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ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප්රමුඛ ජාතික ජන බලවේගය මැතිවරණ සමයේ ජනතාවට ලබාදුන් පොරොන්දු වහා ක්රියාත්මක කළයුතු බව හිටපු ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ ප්රකාශ කළා.
දෙල්ගොඩ ප්රදේශයේ ඊයේ පැවති ජන හමුවකට එක්වෙමින් ඔහු කියා සිටියේ රාජ්ය සේවකයින්ගේ වැටුප් වැඩිකිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් වූ උදය සෙනවිරත්න වාර්තාව ආණ්ඩුව කඩිනමින් ක්රියාත්මක කළ යුතු බවයි.
පලපුරුදු අය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව වෙත යැවිය යුතු බවද ඔහු එහිසී සදහන් කළා.
* Used by Aragalaya protestors in 2022, now open only for religious activities, festivals, musical events
* No longer for political events
Colombo, November 7 (Daily Mirror) – The government has decided to be strict on the reservation of Galle Face Green not only for religious activities but also for all festivals, musical shows, and celebrations subject to the appropriate criteria.
The new government has reversed the Cabinet decision taken by the previous government in 2023 to grant permission only for religious activities at the Galle Face Green.
Galle Face Green was the site of the Aragalaya protest in 2022 which chased out then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from office.
According to the Cabinet decision, the Galle Face Ground, which is under the management and administration of Sri Lanka Ports Management and Consultation Services (Pvt) Ltd, the subsidiary of Sri Lanka Ports Authority, is not to be granted permission for another purpose other than for religious purposes.
Approximately Rs. 2.5–3.0 million has to be incurred for the administration and maintenance of the Galle Face Ground, and it has been seen that the Galle Face Ground is to be used as an attractive and secure place for foreign and local tourists to traverse freely as well as a place where people can allow to participate in the festivals, musical shows, and celebrations subject to the appropriate criteria as existed prior to the year 2023, the Government Information Department said.
The Cabinet has granted approval presented by Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports, and Civil Aviation Vijitha Herath to take necessary steps to make the administration of Galle Face Ground more systematically and transparently under the basis of the concept clean and greenery Galle Face Ground”.
With Donald Trump Impending Victory, the USA Mighty Dollar Will Roar Again!
China Humpty & Russia Dumpty Sat on a BRICS Wall!
Donald Trump being elected the New President of USA,
Made China Humpty & Russia Dumpty to have a Great Fall!
All Brazils Horses & All India’s Men Could Not Put The BRICS wall back together Again!
However, Russia may not need BRICS, since the gentle strangling of Ukraine will make Russia Stop the Aggression and Accelerate the Flow of Oil at USD 100/barrel!
Stopping the flow of cheap Russian Oil to India & China, will create a double whammy for USA, in one blow!
Express Your Opinion – Read What Others Say!
The Independent Interactive Voice of Sri Lanka on the Internet.
Please visit -: http://www.lankaweb.com/
Many milestones illustrate the difficult journey of Cricket in Sri Lanka from the time of its introduction in the 19th century to where it is today. A fascinating saga of ascend from minnows to prodigy that has captured the imagination and fancy of the cricket world. Sri Lanka occupies a unique spot in cricket for its creativity and innovation both within and beyond the boundary.
Great cricketers of Sri Lankan origin i.e., Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Malays and Burghers, from time to time have left a legacy of high achievement while fighting against the odds.
But in this story of cricket in Sri Lanka two milestones stand above the rest. The incredible World Cup victory in 1996 under the leadership of Arjuna Ratnatunga and the invention of the Decision Review System (DRS) by lawyer Senaka Weeraratna in 1997 initially known as ‘ Player Referral’. The former was achieved within the boundary and the latter was achieved beyond the boundary, and funnily enough within one year of each other.
The World Cup victory in 1996 is an inspiring part of history that Sri Lanka can be proud of. The DRS is now a part of regular cricket in all three formats of the game. T20, One Day International and Test Cricket. It is a powerful reminder on a daily basis of Sri Lankan ingenuity and brilliance.
DRS has swept the world .There is no challenge to the only claimant in the world with supporting evidence. DRS has brought transparency, accuracy and fairness to a game long enmeshed in wrong decision making by ground umpires sometimes leading to tension and bitterness between nations.
Sweeping in its grandeur DRS awaits the one last deserving accolade – formal recognition of the inventor of this ground breaking facility with payment of due compensation for his remarkable contribution to the advancement of the integrity of the game.
Senaka Weeraratna
See also
DRS – Sri Lanka’s greatest gift to the World of Cricket
පාස්කු ප්රහාරයේ සැබෑ මහ මොලකරු සොයා ගැනීමට ඇති හොඳම ක්රමවේදය හිටපු නියෝජ්ය පොලිස්පති රවී සෙනවිරත්න ආණ්ඩුව විසින් ආරක්ෂා කිරීම නොව ඔහුට එරෙහිව නඩු පැවරීම බව පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය නායක සර්වජන බලය කොළඹ දිස්ත්රික් අපේක්ෂක නීතිඥ උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා පවසයි.
පාස්කු ප්රහාරය එල්ල කළ පුද්ගලයන් පිළිබඳ ඉතාම පැහැදිලි හා නිරවද්ය තොරතුරු කලින් ලැබී තිබියදීත් එම තොරතුරු නොසලකා දින දොළහක කාලයක් රවී සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා කටයුතු කළ බවත් ඔහු එසේ කළේ කාගේ වුවමනාවට දැයි විමර්ශනය කිරීමෙන් මෙම ප්රහාරය පිටුපස මහ මොලකරුවෙකු සිටී නම් ඔහු හඳුනාගත හැකි බවත් පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය නායකයා වැඩිදුරටත් ප්රකාශ කරයි.
ඒ මහතා මේ බව සඳහන් කර සිටියේ දෙරණ 360 වැඩසටහන හා එක් වෙමිනි.
එමෙන්ම ජාතික ජන බලවේග ආණ්ඩුව විසින් ණය ලබා ගැනීම හෙළි කල ගම්මන්පිල මහතා මින් ඉදිරියට ආණ්ඩුව ණය ලබා ගැනීමේ දී ටිල්වින් සිල්වා සහ විජිත හේරත් මහත්වරුන්ව ද දැනුවත් කර එම ණය ලබාගන්නා ලෙසත් එසේ නොමැති නම් මාධ්ය වෙත අදහස් දැක්වීමේදී ඔවුන් බලවත් අසීරුතාවයට පත්වන බවත් ප්රකාශ කර සිටියේය.
ප්රකට සහල් ව්යාපාරික ඩඩ්ලි සිරිසේන මහතා පසුගිය ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී රුපියල් කෝටි දහයක මුදලක් වත්මන් ජනාධිපති අනුර දිසානායක මහතාට ලබා දුන් බව ජන අරගල සන්ධානය පවසයි.
එම පක්ෂයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු අපේක්ෂක ඉන්ද්රානන්ද ද සිල්වා මහතා පවසන්නේ ඊට අදාල දුරකතන චැට් තමා සතු බවය.
තමන් පවසන්නේ අසත්ය නම් නම් නඩු දමන ලෙස අභියෝග කරන බවත් ඔහු පැවසීය.
ඩඩ්ලි සිරිසේනලා විසින් ජනාධිපතිවරුන් පත් කිරීමට ධනය විසි කරන බවත් පැවසූ ඔහු රත්න සහල් අධිපති විසින් ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී සජිත් ප්රේමදාස මහතාට කෝටි 50ක් ලබා දුන් බව ද පැවසුවේය.
