Category: Featured Headlines

A special gazette has been issued removing the price control on a number of food items including sugar, dhal, chicken, canned fish, corn, big onions, wheat flour, potatoes and milk powder.

The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) said the gazette is effective from Wednesday (November 03).

Thereby, seven gazette notifications previously published by the CAA have been rescinded by the new communiqué:

• Order No. 39 published in Gazette Extraordinary No. 1975/68 on July 14, 2016 for MRP on chickpeas, wheat flour and imported milk powder
• Order No. 40 published in Gazette Extraordinary No. 2003/44 on January 27, 2017 for MRP on dried sprats, green grams and imported potatoes
• Order No. 48 published in Gazette Extraordinary No. 2048/30 on December 06, 2017 for MRP on dried fish, coconut, dried chilies, Maldive fish and several other items
• Order No. 59 published in Gazette Extraordinary No. 2166/29 on March 12, 2020 for MRP on chicken
• Order No. 60 published in Gazette Extraordinary No. 2166/30 on March 12, 2020 for MRP on corn
• Order No. 61 published in Gazette Extraordinary No. 2167/9 on March 17, 2020 for MRP on Masoor Dhal, big onions and canned fish
• Order No. 76 published in Gazette Extraordinary No. 2243/13 on September 02, 2021 for MRP on white sugar and brown sugar

A total of 15 more COVID-19 related deaths that occurred yesterday (03) were confirmed by the Director-General of Health Services today pushing the death toll to 13,806.

According to the Government Information Department, 07 females and 08 males are among the deceased.

A total of 12 people who are above 60 years of age are among the deceased while 03 of them are between 30 and 59 years of age.

The Government of Sri Lanka and the World Bank signed a $500 million financing agreement to provide safe, efficient, and climate-resilient connectivity to strengthen agricultural supply chains through the Inclusive Connectivity and Development Project.
This project is expected to benefit around 16 million people living in rural communities in selected districts of Sri Lanka.

Sajith Atygalle, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, signed on behalf of the government, and Hartwig Schafer, World Bank Vice President for South Asia, signed on behalf of the World Bank.

In Sri Lanka, agriculture – the main livelihood source of the rural community – is heavily dependent on roads to connect farmers to resources and domestic and international markets said the World Bank.

While nearly all national roads are paved, only 67 percent of provincial roads and 13 percent of rural roads are in good condition. Sri Lanka also has the highest rate of road fatalities in the South Asia Region with around 3,000 deaths per year.

“An uninterrupted and safe road network in Sri Lanka is crucial to connect rural communities to health and education services and economic opportunities,” said Hartwig Schafer, World Bank Vice President for South Asia.

“Scaled-up road investments will contribute to the acceleration of human capital in Sri Lanka, leading to sustainable and inclusive economic growth,” he added.

This Project is part of the “100,000 KM Rural Roads Development Program”, a key initiative of the national development strategy of the Government of Sri Lanka.

“We are extremely happy with the design of this project and its impact on our local communities,” said Hon. Johnston Fernando, Minister of Highways of Sri Lanka. “The holistic approach to ensure safety, climate resilience and sustainability for our road network is critical for building back better post-pandemic”.

The project is expected to build on the ongoing provincial and rural roads rehabilitation initiatives under the World Bank-financed Transport Connectivity and Asset Management Project and the Asian Development Bank-funded Integrated Road Investment Programs – iRoad I and II.

The project will support the Government of Sri Lanka to expand its services by building on the lessons learned and establishing a comprehensive system to improve rural connectivity in an inclusive manner while improving rural livelihoods.

This project is implemented by the Ministry of Highways. A National Steering Committee will be established to oversee the project.

At the same time, Hartwig Schafer, World Bank Vice President for South Asia had ment with Dr. P.B Jayasundara, the Secretary to the President to discuss on economic challenges facing Sri Lanka.

“We also discussed the performance of the World Bank portfolio of projects and how we can support #SriLanka prioritize investments to rise above the #pandemic,” he tweeted.

The Students’ Union of the University of Colombo has stated that they are protesting against the appointment of Ven. Murutthettuwe Ananda Thera as the new Chancellor of the University.

The union has stated this in a letter to President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

Ananda Thera, the head of the nurses’ union, has been a staunch supporter of the current ruling party before the last presidential election.

However, he became critical of certain actions of the government in the recent past and stressed the need for a political change.

Many observers have pointed out that Ananda Thera’s appointment as the Chancellor of the university is a blatant move to silence the influential monk through perks and privileges.

The appointment, however, has sparked fierce criticism in the university sphere.

Tamil and Muslim political parties met in Jaffna today for discussions and decided to enlist other political parties including the southern progressive forces and demand for full implementation of the 13A, conduct the PC Elections and dismiss of the newly formed Presidential Task Force to draft the proposals for One Country, One Law.

During a discussion between Tamil speaking parties at a private hotel in Jaffna,

While insisting that the political solution that has long been a demand of the Tamil-speaking people must be in a way that satisfies their political aspirations, the following resolutions must be passed immediately, taking into account the various problems that our people continue to face.

The 13th Amendment to the Constitution of this country must be fully implemented, and elections for provincial councils must be held expeditiously.

All planned land grabbing activities in the North Eastern Provinces by the government and with the support of the government should be stopped immediately.

The anti-terrorism law (PTA)should be lifted and all those detained under it should be released.

Newly formed Presidential Task Force to draft the proposals for One Country, One Law, in a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious country, has decided to reject it outright as it poses a massive risk of disunity and division among the people.

Today’s resolutions of the Tamil parties

1. 13 A must be fully implemented
2. Provincial Council elections should be held immediately
3. Planned land grabbing should be stopped immediately.
4. The Prevention of Terrorism Act should be repealed immediately.
5. We reject that one country is one law.

In the discussion, Rauff Hakeem, President of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Mano Ganesan, Leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance, Siddharthan, Leader of the PLOTE, Selvam Adaikalanathan, Leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Movement (TELO), and the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front(EPRLF) leader Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Party leader N. Srikanth, Tamil People’s Alliance treasurer VP Sivanathan and TELO national organizer and media spokesperson Kuruswamy Surendran were present.