Nearly 13 Members of Parliament (MPs) representing the Tamil-speaking people held a protest in front of the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo Thursday (24) morning (24), demanding an audience with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to raise issues about land grabbing occurring in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

Today, 13 MPs TELO,ITAK,TNPF and TMTK are holding a protest in front of the Presidential Secretariat. We heard from our sources that the President is due to be at the Secretariat today. We have raised our land-related issues in Parliament on a number of occasions and have held protests in a number of places. However, this issue still has not been resolved.

“I told the official that we’re not a trade union or association. There are 13 MPs here who were elected by the people, with over 1.5 million votes between us all. The president and the secretaries must remember that we represent 1.5 million people,” said Rasamanickam.

In a statement issued Wednesday morning, the president’s media division said an appointment had been given to the Tamil MPs who had, instead of meeting him, had held a protest outside the president’s office.

He explained that the Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority is distributing traditional cattle grazing land in the Eastern Province and that farmers from traditional farmlands are being evicted by the Forest Department. “Recently, we saw a Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Government MP taking some rocks belonging to the Archaeology Department from the North and the East. In the name of archaeology, even Hindu shrines have been removed and thrown away,” he added.

Rasamanickam said that yesterday, an official at the Presidential Secretariat had advised them to hand over a letter with their grievances but that a meeting with the President could only be given at a later date.

“We are not trade unions (TUs) or a village committee. We are MPs elected by the people. If you count the total votes that the 13 of us have obtained, it comes up to about 1.5 million votes. The President should remember that we are the people’s leaders of nearly 1.5 million people,” noted Rasamanickam.

Thamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani Leader and MP C.V. Wigneswaran, who was also present at the protest, said that in recent times, a “lie is being spread that traditional Sinhala Buddhist lands have been taken by Tamils.”

“You kicked our Tamil people out in 1958 and 1983,” added Wigneswaran.

“We have repeatedly informed parliament and held protests in the north and east about this problem. No solutions have been provided. In fact, the problem has actually worsened,” he said.

The MP claimed that the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has been unlawfully distributing land held by the people of the north and east. The Mahawelia Authority has distributed acres of land that people in the Eastern province have used for cattle grazing.

“People have suddenly been asked to evict lands where they had been growing cowpea, green grams at small scale for 50, 60 years, with the claim that it’s land belonging to the Forest Department,” he said.

India is willing to make investments in Sri Lanka to help it ease a financial crisis, the Reuters news service quoted Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar as saying.

Sri Lanka has been suffering a severe shortage of foreign exchange, leading to widespread power cuts in recent days after being left unable to pay for fuel shipments.

Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa is to travel to India again as the relationship between both countries strengthens.

Rajapaksa, who was in India in December, will travel to New Delhi again.

During the upcoming visit Rajapaksa will sign a USD 1 billion financial assistance deal with India.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited to visit Sri Lanka in March to attend the BIMSTEC Summit.

The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) is in the process of waiving demurrage charged on containers at the SLPA-owned Colombo port after importers failed to clear them on time amid forex shortage, officials said.

‘’We are still at the primary stage of examining documents and we are still not sure about the amount that will be waived off,” a senior SLPA official told EconomyNext on Tuesday (23).

“We can’t even be sure of the exact number of requested waivers as we have received many in a short period.’’

The island nation’s main port saw hundreds of containers stuck in its dockyards as importers struggled to clear them because they could not open letters of credit or secure adequate US dollars.

The government has given priority to clearing essential food containers to avert a possible food shortage and arbitrary price increase in essential commodities amid higher demand.

The SLPA has already called for documentary evidence to review the eligibility for waivers, as a special concession to importers, towards cargo landed at SLPA-owned terminals (JCT & ECT) pending clearance up to January 31, 2022, in the wake of the prevalent foreign exchange situation.

The SLPA has said “some number of consignments [are] lying uncleared over a significant period of time”.

Importers have complained of no US dollars to clear their imported containers since the last quarter of 2021.

“The individuals have to bring in documents from the bank to prove that they could not pay the fees due to the forex crisis,” another senior SLPA official told EconomyNext.

“Every day we get many documents, and we are working to get them all processed. We are giving preference to food items like rice, sugar, and so on.”

Neither official commented on the total number of containers stuck in the port but claimed that it was not 2,000 as reported in media.

‘That it is not true. At any given time there are a lot of containers coming and going from the dockyards. I don’t know from where these figures went to the media, but there is no such problem.’’

In January 2019, only 10.10 percent of cargo remained in the dockyards for over a week. In January this year, the figure has increased to 11.59 percent. SLPA officers said, ‘There’s an increase but not as drastic as reported, and it is not even worth mentioning.’’

“At this time we were made aware that we don’t need to earn a super profit and charge unnecessary charges to take advantage of this crisis. So the decision to remove the demurrage and penal costs were made while thinking of the importers.’’

Sri Lanka is likely to receive a 200 million US dollar credit line from Pakistan for essential food, rice, and cement, sources who are aware of the deal said as the island nation is grappling with a severe foreign exchange crisis.

“It is likely to be signed when a Sri Lankan leader visits Pakistan possibly before the end of this year,” a source who is aware of the progress of the deal told EconomyNext.

Sri Lanka has already borrowed 1.5 billion US dollars from People’s Bank of China, 400 million US dollars from Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and 250 million US dollars from Bangladesh Central Bank via swap arrangements to boost its reserves and avoid a possible sovereign debt default.

Pakistan’s credit line talks come as Sri Lanka’s rice crop may fall 30 percent or more after an overnight ban on fertilizer to save foreign exchange and stop agro-chemical use.

A source from Pakistan who is aware of the ongoing discussion over the credit line said the original request, which came in September last year, was only focusing on a credit line for rice and cement.

However, when Sri Lanka’s Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena visited Islamabad in January, Pakistan was asked to extend the deal also for essential commodities as well.

“In principle, the Pakistan Prime Minister has approved this and it is in process,” he said.

“The deal will be signed when a Sri Lankan leader visits Pakistan.”

Sri Lanka is trying to finance imports of essential commodities including food and medicines through credit lines for this year amid forex shortages as it is facing risk of sovereign debt default.

Sri Lanka has a habit of going for credit lines every time money printing trigger forex shortages. Credit lines allows imports and consumption to take place on credit or a financial account inflow. Central bankers and other policy makers then complain that the external current account has widened.

The island nation has already signed a 500 million credit line with India to buy fuel from India and Sri Lanka expects to start using this credit line from the first week of April.

India also has agreed for a 1 billion US dollar credit line for Sri Lanka to buy foods and medicines.

Sri Lanka also has been in discussion with Australia for another 200 million credit line to buy lentils and essential foods, local media has reported.