අනුර දිසානායක මහතා ජනාධිපති ධුරයට පත් වූ පසු කෙඳිරියක් පවා නොමැතිව සිටින්නේ මුදල් ගත් නිසා බවත් ඔහු පැවසුවේ ජන අරගල සන්ධානය විසින් සංවිධානය කර තිබූ ගම්පොළ ප්රදේශයේ ජනහමුවක්
අමතමිනි.
The Police has been receiving daily requests for security protection from Israeli and European tourists, both in the form of in person visits to Police stations and calls to the dedicated hotline, and the Police has been providing physical security for each such request.
These requests come from individual tourists, and the majority are from Israel and countries in the European Union, as well as from locally run tourist establishments such as hotels and restaurants,” Police Marine and Tourist Range Deputy Inspector General of Police Damayantha Wijaya Sri, who has been appointed as the central contact point for tourists in this context, told The Daily Morning yesterday (6). Several of them phone us but a few come in person and then we conduct observation based risk assessments and give protection to each tourist or business that requests for it.”
Wijaya Sri stated that these calls for security stem from the fear caused by several foreign diplomatic missions based in Sri Lanka issuing travel advisories against visiting Arugam Bay following warnings of threats against Israeli tourists and tourists.
Wijaya Sri added that several Police officers are stationed at various other divisions and are also guarding tourists, with several of them accompanying the tourists in question as they travel around the country if the tourist feels unsafe.
The number of Police officers present will depend on the nature of the threat and the fear of the tourist,” Wijaya Sri said, adding also that while their Division handles the observational aspects of the matter, other Police arms deal with logistics and related aspects.
However, despite the travel advisories, Wijaya Sri said that tourists are less fearful at present. The atmosphere is improving and we have several tourists who tell us that they want to enjoy their holiday and that they don’t want Police officers next to them as they vacation,” Wijaya Sri said.
However, we will still be taking the maximum security precautions as we don’t want any tourist to feel unsafe or threatened,” he went on to say.
These comments follow the United States Embassy’s travel advisory to Arugam Bay citing threats. Following this, the Israeli Government issued warnings against their citizens travelling to Arugam Bay and certain other beachside areas which was followed by several other countries following suit.
The authorities arrested six suspects including a Maldivian national for questioning regarding alleged plans to attack Israeli tourists. Following this, the Government has provided security to the area and all other relevant parts of the country and had introduced a special hotline to assist Israeli tourists during their travels in the country.
Muslim customary law reform activists condemned the National People’s Power (NPP) Government’s stance that there is no immediate necessity to amend the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) and also that any such amendment would be done only upon prior consultation with the relevant religious leaders. The activists claimed that the NPP is well aware of the harmful effects of the Act.
The NPP’s coalition members are aware of the discrimination and harm under the MMDA,” human rights activist and attorney who was also a Member of the Advisory Committee Appointed to Propose Reforms on Muslim Personal Laws in Sri Lanka Chaired by attorney Shabry Haleemdeen, Ermiza Tegal told The Daily Morning yesterday (6).
As such, there can be no reason why a clear commitment cannot be made to necessary MMDA reforms with the purpose of ensuring safety, non-discrimination and which are beneficial to the Muslim community.”
These comments follow the weekly Cabinet media briefing held yesterday (6) where Cabinet Spokesperson and Public Security Minister Vijitha Herath addressed growing discussions concerning potential amendments to the MMDA, No. 13 of 1951. He acknowledged that a number of groups had raised concerns about the Act, highlighting the Government’s commitment to respecting these viewpoints.
Herath further explained the Government’s approach to amending religious laws, noting that any revisions to legislation governing religious practices would be conducted with the guidance of the relevant religious authorities.
If amendments are required for religious Acts, they will be made after discussions with the religious leaders of the respective institutions. Changes to any religious Act will only be implemented following the recommendations of leaders within that religious community,” Herath said.
Many parties have raised issues related to the MMDA, and we respect their right to express these concerns. The Government has not taken any decision to amend the MMDA and has not found a need to make such a decision yet,” he went on to say.
While it is appreciated that any legislative reform can only take place after the Parliament is elected, it is imperative that political parties are clear about their priorities and promises,” Tegal said in response to Herath, stating that the Government has found no need to take a decision with regard to the MMDA.
Several provisions in the MMDA have been criticised as being discriminatory to women such as the male guardian signing their marriage certificate instead of the woman, and the prohibition of women becoming Quazi Judges, amongst others.
Colombo, November 05 (Daily Mirror) – The Court of Appeal today upheld the four-year rigorous imprisonment sentence imposed by the Colombo High Court on former Deputy Minister Shantha Premaratne for soliciting and accepting a bribe in 2007.
While affirming the High Court’s conviction and sentence, the two-judge bench of the Court of Appeal, comprising Justices Sampath Abayakoon and P. Kumararatnam, observed that the prosecution had proven the charges in the indictment against the appellant beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Bribery Commission had filed an indictment against Shantha Premaratne for soliciting and accepting a gratification of Rs. 50,000 from an individual named G. Punchi Nona as a reward for securing a government job for her son, preferably in the Ceylon Electricity Board, between December 1, 2007, and December 26, 2007, in Ampara. The High Court sentenced the former Minister to four years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000.
The confusion surrounding the Arugam Bay incident underscores the complexities of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry and the geopolitics that have engulfed the island in recent years.
November 05, 2024
On Wednesday, October 23, barely a month after Sri Lanka elected a new president, the U.S. Embassy in Colombo issued a travel advisory warning U.S. citizens to avoid” Arugam Bay, a tourist hotspot located in the southeastern coast of the island. The advisory noted a credible” threat of an attack targeting popular tourist locations” and directed people to report any suspicious activity to the local emergency hotline.
The advisory sent shockwaves immediately. Within hours, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia issued similar warnings to their citizens in the country.
Sri Lanka Police Spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa, convening a press conference, said that security had been beefed up in the region and other tourist hotspots. The police clarified that two arrests had been made – with several others made over the next few weeks – and that the detained were being questioned. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) reassured tourists that all necessary steps were being taken.
While the warnings came as a shock to most Sri Lankans, many suspected the reason almost immediately. Officials confirmed that these terror threats had involved a confrontation with Israeli tourists that had been brewing for some time. The threats had centered on a building that had been turned into a Jewish community center.
Not long after the initial warnings, the Israeli National Security Council (NSC) called on citizens to leave Sri Lanka’s select coastal areas. Subsequent reports noted that Indian intelligence had supplied information to the government, though this was later denied by Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath.
For many Sri Lankans, the incident raked up painful memories of the 2019 Easter bombings. Hours after the advisory, social media was abuzz with speculation about a security lapse in the country, especially after the government dismissed Sri Lanka’s intelligence chief Suresh Sally, a close ally of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa had announced his presidential candidacy days after the bombings on April 21, 2019.
The then-administration had been given warnings about a possible terrorist threat in the months prior to the Easter attacks, but these had been ignored largely due to political developments in the country. Now, with another intel report on a terror attack, Sri Lankans were wondering why it took a foreign embassy advisory to get the Sri Lankan security forces to wake up – even though social media users had noted a noticeable beefing up of security forces at Arugam Bay a day before the advisory.
Complicating matters further, a newspaper reported that no firearms or explosives had been found on the three suspects.
In a press conference, Herath, who is also in charge of the country’s Public Security Ministry, noted that the government needed time to verify information on the terror threat, and added that precautionary measures had been swiftly taken in light of the ongoing situation in Gaza and the Middle East.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Julie Chung stated that a travel advisory did not mean a travel ban, adding that similar advisories are imposed on other popular destinations such as Italy and France, before praising Sri Lankan authorities for acting swiftly.
