Courtesy RT

Kiev’s constitution-enshrined bid for membership in the military bloc can’t be realized, Zelensky said

Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the UK Joint Expeditionary Force meeting

NATO allies don’t want to see Ukraine among their ranks and Kiev realizes that, President Volodymyr Zelensky told Western leaders on Tuesday. Now Kiev seeks protection from individual member states.

We’ve been hearing for years that the [NATO] doors were supposedly open, but now we know we won’t enter there. That is the truth, and we must acknowledge that,” Zelensky said during a video call with the UK Joint Expeditionary Force, a meeting of the leaders of Nordic and Baltic nations hosted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

I am glad that our people are beginning to understand that and to rely on ourselves and those partners that aid us,” he added.

The Ukrainian leader apparently included the people he was addressing on the list of good friends of Ukraine, despite most of them leading NATO allies. He said the military organization was in no position to offer the security guarantees that his country wants to receive from other nations. But individual states could help Ukraine even with NATO doors closed to it, he suggested, and have been doing so for eight years of what he described as a Ukrainian war against Russia.

Zelensky shamed NATO for not imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine due to concerns that this would escalate the hostilities into a full-blown world war. The refusal to impose it is shared by all members of the organization, with US, its de facto leader, reiterating it on many occasions over the past weeks. Read more US comments on possibility of blockading Russian international trade

The Ukrainian leader claimed NATO member states hypnotized themselves” with the fear of a global conflict that would have the potential of ending human civilization. He didn’t hide bitterness over the fact that allies refused to protect Ukraine the way they are bound to defend each other in case of a military attack.

Ukraine made NATO membership a key goal of its foreign policy after the 2014 armed coup in Kiev put an anti-Russian government into power. The aspiration was made part of its national constitution in 2019.

Russia launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February. President Vladimir Putin stated that NATO’s creeping expansion into Ukraine without its formal accession was a major factor in his decision to order the incursion. Kiev blasted the attack as unprovoked.”

Western nations mostly agreed but refused to fight for Ukraine militarily. Instead, they ramped up weapons supplies to Kiev and imposed harsh economic sanctions against Russia, expecting them to inflict enough damage to stop the military offensive.

Courtesy RT

Beijing will safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, according to the country’s foreign minister.

While stating that China will stand up for its legitimate economic interests in the face of Western sanctions, the country’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, has refuted the notion that Beijing is taking Russia’s side in the Ukrainian conflict.

China is not a party to the [Ukrainian] crisis, nor does it want the sanctions to affect China. China has the right to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” insisted Wang Yi on Monday during a phone call with his Spanish counterpart José Manuel Albares Bueno. 

The Chinese foreign minister called on Moscow and Kiev to engage in dialogue to prevent further escalation, saying only diplomacy can open the door to peace.”

China has been promoting peace talks in its own way since the very beginning of the Ukraine crisis. We hope that the fourth round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks can achieve new progress acceptable to all parties,” the official statement read.

The country’s top diplomat also explained that Beijing sees the current crisis as an outcome of Europe’s multiple security conflicts accumulating over the years. He argued that to resolve the conflict legitimate security concerns of all involved parties should be addressed.

While calling for peace and encouraging the belligerents to reach a ceasefire, Beijing adamantly condemned Western sanctions designed to punish Moscow for its military action.

China always opposes the use of sanctions to solve problems, let alone unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law, as such moves will undermine international rules and harm the people’s well-being in all countries,” Wang Yi said.Read more US, China react to India’s missile launch into Pakistan

The United States and its European allies have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia targeting its banking system, energy exports, and technological development after Moscow launched its military offensive in late February.

Having assumed that Beijing will try to help Moscow to override the restrictions, Washington has threatened to shut down Chinese chip manufacturers if they continue trading with Russian companies.

Earlier, quoting an anonymous US official, The Washington Post reported that Moscow has requested military aid from China to conduct its operation in Ukraine. The story was denied by both Russian and Chinese officials.

Some forces continue to smear China’s objective and fair position on the Ukraine issue by creating all kinds of false information,” Wang Yi said.

Courtesy Sputnik

The Ukrainian leadership’s rhetoric about the prospect of changing the country’s nuclear status wasn’t just empty words, and such a development would not only pose a security risk to Russia but to the entire world, Patrushev stated.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, has declared that “it became clear” that advisers from the United States encourage and support the Ukrainian government’s efforts to create biological and nuclear weapons.

