekar, Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala and Northern Navy Commander Rear Admiral Buddhika Liyanagamage. Hours later, the President’s Office released photographs since no journalists or photographers were allowed to join the team. One of the photos depicted President Dissanayake being seated in the middle of the vessel surrounded by his ministerial colleagues and security officials. While the security officers were seen wearing life-saving jackets, the President and the two ministers were not.

Social media users were quick to point out that the President’s security should have taken the matter more seriously with life-saving jackets, and these incidents cannot be mere ‘photo ops’.

When asked about this, a senior naval officer came up with an unusual response: “Maybe the President did not feel the need to wear the life jacket when he was onboard a naval vessel belonging to the fleet of a professional naval force in the region!” But the law at sea is for all passengers on sea vessels to wear jackets, usually provided by the Sri Lanka Navy.

Didn’t the government recently say, “No one is above the law”?

Karannagoda’s memoirs off Amazon UK shelves

The publication of war-winning Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda’s memoirs titled ‘The Turning Point: The Naval Role in Sri Lanka’s War on LTTE Terrorism’ has run into controversy after a rights group forced Amazon UK to stop the sale of the book.

In a letter to Amazon UK, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) pointed out that Admiral Karannagoda was on the list of the UK’s sanctioned personnel for his command responsibility for “human rights violations”. They prompted the online bookseller to pull out the book.

However, the book published by Penguin is widely available in bookshops.

Police and labour: Strange bedfellows

With a view to preventing crimes and narcotics and preserving public order in Sri Lanka, a Central Crime Investigation Bureau was opened this week at the old Labour Secretariat in Narahenpita.

Deputy Labour Minister Mahinda Jayasinghe unveiling the plaque at the opening of the Central Crime Investigation Bureau

While Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala was in attendance, it was Deputy Labour Minister Mahinda Jayasinghe who unveiled the plaque. As to what the subject of labour has to do with the police unit, that is what everyone will have to keep guessing. Perhaps this is due to the
police role in ensuring some end up with
‘hard labour’.

Cop on the mat over digital bribes

This week, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) introduced a WhatsApp hotline for people to lodge complaints.

With the Government determined to fight corruption and implement its ambitious ‘Digital Sri Lanka’ initiative concurrently, there are unscrupulous officials who are trying to take advantage of the digitisation process of certain sectors, particularly the financial sector, for their own benefit.

One such story going around the police mess circles these days is how a traffic cop was caught red-handed when he took bribes from motorists who committed traffic offences or could not produce proper documents. He had requested the motorists to use their mobile phones and transfer the bribe money to his e-bank account—a facility now available with all banks.

The cop who was on duty in the heart of Colombo and attached to the head office received multiple ‘short amounts’ of payments to his digital account within days. Based on the complaint lodged by a victim, the investigations revealed several such payments had, in fact, been received by the cop.

Following inquiries, the policeman was interdicted pending an investigation focused on his circles that are believed to have assisted him to run this ‘enterprise’ with digital cash currency.

The digital flyer for the presidential event in New York's Staten Island

Meet the President—at Staten Island

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will meet members of the Sri Lankan community in New York on the sidelines of his visit to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

The event will be held at 7.00pm on September 25 at the Centre for the Arts, College of Staten Island. The event is only open for those who register, and registration is compulsory for children above 10 years as well.

Whether attending such events is considered official or private is yet to be seen.

India won’t regard Lankan Tamil refugees as illegal migrants

India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has exempted Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who came to India before January 9, 2015, from penal provisions if found to be without valid passports, travel documents or visas, according to an official notification issued by the Indian government on Wednesday.

At present, more than 100,000 Sri Lankan refugees live in several temporary shelters across Tamil Nadu with limited assistance from the state government.

Even though India does not recognise refugees, under the latest exemption, Sri Lankan Tamils registered with the government will not be treated as illegal migrants.

Earlier, on December 16, 2015, the office, through an executive order, had decided to waive the visa fees and overstay penalty in respect of Sri Lankan refugees who came prior to January 9, 2015, and who opt to voluntarily return to Sri Lanka.

“The provisions of sub-sections (1), (2) and (3) of Section 3 (requirement of passport or other travel document or visa) of the 2025 Act to the extent of their stay in India and for the purposes of exiting India shall not apply to registered Sri Lankan Tamil nationals who have taken shelter in India up to the 9th January, 2015,” said the Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) Order, 2025, notified in the official gazette on September 2.

Along with Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, the Indian government also exempted undocumented members of six minority communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan from penal provisions and possible deportation if they entered India before December 31, 2024.

Passport to new plaque culture

The regional office of the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Jaffna was declared open on Monday by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, making it easier for Northerners to process their travel documents smoothly—rather than travelling to its head office in Battaramulla or the regional office in Vavuniya.

The plaque at the Jaffna passport office says the building was constructed by utilising public funds and opened by the President of the Republic

The move was to reduce the workload on the staff at the head office, where thousands line up every day to obtain their passports.

Since its opening, the passport office at the Jaffna District Secretariat has been receiving 350 applications a day, of which some 250 are for one-day service. The applicants can hand in their documents from 7.00 am till 2.00 pm without any hassle and obtain their travel documents within the day.

The plaque that was unveiled by the President at the office also caught the attention of many at the event. Unlike in the past, the names of presidents and subject ministers were missing in the trilingual plaque, which merely said, “The Jaffna Regional Office of the Department of Immigration and Emigration, constructed with public funds of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, was declared open by His Excellency the President on 1st September 2025”.

Paddy magnate sows seed for new hotel overlooking Parakrama Samudraya

Paddy magnate and hotelier Dudley Sirisena recently addressed the Annual General Meeting of the Business Traders Association Hingurakgoda.

He used the event to respond to recent claims by Agriculture Minister K.D. Lal Kantha that Mr. Sirisena’s hotel was built on a reservation area of the Parakarama Samudraya in Polonnaruwa and that the outer wall of the hotel should be demolished.

Mr. Sirisena admitted that his hotel has in fact encroached on the reservation area and announced plans to demolish the entire building and put a fancier hotel in the same place.

“We have taken wedding bookings till May 2026, but we are not taking any more bookings after that. We will demolish the hotel and build a massive hotel in the non-reservation area overlooking the tank where the guests can see the elephants from their rooms,” he said, adding that the plans have already been made.

He also said he wanted the law applied equally to all, and others who had similar encroachments should also have to do the same.