Tourism in Sri Lanka
In a way, the confusion surrounding the Arugam Bay incident underscores the complexities of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry and the geopolitics that have engulfed the island in recent years. While it is easy to fault the government for not acting promptly, there is a lack of clarity on whether the U.S. advisory was issued arbitrarily, without prior consultation with Sri Lankan authorities – especially since the U.S. embassy, as Chung reiterated, acts on a Duty to Warn” principle regarding potential attacks.
That local authorities were taken by surprise has raised more questions than answers. According to one report, officials had already been aware of the threat. Moreover, the reporting on the targets of these attacks – Israeli tourists – overlooks how tourism has affected local communities and how successive governments have turned a blind eye to such developments.
Along with foreign remittances and commodity exports, tourism is a big foreign exchange earner in Sri Lanka. Prior to 2019, the sector earned more than $3 billion annually. The Easter attacks placed it on a downward trajectory, while the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis only worsened matters.
Since 2022, the government’s aim has been to restore tourism to what it was before 2019. Its response to the advisory revealed how crucial the sector has become for the country’s recovery efforts. Moreover, Sri Lanka is approaching its peak holiday season. Last December, for instance, 65 percent of all visits to the island were for vacation and leisure purposes.
On the face of it, the latest incident reveals how tourism has gotten entangled in geopolitics in the country. Sri Lanka has a significant Muslim population, at almost 10 percent. For the most part, they have been vocal about Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and Palestine, an issue that has, over the years, gained bipartisan support in the island: Both the governing party, the National People’s Power (NPP) alliance, and the main opposition party, the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), have expressed support for Palestine. This has been in addition to other communities, including local Christians, displaying solidarity with Gaza.
Unsurprisingly, the activities of tourists in areas like Arugam Bay have led to confrontations with locals, some of whom accuse them of occupying” their areas. Complicating matters further, many have overstayed their visas, contravening local laws.
A Complex Relationship
In a way, this dovetails into the complex history of the country’s relations with Israel. While certain accounts hold that Jewish engagements on the island date back to Biblical times, scholars agree that by the turn of the 20th century, there was only a sparse Jewish presence in Sri Lanka. After gaining independence in 1948, Sri Lanka became one of few postcolonial societies to recognize Israel as an independent state
According to Punsara Amarasinghe, a security and foreign policy scholar, it was at this point that Israel’s military ties with Sri Lanka began, when the government purchased a gunship from Israel and obtained Israeli technical assistance in the digging of tube wells in the island’s north.
As Sri Lanka entered and became a leading face of the Non-Aligned Movement, however, these engagements broke off. In 1956, then-Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike stated that while Sri Lanka essentially respected Israel’s claims to statehood, this should not be at the expense of the rights and security concerns of its Arab neighbors. Nevertheless, he said that the island’s ties with Israel would remain.
His widow, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, cut those ties in the 1970s, on the grounds that the Israeli government had refused to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as the authentic representative of the Palestinian people.” By now, as a key member of the Non-Aligned Movement, Sri Lanka had solidified relations with the Arab world.
In the 1980s, a new government, led by the pro-Western United National Party (UNP) under the hawkish and right-wing President J. R. Jayewardene, restored relations with Israel by allowing the U.S. Embassy to set up an Israeli Special Interests Section. After disclosures were made about Mossad’s links with the island’s military, however, Jayewardene’s successor, Ranasinghe Premadasa, shut the door on the agency.
According to Jayewardene’s biographers K. M. de Silva and Howard Wriggins, Jayewardene disapproved of Premadasa’s decision, largely since Israel had assisted in the country’s military buildup against separatist Tamil movements in the 1980s. Nevertheless, when a prominent U.S. congressman, Stephen Solarz, threatened Premadasa that there would be consequences for his actions, Premadasa stood his ground and icily replied that Sri Lanka was not unaware that actions had consequences.
After Premadasa’s assassination in 1993, the country began yet again normalizing relations with Israel. Under President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Israel set up an Embassy in Colombo. In 2000, Sri Lanka opened an Embassy in Tel Aviv. As of today, bilateral engagements have centered on areas like immigrant labor and technical support in agriculture. Clearly, these have taken on a new dimension in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and Israel’s subsequent razing of Gaza and Lebanon.
A Geopolitical Confrontation
At one level, the Gotabaya Rajapaksa (2019-2022) and Ranil Wickremesinghe (2022-2024) administrations pushed Sri Lanka into the center of these tensions. In February 2020, for instance, the two countries signed an agreement in Jerusalem on the employment of Sri Lankan workers. The deal streamlined the selection and recruitment of Sri Lankan caregivers in Israel. In 2023, the Ministry of Labor expedited the expatriation of 10,000 Sri Lankan workers to Israel to fill construction sector jobs previously held by Palestinians.
The latter move came under criticism, but was defended by the government as necessary. Sri Lankan workers continue to migrate to Israel. This may be one reason why the government, regardless of the party in power, has avoided explicitly condemning the country.
Then, earlier in 2024, Wickremesinghe announced that a Sri Lankan vessel would be dispatched to the Red Sea to help U.S. naval forces ensure freedom of navigation” from Houthi rebels. The decision was questioned by those who felt it would endanger Sri Lanka and strain the country’s already meager finances.
It would be tempting to draw a line from these developments to the incident in Arugam Bay. Yet it must also be acknowledged that the previous government did not go all the way to appease Israel or appear as an ally. The Wickremesinghe administration did make gestures on behalf of Palestine, including donating funds to orphans in Gaza and voting in support of the country at U.N. resolutions.
By contrast, the present administration, led by a party that mobilized widespread disaffection against Wickremesinghe, delayed issuing a response to the Israeli government’s declaration of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as persona non grata,” even though it has elsewhere expressed support for Palestine.
Tourist Traps
Several analyses, including by Western media outlets, have turned the Arugam Bay incident into another example of the Middle East crisis expanding into other regions. While this in itself is obviously true, it tends to overlook the complexities of Sri Lanka’s situation, including its reliance on tourism and the many contradictions this has propped up.
The economic crisis of 2022 has made the country more vulnerable, and in light of a debt restructuring deal, it sees tourism, and foreign remittances, as pathways to recovery. However, while the previous administration pursued these avenues at full speed, little to no attention seems to have been paid to the tensions they have generated in Sri Lankan society.
It is undeniable that geopolitics has impacted the country’s tourist trade. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, for instance, the country witnessed a series of incidents involving Russians and Ukrainians, both of whom hold a significant presence in the tourism sector. Last year the country made headlines when complaints were made about a whites-only” party, organized by a group of Russian tourists in a coastal area in the Southern Province. The situation got so serious that the Russian Embassy had to issue a statement condemning all forms of racial discrimination and nationalism.”
Similar stories have been reported of other nationalities clashing with locals. Tourists in turn often complain of being hoodwinked, if not robbed, by locals disguised as guides. Complicating matters further, reports have emerged of foreign nationals passing off as unofficial tour operators in Sri Lanka.
Side effects are felt in other ways as well. For instance, in the days following the advisory, Sri Lankans on social media dug up reports on an Israeli film that had been shot in the region. Literally titled Arugam Bay,” the plot focuses on three Israeli surfers and former Israeli Defense Force members who travel to the island after losing a friend during a mission in Beirut. The film, which features a popular Sri Lankan actor as well, came under much censure, with some wondering why the government had granted the cast and crew permission when Israel has been accused of causing a humanitarian crisis in the region.
The Arugam Bay incident itself had been brewing for over a year. Sri Lankans had, for a long time, been taking to social media to comment on Israeli tourists intruding on local communities. While Israelis themselves have written about Sri Lanka in glowing terms, some of the tourists appear to have touched more than a nerve. Following the advisory, several Sri Lankans critical of Israel’s activities in Gaza questioned why authorities had allowed a Jewish cultural center to be set up in a discernibly Muslim-populated site. While the present government has taken steps to ramp up security, it is clear that the previous administration had turned a blind eye to these developments.