Speaking at a conference on national security held at Russia’s North Caucasus Federal District on Tuesday, Patrushev argued that Ukraine possesses all the things needed for such an undertaking – resources, expertise, technology, and delivery systems – and that Russia simply couldn’t allow Ukraine to procure nuclear weapons.

The Ukrainian leadership’s talk about the prospects of changing the country’s nuclear status wasn’t just hot air, and such a development would have posed a security risk not just to Russia but to the entire world, Patrushev stated.”We could not allow rabid, uncontrollable nationalists to possess nuclear weapons,” he said.

Patrushev also insisted that the aforementioned threats to Russia’s security were created in Ukraine by the United States and its allies.Nationalists Blew Up Institute Building in Kharkov to Hide Nuclear Research, Russian MoD Says11 March, 15:06 GMTHe also said that Russia procured information that confirms the “implementation of military-biological programmes in biological laboratories established in Ukraine with the direct involvement of foreign consultants and advisers, including their funding from the United States.”US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland expressing concern about preventing research materials from those laboratories from falling into Russia’s hands was not a coincidence, he added.

Last week, Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that the goal of Pentagon-funded biological research in Ukraine was to establish a covert mechanism for spreading deadly pathogens.

He also said that documents originating from bio labs in Ukraine, the United States planned to conduct work on avian, bat and reptile pathogens in Ukraine in 2022, and further study the possibility of transmission of African swine fever and anthrax by these creatures.

The laboratories also performed experiments with samples of bat coronavirus, Konashenkov added.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

A seed crisis has emerged because of the impossibility of importing hybrid seeds due to the dollar crisis. (PIC: AFP)

• There are issues regarding importing fertilizer, pesticides and seeds for the Yala season due to the dollar crisis
• Farmers have faced difficulties during the Yala season due to the lack of seeds
• Vitamins and hormones are required for the better growth of plants and they are not available in the market
• 244,964 kilos of seeds were imported in 2020 alone at the cost of 1,955,140,724 rupees
• Importing 85% of the seed requirement of the country every season is a sad situation
• The price of one MT of fertilizer has increased from 390 USD to 1200 USD in the world market

Farmers had high hopes to cultivate during the Yala season, but their hopes have begun to shatter. Presently farmers are unable to begin farming for the upcoming Yala cultivation. Plans were implemented to commence cultivations for the Yala season providing fertilizer, seeds and chemical fertilizer unlike during the previous Maha season. These plans however are about to be ruined because of the foreign exchange crisis affecting the import of seeds and fertilizer.

Importation of seeds, chemical and organic fertilizer for the Yala season should have begun by now. But that will not be possible because of the dollar crisis, according to former Director of Agriculture K. B. Gunaratne. The upcoming Yala season like the previous Maha season will turn out to be disastrous for farmers. There are issues regarding importing fertilizer, pesticides and seeds for the Yala season due to the dollar crisis. Only 15% of the seeds required are produced locally. The country has faced a seed crisis,” he added.

This crisis was created because of a decision taken by top level officials of the Department of Agriculture to produce only 15% of the seed requirement in 2002. Gunaratne said that even though he was opposed to the decision, the authorities did not listen. Now we experience the harmful effects of that decision and seeds have to be imported. The decision aimed at increasing the harvest eventually ruined the country’s agriculture. A seed crisis has emerged because of the impossibility of importing hybrid seeds due to the dollar crisis,” he added.

“Seeds have to be imported. The decision aimed at increasing the harvest eventually ruined the country’s agriculture. A seed crisis has emerged because of the impossibility of importing hybrid seeds due to the dollar crisis  – Director of Agriculture K. B. Gunaratne “

Farmers have faced difficulties during the Yala season due to the lack of seeds. Even though seeds imported recently were released to the market their prices have doubled. A packet of seeds weighing 50 grams is sold at 5000-6000 rupees. Even if farmers buy seeds at high prices they are not sufficient for the Yala season. A seed scarcity is unavoidable during the Yala season, according to Gunaratne.

Farmers accuse that some locally produced seeds do not grow as expected. It is difficult to receive a good harvest from them. Our income is insufficient as a result. We need chemical fertilizer to get a bumper harvest when using imported seeds. Vitamins and hormones are required for the better growth of plants and they are not available in the market. Even if they are, they are expensive. Buying seeds and fertilizer at high prices will not guarantee a good income either,” they added.

