Category: Featured Headlines

The Police reported that four schoolchildren are among the six people who died after a passenger ferry capsized in Kinniya, Trincomalee earlier today.

Six reported drowned and 11 others have sustained injuries after a ferry capsized in the Kuringankerni lagoon in Kinniya, Trincomalee, the Police said.

As per reports, several schoolchildren are also among the victims.

In the meantime, the injured have been admitted to the Kinniya Hospital and are currently under medical care.

The salvage divers of the Navy and the Police have launched a joint effort to rescue the missing people.

The ferry had been transporting a group of children and teachers when it capsized this morning (November 23).

United Nations (UN) Assistant Secretary-General (ASG) for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific Khaled Khiari will be in Sri Lanka for an official visit from Tuesday (23) to Thursday (25).

UN Sri Lanka said in a statement on Monday (22) that Khiari will meet senior government officials, representatives of political parties and civil society, religious leaders, and the diplomatic community.

The visit follows UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s meeting with Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in September in New York. At the meeting, which came 15 months after a warning from Rajapaksa that he might take the island out of the UN and its agencies if the world body pursued war crimes allegations against Colombo, he had pledged cooperation.

“President Rajapaksa said that he was always ready to work closely with the United Nations,” his office said in a two-page statement even as the UN’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva had announced just a week prior that it had collected some 120,000 pieces of evidence of abuses by Sri Lankan forces.

Related: Sri Lanka to work closely with UN, agrees to ‘pardon Tamil youth’

Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris said yesterday (22) that the draft of the new Constitution will be presented to Parliament by the end of January, alongside the recommendations on the electoral system, which are to be made by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to identify appropriate reforms of the election laws, headed by Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena.

“We hope that by the second week of January, the draft of the new Constitution will be ready, which is now being worked on by an expert committee chaired by President’s Counsel (PC) Romesh De Silva. In about three weeks, the committee will prepare the new Constitution – not proposals, not recommendations, but the complete draft. The country is also very focused on changing the electoral system as both political parties and the public are of the opinion that it is unsuitable. The Select Committee led by Gunawardena is looking into it already, meeting about twice a week, in discussions spanning more than two hours. Those recommendations will also be given to the Parliament at the end of January or at the beginning of February, and they will also be very helpful,” said Prof. Peiris whilst addressing the media yesterday.

He added that once the draft of the new Constitution is ready, it will be sent to the Legal Draftsman’s Department, prior to it being presented to Parliament. A bipartisan Parliamentary Select Committee, representing members of all political parties, will analyse the said draft before Parliament debates it, he explained.

The expert committee was appointed in September of last year. In addition to De Silva PC, its other members include Gamini Marapana PC, Manohara De Silva PC, Sanjeewa Jayawardena PC, and Samantha Ratwatte PC; Dr. A. Sarveswaran; Prof. Wasantha Seneviratne; and Prof. G.L. Peiris.

An Extraordinary Gazette notification has been issued by the Registrar of Pesticides revoking the Gazette issued in 2014 prohibiting the use and sale of several pesticides including Glyphosate.

Issued by the Registrar of Pesticides Dr. J. A. Sumith and dated November 01, it revokes the previous Gazette “in the interest of the public and on the advice of the Pesticide Technical and Advisory Committee.”

The Gazette revokes the Order made under Section 11 of the Control of Pesticides Act, No. 33 of 1980 and published in Gazette Extraordinary No. 1894/4 of December 22, 2014.

The Gazette issued in 2014 had prohibited the use, offer for sale or sale of agrochemicals containing the active ingredients Glyphosate, Propanil, Carbaryl, Cholopyrifos and Carbofuran in the following areas:

Within the Districts of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Kurunegala, Monaragala and within the Divisional Secretariat, Divisions of Mahiyanganaya, Rideemaliyadda, Kandaketiya in the Badulla District.

Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa will visit India to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, foreign minister GL Peiris said today.

His will visit India in the next few days, Peiris told reporters, adding that the schedule is being worked out jointly with the Indian High Commission i Colombo, according to the CNN-News18.

Finance Minister Rajapaksa’s visit assumes significance in the backdrop of negotiations sought by Colombo for an Indian credit line to pay for the island’s fuel purchases. Last week, Sri Lanka temporarily shut down its only oil refinery for 50 days following the non-availability of crude oil supplies due to the ongoing severe foreign exchange crisis in the country.

Foreign Minister Peiris, however, said that Rajapaksa would not ask for Indian loans but to enhance Indian investment. We have strong relations with India, not just focused on one area, he said, adding that Rajapaksa would call on Prime Minister Modi.

India has been generous with Sri Lanka’s calls for assistance whenever the need arose in the past, Peiris said. Finance Minister Rajapaksa is fresh from presenting his maiden budget – the 2022 budget aimed at raising taxes while anticipating more state revenue from jacked up cigarette and liquor retail prices.

The Government has decided to back down in the dispute over the Chinese organic fertiliser shipment that was found to be contaminated.

Preparations are underway to resolve the dispute by paying 75 percent of the claim by the Chinese company. This amounts to US$ 6.7 million. The Government has also decided to buy fresh stocks from the same company, Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told the Sunday Times.

“We cannot afford to damage diplomatic relations over this issue,” the minister said.

He said that at present the dispute was that while Sri Lanka maintained that the shipment had arrived without a valid permit, the Chinese company insisted that since the Letter of Credit was opened the ship had arrived in the country.

According to minister, the Chinese company has agreed to take the shipment back and provide new stocks after proper checks on the samples. “If the talks are successful, we are willing to share 50 percent of the charges of the next shipment.”

He said that Attorney General’s advice had been sought in resolving the dispute which had continued for more than a month.

He said the order for the purchase had been made at the price of US$ 446 a metric tonne and the prices had now increased to more than US$ 900 and, therefore, the cancellation of the agreement would be more costly.

The minister said the proposed settlement would be submitted to the Cabinet for approval.