The incident also underscored the disproportionate impact of foreign travel advisories on countries in the Global South, in particular those reliant on tourism. Hours after the U.S. Embassy advisory, a senior official connected to the country’s tourism industry released a statement on social media criticizing Western countries for ignoring the effects of negative advisories on developing economies. The statement observed that with the sector reaching peak season in December, such warnings can discourage travelers. It added that while powerful countries can afford advisories on their territories, Sri Lanka is at a point where the slightest hint of bad news can cripple its recovery.
This raises another issue: Given that tourism is affected by external shocks, is it a viable economic pillar for vulnerable countries like Sri Lanka? Shiran Illanperuma, a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, argued that it is not.
We have peak and off-peak seasons. What happens is that we have huge amounts of land, labor, and capital utilized in peak season but underutilized in the rest of the year,” Illanperuma wrote. For countries like ours, those resources would be better used in sectors like manufacturing.”
He added that tourism constitutes 25 percent of the country’s exports, an unhealthy figure,” and observed that even popular destinations like Thailand are not as dependent on tourism as we” are.
On the other hand, Rathindra Kuruwita, an international relations analyst, said the advisory has less to do with tourism or security threats than with the government in power. The NPP has never been a governing party before. Foreign embassies and governments are now getting used to interacting with them,” he pointed out.
In that sense, I see the advisory as a thinly veiled threat, the message being that powerful countries can cripple us at any time, and that we must expect to stick to their narratives, scripts, and agenda.”
Whatever the causes of and solutions for these issues may be, it is clear that the Arugam Bay incident shows how fragile countries like Sri Lanka are in the face of external shocks vis-à-vis sectors like tourism – regardless of the party in power. With the Middle East and Eurasia embroiled in conflict, even the NPP seems eager to maintain security and stability.
Barely a week after the travel advisory, the Sri Lanka Police announced it would prioritize protecting foreign nationals over cracking down on overstays. Yet firm action from the Sri Lankan government is needed if it is to prevent future problems – a point relevant not just to Israelis but to other nationalities arriving and staying in the country.
Several samples of a free, ready-to-eat, cereal- and legume-based food meant to “eradicate malnutrition” in Sri Lanka have been recalled. The Health Sciences Institute in Kalutara detected the mycotoxins above permitted levels last August. The lack of suitable storage is among the main causes.
Colombo (AsiaNews) – Aflatoxins exceeding permitted levels were detected by the Health Sciences Institute in Kalutara, Western Province, in some samples of Thriposha, a highly nutritious food provided for free in Sri Lanka.
The cancer-causing mycotoxins, which are produced by fungi, can cause liver cancer, and develop before and after harvest, especially in cereals like corn.
Thriposha is a triple nutrient that provides energy, protein and micronutrients. The pre-cooked “ready-to-eat” cereal- and legume-based supplement is provided to children and pregnant women from low-income groups.
The Public Health Inspectors (PHI) union raised the alarm after samples of Thriposha contaminated with aflatoxins were tested on 20 August, with a report on August 24.
The union informed the relevant authorities on 27 August, and the distribution was halted on 6 September. The recall concerns four districts – Colombo, Gampaha, Puttalam and Kegalle – with “near-expiry-date” Thriposha.
About 245 master bags” out of 451 were recalled in Colombo, 202 out of 239 were rejected in Kegalle, and 99 out of 250 were collected in Puttalam, while a stock of 150 packs was not distributed.
According to the Family Health Bureau (FHB), Thriposha is helpful to cater to nutritional deficiencies that cannot be fulfilled by the main diet.” For this reason, pregnant females or infants with nutritional deficiencies are provided two 750g packets of Thriposha each per month free of charge through the national nutritional programme.”
Consuming three table spoons of Thriposha daily, in addition to the three main meals is adequate as a combination of energy, protein and micronutrients as a ready-to-eat cereal-based food provided to foster a healthier nation and to eradicate malnutrition.”
As Deepthi Kularathna, chairman of Thriposha Limited, noted at a press briefing in Colombo, last week, There was a small amount with a high level of aflatoxin in some Thriposha packets.’’
The main causes of their presence were the lack in polythene packaging for some products, lack of suitable storage at distribution sites such as the Medical Officer of Health offices, and the lack of modern silos at the factory, as well as some other, small flaws in the “system”.
According to sources in the Auditor General Department, operating inefficiencies at the factory, lower production, including, the procurement plan and procurement time schedule had not been prepared properly.’’
Currently, 1.6 million packets are produced every month amid corn sourcing (importing and domestic supply) constraints.
It is necessary to alert people considering that the fungus puts the lives of mothers, the unborn, and children under five years old at grave risk,” said nutritionists Kanishka Bandara and Achala Samarasekara speaking to AsiaNews.
For pregnant females and mothers, the aflatoxin contamination level should not exceed 30 parts per billion. A small black dot in the grain of corn causes aflatoxins.
According to literature from the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), aflatoxins are mycotoxins produced by two species of Aspergillus, a fungus, known to be genotoxic and carcinogenic.
For corn, to be subjected to sorting or other physical treatment, before human consumption or use as an ingredient in foodstuffs, the European Commission has set a maximum level of 10 µg/kg for the sum of B1, B2, G1 and G2 aflatoxins,” Kanishka and Achala said.
Aflatoxin B1 is absorbed in the small intestine and distributed to the liver. B1, G1 and M1 are cancer-causing when delivered orally through the diet. Aflatoxins can be present in foods such as groundnuts, corn, rice, figs and cocoa beans due to fungal infection before and after harvest.”
Asian Buddhist Summit 2024 delves into spread of Dhamma and the lasting importance of Pali
Read more At:
https://www.aninews.in/news/world/asia/asian-buddhist-summit-2024-delves-into-spread-of-dhamma-and-the-lasting-importance-of-pali20241106144321/
Colombo, November 6 (Daily Mirror) – Two individuals were arrested by the Wildlife Conservation Department’s Emergency Raid Unit while attempting to sell ten rare Rath-Dothalu flowers in the Moragahayata area of Ratnapura. According to wildlife officials, these flowers are often used as offerings to the Buddha.
The suspects, who were apprehended on November 4 for damaging Rath-Dothalu trees, were presented before the Ratnapura Magistrate’s Court and have been remanded until November 11. Further investigations are underway by the Ratnapura Police.
The Rath-Dothalu plant, scientifically named Loxococcus rupicola, is a species of palm and the only species in the genus Loxococcus. Endemic to Sri Lanka, it is protected under the Wildlife and Flora Protection Ordinance and faces threats due to habitat loss.
In recognition of its endangered status, a postage stamp featuring Rath-Dothalu flowers was issued on World Wildlife Day 2020 as part of a series highlighting threatened plants and animals, jointly released by the Wildlife Conservation Department and the Philatelic Bureau.
Wildlife officials are urging the public to protect this rare plant, which is under severe threat. The Wildlife Department requests that anyone with information on damage to the Rath-Dothalu plant call the wildlife emergency hotline at 1992.
The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Andrew Patrick has expressed eagerness to further strengthen the strong bilateral ties between Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom.
During a meeting with Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake today (6), the British High Commissioner has proposed that steps be taken to educate Sri Lankan parliamentarians about the British parliamentary system to further enhance governance in Sri Lanka, while emphasizing the significance of the British local government system, noting its potential to reduce fraud and corruption.
Mr. Patrick has also highlighted the British Government’s appreciation for Sri Lanka’s ongoing partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and expressed readiness to support the government’s efforts to combat fraud and corruption while boosting state revenue.
On the 23rd of October, the United States embassy in Sri Lanka issued a travel advisory warning of a potential attack targeting tourist sites in Arugam Bay, a popular surfing destination in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. The embassies of the United Kingdom and Russia soon followed suit. Given the mysterious circumstances of the 2018 Easter Attacks that occurred following a warning by Indian intelligence services, this has understandably stirred much anxiety and speculation among Sri Lankans.
What the recent travel advisories did not mention is the operation of illegal businesses by Israeli tourists in the Arugam Bay area, and the opening of Jewish places of worship in close proximity to local Muslim mosques. To make matters worse, it is reported that many of these tourists are possibly IDF soldiers engaging in the proliferation of Zionist propaganda.
While there is much to be said about these developments, there is also an opportunity here to discuss the more general shortcomings of tourism as an economic sector and Sri Lanka’s toxic dependence on it.
Integrated development
In a 1975 essay on class contradiction in Tanzania, the Guyanese historian and political activist Walter Rodney wrote about how university students in the newly independent United Republic of Tanzania debated the place of tourism in economic development. Rodney summarised the views of the opposing camp thus:
They were saying that our workers and our peasants are not concerned with those who want to come and watch the lions and gazelle and to watch the Masai and so on, and call themselves tourists: that this will not do anything for the mass of our population. On the contrary it will inhibit a development of serious economic options which could lead to real integrated development.”
Rodney’s use of the words integrated development” is key. Tourism is at best a stop-gap measure in conditions of serious economic and technical backwardness to raise foreign currency. The barriers to entry in tourism, in terms of skills and technology, are fairly low. While tourism can raise revenue, it historically has been incapable of re-investing resources into more dynamic economic activities.
Like agriculture, tourism is subject to diminishing returns. It is a classic rentier activity dependent on natural endowments like land and its proximity to ‘attractions’. The scope for value-addition in tourism is also fairly low. Tourism lacks the economies of scale, division of labour, and capital deepening that are characteristic of manufacturing and large-scale industry. At best, it may help augment the home market for domestically produced goods. However, this in turn requires activist policies to improve local content.
The lobbies and interest groups surrounding the tourism sector have congealed to such an extent that it seems impossible to have a productive conversation on the place of tourism in a national development strategy. A whole public-private institutional nexus exists to support the tourism sector. Every political party, left or right, must pay heed to the sector.
There is a case to be made that Sri Lanka’s overreliance on tourism diverts productive resources such as land, labour, and even state capacity (if we wish to view it as a precious resource) away from productive economic activities that could have a more long-term impact on developing the country. Revenues from tourism, rather than being invested in new industries, tend to perpetuate a speculative cycle of underdevelopment.
The missed wake-up call
The pandemic should have been a wake-up to Sri Lankan policymakers that non-tradable services such as tourism, are no foundation on which to build a modern economy. It is instructive that the economies of our regional competitors in tourism, such as Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand, did not collapse the same way Sri Lanka did during the pandemic. This is because they are rising manufacturing powers first and tourist attractions a distant second or third.
One measure of dependence on tourism is the share of international tourism receipts in exports. In 2019, on the eve of the pandemic, tourism receipts accounted for nearly a quarter of Sri Lanka’s exports (24%). By contrast, the figure was 20% for Thailand, 9.3% for Malaysia, and only 4.2% for Vietnam. While the Sri Lankan economy imploded during the pandemic, Vietnam boomed, as its dynamic industrial sector was able to adapt to shifts in global demand for manufactured goods. Vietnam was also agriculturally self-sufficient enough to feed its own population.
Aside from the economic case to be made against tourism as a core component of development strategy, there are also social and cultural arguments that warrant consideration. Is tourism a dignified way to rebuild a country after the ravages of 500 years of colonialism? Should we not have the clear-eyed and sober goal of developing our productive and technological capabilities so that our people can partake in world trade as equals, and not just beggars and debtors?
I am reminded of a quote by the freedom fighter Philip Gunawardena, who said that the need to industrialise was not simply to attain power but to get rid of poverty, improve living standards, and to give our people, when they are free from the pursuit of inadequate food and shameful housing, the leisure and serenity to enjoy our beautiful country; to develop their culture in their own way.”
Our collective dependence on tourism amounts to a perverse inversion of this dream. Foreigners enjoy our beautiful country, and our culture debases itself in order to entertain them. Yet the majority of our people remain in poverty and in search of food, housing, and, most shamefully, better countries in which to raise their children.
(Shiran Illanperuma is a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He holds an MSc in Economic Policy from SOAS University of London. He can be reached at shiran.illanperuma@gmail.com)
Figure 1: International tourism receipts as a percentage of total exports of goods and services (Source: World Bank)
This is one of my early papers published four years ago. It is hoped that the new Government may find interesting ideas to follow to enable Sri Lanka’s economy to develop.
Posted on September 14th, 2020. Republished in November 2024 to waken our new giants
The other day, locked down in Sri Lanka because of the Corona, I ran out of the Starbucks Coffee I had brought with me. Being a coffee connoisseur, the tastes of Island, Hariischandra and Wijeya Coffee did not satisfy me. I have yet to find Soul Coffee. They are all the same- the same taste as half a century ago. They were all pure coffee, not blended to different tastes. I went to Coffe Bean, the leading coffee maker in Colombo that has a countless number of coffee outlets in Colombo . Most of those joints only sold the coffee as a drink and ultimately they directed me to go to their headquarter store on Ward Place . At Ward Place they offered me a pack of coffee beans imported from the USA- at Rs 2400. That was a pack of 8 ozs. That size of packet is sold at around five pounds at Starbucks in London and Island Coffee sells this quantity for around five hundred rupees
They ground the coffee and it tasted good.. I made inquiries.. The coffee beans, all roasted to taste, had been imported from the USA- California, Camarillo CA 93012. California does not produce coffee. So the coffee comes from a non producing country to us, a coffee producer! Coffee beans come mainly from African countries. the pack is sold in Califorrnia for around seven dollars come to us and gets sold to us at Rs 2400 the equal of some ten pounds.
Sri Lanka instead of growing coffee has been importing from China, Malaysia, Thailand all countries visited by me where I have been struck with how they organize their agriculture. We also import from Mid East countries that do not grow coffee.
That is where our foreign exchange has been going since 1977. Once we did produce the best coffee in the world. On my irrigation inspections in Kitulgala long ago I have seen coffee bushes full of coffee beans, bright red in colour. I have not seen that much of luscious growth anywhere else. I have also seen similar coffee in coffee bushes at Kotmale when I worked in Nuwara Eliya. But now Kotmale has been axed by the Kotmale Dam- all to produce some 200 MW of power- some power that we could have easily produced from some 70 wind turbines scattered in Kotmale itself and the luscious productive land in Kotmale and the charming people would have been saved. But that is another story. See my Paper: Sitawaka Hydro Project: in Lanka Web11/8/19. to understand the nuances in our development order where we sacrifice what development and production we have and more we justify doing it. I am sad that Sri Lanka had no leaders who could avoid getting bluffed by interested influentials and I hope that our new President will tackle problems efficiently. That brain that tackled the LTTE will I am dead cert will stand up to that task.
Kitulgala is our coffee belt. We do need to ban the import of coffee which our President has done, I think. Simultaneously we have to encourage the picking of coffee pods from the existing coffee bushes, immediately get going with encouraging the coffee growers to put some manure and cow dung, and wear a mask and additional clothes when plucking because coffee bushes are also full of mosquitoes . There has to be a village organization to activize the coffee growers and also the Government must offer a guaranteed price to buy coffee-like what we did in the Marketing Department in the Fifties when we offered guaranteed prices for many items that we imported- that was in the Fifties and when production increased we ended that scheme. But now we have no organization to buy the produce. Both the Marketing Department and the worthwhile sections of the Agrarian Services have been axed at the dictate of the International Monetary Fund that the Government should not attend to any commerce.
We do talk big about having guaranteed prices but the IMF axed the organization that we had built to implement that scheme. Motoring around Sri Lanka today I often spot the Agrarian Services stores- now overgrown with shrubs, neglected. Then they were places vibrant with life, where the multipurpose cooperatives that purchased produce from producers and handed over. It is easy to talk of guaranteed prices but we should know that we do not now have the officialdom to purchase the produce. Take paddy we talk big about what we collect every season, but we forget that the benefit of the premium price has fattened the trader. The paddy producers have no cooperative stores to hand it over and sell to the traders for a song who hands it over to the government stores and benefit from the premium price. And our economic sleuths in our Ministries fail to grasp that the producer is left in the lurch while the traders benefit. The main aim of a guaranteed premium price is to help the producer gain a premium price so that he will be encouraged to grow more.
Once in the Fifties working in the Agrarian Services in charge of the Anuradhapura District I had ten smart and able, very vibrant divisional officers, who could even sell ice to the Eskimoes. Under them I had some fifty trained overseers and they manned two hundred and ninety eight cultivation committees- where farmers would meet very often and get coaxed by me and my team to use fertilizer, improved seed and that was how the Green Revolution brought Sri Lanka to the brink of self sufficiency in paddy- all while implementing a scheme to offer rice at reduced rates to the needy- a target that had never been achieved in any country. Then I had the organization,. In fact then I remember we did import maize and I offered to produce all the maize that was imported in one season. One word from me and my giants- they were real giants and I was proud of them, would have mobilized the people through the vibrant cultivation committees.. The Government did not approve my suggestion and we worked only on paddy. Now we talk. The Government has to bring back the Marketing Department and the sections of the Agrarian Services that were axed. There is no other way.
Let us use our expertise to see what can be done for coffee. To start with sad to say the Department of Agriculture is dead at the village level today. They have no organization at the village level and no men. This happened some twenty eight years ago in 1992 when President Premadasa in one of his unguarded moments promoted all Agricultural Overseers, some 2400 of them to the rank of Grama Niladhari. The specialists in agriculture the trained overseers all became white collar workers as Grama Niladharis, pushing pens on paper instead of working in the villages.
Sad to say till today there is no field level overseer trained in agriculture. Today the closest trained agricultural officer works at the divisional level. This officer has a few thousands of farmers to cater to = the needs of some 3500 farmers in Ranorawa and as much as 13,000 farmers in Yodakandiya, (From patriot Ranith Mulleriyawa : The Island 04/06/2013) In short today our specialist agriculture department has no base and as far as organizing be it coffee or any other crop our officers can plan on paper and send it to the divisional level. After that there can be no action whatsoever other than the Agricultural Instructor at the divisional level meeting a few farmers and writing something back to the District Agricultural Officer. Then the statistics get transformed to documents on glazed paper and ably documented. The Department of Agriculture, figuratively is a monster with provincial ministers, secretaries and directors with no legs, producing only reams of reports without a base!
So ends anything in agriculture, be it coffee, potatoes, maize or any other crop.
What we need immediately for Coffee is a guaranteed price and an organization to help the producer to produce more. There has also to be subsidies offered to get people to plant more coffee bushes. Further it is necessary that some government organization gets cracking to the task of finding how coffee can be blended to taste. Therein comes what I directed in Matara as the Government Agent in 1971. Our President has got the State Ministers on the move. It is necessary to get the mass of Government Agents and their vast staffs amounting to thousands cracking. Perhaps what I did at Matara may offer ideas.
I wanted to find the art of making a crayon to establish an industry. We requisitioned the science lab at Rahula Collage every evening from six to midnight and we- my Planning Officer, a chemistry graduate and katcheri officers were hard at work helped by the science teachers of Rahula to find the art of making crayons. It took a myriad of experimental trials and we did find the art of making crayons in three months. Then we dragged in the cooperatives to establish Coop Crayon, which was a great success. Sumanapala Dhanayake the Member of Parliament for Deniyaya happened to be the President of the Coop Union at Morawaka and I can in nostalgia recall getting down to make crayons. It was done in double quick time-in three weeks working on a 24 hour basis- on most days I too broke rest. It was hailed as great success by the Minister of Industries Mr Subasingfhe and crayons were sold islandwide. That is what we immediately require for coffee- someone to experiment. Recently I stayed a few nights in a leading star resort in Anuradhapura and got to know the chief chef. I had a chat with him trying to entice him to blend coffee with a flash of vanilla and the likes to get different tastes. I can do no more- only talk. The Government has to take the lead to find the blends and get cracking in production so that we can chase away Nescafe from our shores and save our valuable foreign exchange and also creating employment for our own people..
In the days of Sirimavo we did have that organization – the Divisional Development Councils, the brain of Dr NM at work. Dr NM is no more. . Our President is kindly requested to get cracking with a programme like the DDCP, a better one which will get down to work in producing what we need and thereby save foreign exchange as well as finding employment for our people. Stopping imports is the first step. This has to be supplemented with a production base which we do not have. My own work the Youth Self Employment Programme does flash in my mind. Then I was marching with the Youth Officers in the villages and marshes of Bangladesh, guiding vocationally trained youths to establish ventures and they did succeed. Today the Ministry of Youth Development has reformed to a role of guiding youth to establish enterprises and mind you by now three million of them are at work- the largest employment creation programme the world has known. . My Paper Youth Employment: A Prime Necessity” in Lanka Web: 11/10/2019 tells it all. . (www..lankaweb.com/news/items/2019/10/11/youth-employment-a-prime-necessity)
We need new thinking for Sri Lanka to emerge under our new President.
I hope this paper will somehow reach the eyes of our new leaders.
Garvin Karunaratne, , Ph.D in Non Formal Education and Agricultural Economics (Michigan State University) garvin_karunaratne@ hotmail.com
Former Senior Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services and G.A. Matara
13/09/2020
One Response to A Story from Coffee. Ideas for our economic revival.”
Nimal Says:4 decades ago one of my American friends told me that they enhance the taste of packed coffee with peanut powder developed by an ethnic scientist named George Washington Cavo.(sounds like that)
1. Procedural Irregularities in Awarding the Project
The best argument we have to counter the arbitrary award of this project to Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL), is to ask the question, whether AGEL would have been awarded such a project and at a PPA price of $0.0826 in India under Indian regulations and to insist in consideration of the justification of the project from the perspective of Indian regulations.
Under the usual standards applied by India’s own energy regulatory bodies, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), projects of this scale would require strict procedural compliance and competitive bidding by tender. This is especially true for projects expected to secure government land or investment or impact national energy infrastructure. In this case, however, Adani was granted the Mannar wind energy project on government owned land without adhering to such a transparent process.
2. Excessive PPA Price Setting a Risky Precedent
A core concern with the Adani Mannar project is the high PPA rate of $0.0826 per kWh, which significantly exceeds standard wind project tariffs.
In renewable energy projects, the PPA price is bench marked to the Levellised cost of energy” LCOE. In the determination, of the LCOE wind energy availability is a significant factor along with the capacity utilization factor CUP. Wind energy is determined by the following formula:
Wind power = ½ x wind density x (wind speed)3. Upon applying this formula wind energy is availability for Gujarat is found to be 43,905 units which is significantly lower than that in Mannar which is 149,776 units. Yet as the following table will show when in wind poor Gujarat AGEL gets PPA rates of the range $0.029 -0.034, AGEL has been awarded a PPA rate of $ 0.0826. One of the ways this price has been manipulated is by getting the Public Utilities Commission to carry out a fake study to get a capacity utilization factor CUP much lower than the actual, by misaligning the anemometers. This fraud has been pointed out in CEB reports on this project.
To illustrate:
| Region | Wind Density (W/m²) | Wind Speed (m/s) | Typical PPA Rate (USD/kWh) |
| Gujarat (India) | 283 | 6.77 | $0.029 – $0.034 |
| Mannar (Sri Lanka) | 522 | 8.31 | $0.0826 (Adani) |
From the above table for an altitude of 100m, it will be evident that the wind energy conditions in Mannar are highly favorable, with energy availability estimated to be 3.4 times higher than that of wind conditions in Gujarat, yet the project’s PPA rate does not reflect this advantage.
In India the PPA rates given to wind power projects vary between $0.029 -0.034. Whereas Adani has been awarded a PPA rate of $0.0826, and the projected annual income at this rate is $ 211,500,000 ($ 211.5 million per year). If we assume the same rates as in India would apply for the Mannar project, the following table shows the pricing and the potential excess costs from a PPA set at $0.0826 awarded to Adani for the Mannar project compared to typical rates.
| Proposed LCOE (USD/kWh) | Projected Annual Income at 250 MW (USD) | Excess Annual Payment at $0.0826 PPA (USD) |
| $0.029 | 76,650,000 | 134,850,000 |
| $0.034 | 89,910,000 | 121,590,000 |
The excess payment (if we consider PPA rate of $ 0.034 to be fair for Mannar) is $ 121.59 million. This excess payment (even after considering the higher PPA rate of $0.034, over a 25-year project lifetime will be $ 3.039 billion!!
Such a pillage would be detrimental to Sri Lanka’s economy, in many ways – not only the by the drain of our money by itself. The more damaging aspect of such a PPA rate would to discourage foreign investors, as higher energy prices lead to uncompetitive manufacturing costs and make it difficult for new industries to thrive.
3. Comparison with Global Standards and LCOE Trends
The Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) is a key benchmark for pricing PPAs globally. LCOE for wind projects worldwide has declined steadily over the years, a trend documented by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Below are global LCOE averages for onshore wind energy in recent years:
| Year | LCOE Global Average for Onshore Wind (USD/kWh) |
| 2018 | $0.046 |
| 2020 | $0.039 |
| 2023 | $0.034 |
If the LCOE of $0.046 was valid for Mannar’s smaller CEB-funded project in 2018, it is reasonable to expect that current rates would be lower due to increased efficiency and economies of scale. Adani’s 250 MW project is over 240% larger than the CEB’s 103.5 MW project, which should lead to an even lower LCOE, than $0.034. The fact that Adani’s PPA is priced at $0.0826 raises questions, especially since no recent Indian project awarded to Adani has exceeded $0.034 per kWh.
4. Environmental Concerns and Site Alternatives
Beyond the financial issues, the Mannar project site is problematic due to environmental concerns. The area is a crucial habitat for migratory birds, making it sensitive to large-scale developments. Bird migration routes could be severely affected, harming local biodiversity and eco-tourism, an important aspect of Mannar’s economy.
Alternative sites such as those in Anuradhapura have been identified as wind-rich areas with fewer environmental constraints. This region, which also shows promise according to Danish Technical University’s Global Wind Atlas studies, could serve as a suitable alternative if the Mannar project is reconsidered.
5. The Larger Implication for Sri Lanka’s Economic Development
The future economic growth of Sri Lanka hinges on affordable, abundant energy. A central factor in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) is the availability of low-cost electricity to support industries and boost economic growth. For example, Vietnam, with its low electricity prices, attracted $36 billion in FDI in 2023 alone. It is clear that competitive electricity rates are essential to industrialize and create jobs. An artificially high PPA, such as Adani’s, would definitely hinder Sri Lanka from realizing its economic potential.
To further illustrate, let’s look at electricity prices for industries in the region:
| Country | Average Industrial Electricity Price (USD/kWh) |
| India | $0.084 |
| Vietnam | $0.074 |
| Bangladesh | $0.096 |
| Sri Lanka | $0.144 |
If Adani’s high PPA becomes a standard, Sri Lanka’s industrial electricity rates could soar, undermining competitiveness against neighboring countries and discouraging investment in local industry. If Sri Lanka continues with such high-priced agreements, it will lose a critical edge in attracting FDIs needed for economic growth.
Conclusion
The Mannar wind energy project granted to Adani must be reconsidered in light of its procedural irregularities, inflated PPA rate, environmental impact, and potential to stifle Sri Lanka’s economic prospects. By re-evaluating this project and adopting a fair, transparent approach to awarding energy projects, Sri Lanka can position itself as a competitive, investment-friendly nation. A fair and economically viable approach to energy pricing is essential if Sri Lanka is to realize its vision of industrial growth and long-term prosperity.
DRS is a gift from Sri Lanka to the world of cricket. Its impact is bigger than Sri Lanka winning the world cup in 1996. Why ?
Because this innovation of Sri Lankan lawyer Senaka Weeraratna has completely transformed the game. It is the biggest change in the Rules of the Game since its birth. Today Cricket is more transparent, accurate and fair. Thanks to DRS.
The colossal mistake that Umpire Steve Bucknor made in the Sydney Test 2008 when he gave out Master Batsman Sachin Tendulkar wrongly and changed the course of the direction of the game and its final outcome, is no longer possible. The days of the ‘ Hora’ Umpire ( ‘Hora’ in the Sinhala language means Cheat) are gone.
We must cherish these changes for the betterment of the game of Cricket. DRS has also influenced other major sports including Soccer, which now uses Goal
line technology to determine the accuracy of a Referee’s decision by use of Video Replay technology as in Cricket.
DRS is a huge achievement for Sri Lanka in the field of Cricket. Any other cricket playing country would go to town with it. Broadcast it and highlight it like England did when it honoured the inventor of the World Wide Web (WWW) Sir Tim Berners-Lee at the London Olympics held in 2012.
But not Sri Lanka unfortunately. Always falling short of maintaining ethical standards and allowing Jealousy to heavily influence decision making, Sri Lanka’s Govt. in the past had let down the cricket loving public who have always wanted a clean, transparent, and accountable body to govern Cricket.
Neither the Govt of Sri Lanka nor Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has so far shown any interest in gaining recognition from the ICC for Sri Lanka for the invention of DRS.
SLC has singularly failed to lobby the rest of the cricket world particularly South Asian countries to support Sri Lanka’s claim for recognition of inventing DRS.
Sri Lanka has much to gain in terms of revenue. The intellectual property of DRS belongs to a Sri Lankan not the ICC.
The ICC is unable to disclose a single name as coming from its stables as the author of DRS.
But it is using DRS without the consent and licence of the Sri Lankan owner Senaka Weeraratna, who has both the economic and moral copyright to DRS.
Neither the ICC nor SLC has paid one red cent to the author of DRS for unauthorized use of this facility.
Millions can be gained from the ICC as revenue for Sri Lanka for use of DRS.
Despite Sri Lanka being a visibly Bankrupt nation always begging other countries for help, yet nobody from Sri Lanka is pushing the ICC to pay Royalties for use of the DRS. ICC had admitted that it has no copyright over DRS.
Both the SLC and the Govt. of Sri Lanka are guilty of betrayal of the country vis a vis the ICC.
We are as a country always short of money. But when money is available on a platter (if we demand from the ICC) on ground of ownership of DRS, we tend to back down or retreat. What cowardice.
In such a context of abandonment of the nation for purely petty reasons, jealousy and spite, one can only hope that the popularly elected new President of Sri Lanka Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his fresh team would render Justice and support their own countryman to gain recognition for inventing DRS and obtain due compensation from the ICC for illegal use of DRS by the ICC and the SLC without consent of the true owner.
තම සැමියා වූ විජය කුමාරතුංග මහතා දේශපාලන හේතූන් නිසා ඝාතනය කරන ලද ආකාරයෙන්ම තමන්වද ඝාතනය කිරීමේ කුමන්ත්රණයක් ඇත්දැයි සැකයක් පහළ වී ඇතැයි හිටපු ජනාධිපතිනි චන්ද්රිකා කුමාරතුංග මහත්මිය සදහන් කරයි.
ඇය මේ බව සඳහන් කරන්නේ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරුන්ගේ ආරක්ෂක නිලධාරීන් අඩු කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් මහජන ආරක්ෂක අමාත්යංශ ලේකම්වරයාට ලිපියක් යොමු කරමිනි.
විශ්රාමික ජනාධිපතිවරුන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඇතිව තිබෙන සාකච්චාව ගැන ඇය විසින් මේ බව දැනුම් දී තිබේ.
ඇය පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ විශ්රාමික ජනාධිපතිවරුන් අතරින් වැඩිම තර්ජන ඇත්තේ තමාට බවත් ඝාතන උත්සාහයකට ලක්ව තුවාල ලැබූ එකම ජනාධිපතිනිය තමන් බවත් ඇය කියයි.
විශ්රාම ගියද කෙසේ හෝ ඝාතනය කරන බවට කොටි සංවිධානය විසින් ප්රසිද්ධියේ ප්රකාශ නිකුත් කර ඇති පසුබිමක ආරක්ෂක නිලධාරීන් ප්රමාණය අඩුකර ඇති බවටද ඇය චෝදනා කරයි.
ජනාධිපතිවරණ සමයේදී බලයට පැමිණියහොත් ප්රභූ ආරක්ෂක ලබාගන්නේ නැතැයි ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ නායකයන් ප්රකාශ කළත් දැන් ඔවුන් සිය ගණනින් සමන්විත ආරක්ෂක බලමුළු සපයාගෙන ඇති බවද පවසන ඇය ඒ මෙරට ප්රභූවරුන්ට යම් ආරක්ෂාවක් තිබිය යුතු බව පිළිගැනීමක් දැයි ප්රශ්න කරයි.
The government reversed the Electricity Act, approved in June this year under then-president Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government
The new National People’s Power (NPP) government in Sri Lanka on Tuesday announced its first reversal of a key element in the ongoing IMF bailout programme concerning the loss-making state-owned enterprises.
The government reversed the Electricity Act, approved in June this year under then-president Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government, introducing major reforms to the state power entity Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).
The Marxist NPP trade unions had then agitated against the bill.
A CEB trade union leader who led the agitation is an NPP candidate in the parliamentary election scheduled for November 14.
A CEB statement on Monday said the entity’s privatisation programme would be scrapped and vowed to amend the CEB Reforms Act of 2024.
It said there would be no privatisation of state-owned power plants, transmission and distribution processes.
The CEB Reforms Act of 2024 paved the way for private sector competition in power generation. The move was aimed at easing the burden on public finances and increasing the share of renewable energy to 70 per cent by 2030.
The CEB reforms aimed at minimising losses to the treasury was a key commitment made by Sri Lanka to the IMF in the near USD 3 billion bailout sealed in 2023.
The news on the CEB Act comes as the IMF had been delaying its third review until the conclusion of elections on the island.
The fourth tranche of the facility would not be released until the completion of the third review.
The government of NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who won the September presidential election narrowly with just 42 per cent of the vote, claims the CEB privatisation was against the mandate of the new president.
This was the second reform policy reversal indicated by the NPP government following the announcement not to privatise the national carrier Sri Lankan Airlines.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security, retired SDIG Ravi Seneviratne, had transferred a senior police officer who was conducting a probe into his alleged failure to act on an intelligence warning to prevent the Easter Sunday carnage (2019), former MP Udaya Gammanpila, said yesterday.
Addressing a media conference, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya Leader Gammanpila said former DIG Palitha Siriwardena had complained to the then IGP C. D. Wickramaratne that the Easter Sunday attacks had resulted from the dereliction of duty on the part of SDIG Seneviratne, and called for legal action against him (Seneviratne).
IGP Wickramaratne had assigned Chief Inspector (CI) Induka de Silva to investigate the complaint against Seneviratne, Gammanpila added.
Gammanpila said: In March 2022, Seneviratne submitted a petition seeking a court order to prevent the CID from arresting him. In his statement, he claimed that on 10 Feb. 2022, he had become aware that Chief Inspector Lalitha Dissanayake had filed a ‘B’ report, alleging that ‘serious omissions by Seneviratne and former CID Director SSP Shani Abeysekara had led to the Easter Sunday attacks’. Seneviratne claimed that respondents were attempting to falsely implicate him by initiating a biased, unlawful, and unreasonable investigation, based on an anonymous petition that accused him of neglecting his duties in respect of investigations into the National Thowheed Jama’ath.”
Regardless of the ongoing investigation and legal issue, the JVP/NPP government had appointed Seneviratne the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security, said Gammanpila. CI Induka de Silva continued his investigation and Seneviratne transferred him to the police HQ,” Gammanpila said, noting that Seneviratne was now in a position to suppress the probe against him.
Gammanpila challenged Minister Vijitha Herath to a debate on national security and public debt.
Our attempts to contact Seneviratne for comment yesterday were in vain as he did not answer his telephone.
2022 දී රට අරාජික කිරීම සඳහා ක්රියාත්මක වූ අරගලය වෙනුවෙන් ප්රකට ව්යාපාරිකයකු වන සුභාෂ්කරන් අලිරාජා මුදල් ලබාදුන් ආකාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් තොරතුරු තමන් සතු බවත්, රට නිවැරැදි මාවතට අවතීර්ණ කර ගැනීමේ අවස්ථාව ඔහුගේ මැදිහත්වීම හරහා වැළකී ගිය බවත් සිංහ එෆ්.එම් නාලිකාවේ හිටපු හිමිකරු නිරංග ඉන්ද්රජිත් හෙට්ටිආරච්චි මහතා පවසයි.
මාධ්ය හමුවක් පවත්වමින් ඔහු සුභාෂ්කරන් අලිරාජා පිළිබඳව හෙළිදරව් රාශියක්ම සිදුකරයි.
මෙරට රූපවාහිනී සහ ගුවන් විදුලි නාලිකා කිහිපයක හිමිකරුවන් බවට පත්වී සිටින සුභාෂ්කරන් අලිරාජා ඇතුළු ඔහුගේ හිතවතුන් කිහිප දෙනෙකු මෙරට තුළ දැවැන්ත මෙහෙයුමක් දියත්කර ඇති බවත්, රන්ජන් රාමනායක නායකත්වයෙන් යුතු පක්ෂයේ ප්රධාන ලේකම් වන්නේ ද සුභාෂ්කරන් අලිරාජා ගේ සමීප මිතුරකු බවත් ඔහු සඳහන් කරයි.
සවිස්තරාත්මක වීඩියෝව නරඹන්න…
Colombo, November 05 (Daily Mirror) – A tense situation arose between the security officers of Pastor Jerome Fernando and villagers of Nawalapitiya when Jerome arrived in the area to oversee the construction of a rehabilitation centre for children.
Villagers claimed that he was planning to build a religious facility instead.
The police had to intervene to bring the situation under control. Amid massive protests, Pastor Jerome left the scene.
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