It is the duty of the Department of Agricultural to provide good seeds, but its officials do not carry out their duties, Gunaratne added. The papaya variety called ‘Rathna’ -produced by the Department of Agriculture- became popular. But as the variety called Red Lady was imported from Malaysia, targeting a good harvest, this variety was not produced,” he added. Hybrid seeds which produce more harvest were imported. When companies and several individuals tried to import those seeds the Department of Agriculture did not make any attempt to compete against them, but only decreased the production of seeds required locally Gunaratne,” added.

“As the present Government halted importing fertilizer people have begun to import fertilizer illegally from India and sell here. They are available everywhere and we will have to file cases against every shop. That is not practical. Filing cases will not put an end to this – Lasantha Ranaweera Deputy Registrar of the Office of the Registrar of Pesticides”

A kilo of Red Lady papaya seeds cost 50,000 rupees at the beginning, but by now the price ranges between to 1200000–1400000 rupees a kilo making farmers helpless. The dollar crisis and the inability to import give rise to a price hike regarding seeds. 244,964 kilos of seeds were imported in 2020 alone at the cost of 1,955,140,724 rupees. On the same year 19,067 kilos of fruit seeds were imported at 178,511,179 rupees. Importing 85% of the seed requirement of the country every season is a sad situation. Gunaratne said that even the seeds which can be produced easily in the country are imported. Importing seeds such as carrots, cabbage, beet and leeks-all of which cannot be produced locally- is not a problem, but importing all seeds cost extra expenses and is not suitable for the country,” he added.

Unusable pesticides

Seeds said to have been allegedly imported illegally from abroad

A 50-kilo bag of chemical fertilizer is presently sold at 20,000 rupees and in some places at 25,000 rupees. The president addressing the public at  Anuradhapura recently said that he would increase the income of farmers by 100%. But reaching that target would not be possible in this manner, according to Gunaratne. Unusable pesticides are being imported at present. Pesticides can be imported only for 30% of the local requirement. Gunaratne said that the Department of Agriculture had permitted to import 60% of pesticides during the Maha season from 2021 to 2022. 

It will not be possible to import both chemical and organic fertilizer for the upcoming Yala season as promised by the Government because of the dollar crisis. The price of one MT of fertilizer has increased from 390 USD to 1200 USD in the world market. The price that private companies sell a 50-kilo bag of fertilizer ranges between 18000-30000 rupees. However according to the world market prices, a bag of fertilizer should be sold locally at 17500 rupees. The problem is whether the farmers can bear the expense. 591,872,055 MT of fertilizer were imported in 2020 through 14 companies. That same year the two state fertilizer companies imported 29,945,298 MT of fertilizer. 385,000 MT of fertilizer are required for paddy cultivation and 375,000 MT for other crops. Importing fertilizer is uncertain on the face of the ongoing dollar crisis. Even if applied for it would take about two months to arrive. Therefore a scarcity of fertilizer in the coming Yala season is unavoidable,” Gunaratne added.

“The importation of fertilizer will not be affected by the dollar crisis. The Finance Ministry was informed to provide funds to import fertilizer for agriculture by giving priority to the task. The Minister discussed the issue with fertilizer importers. We have an act for fertilizer and a secretariat through which illegal importation of fertilizer will be dealt with – Dr. Ajantha de Silva Director General of Agriculture“

Jathika Govijana Ekamutuwa Chairman Anuradha Thennakoon said that fertilizer and pesticides available in the local market meet the substandard. Pesticides and fertilizer containing chemicals such as glyphosate are secretly imported from India through Kalpitiya harbour. Low quality seeds are also imported from India. Seeds bought at cheap prices are sold at higher prices. A former driver of the Office of the Registrar of Pesticides is behind the importation of fertilizer and pesticides containing chemicals. He has distributed the stocks in Anuradhapura, Kurunegala and Polonnaruwa. After a complaint was filed against him he was slapped with a fine of 50,000 rupees which he paid off and continued to distribute toxic fertilizer and pesticides. 

The Organic fertilizer project of the Government is a scam. It has failed to solve problems related to fertilizer despite claiming otherwise. Organic fertilizer- provided by the Government- is substandard and is mixed with Urea. The green agricultural project of the president has turned out to be a lie. Expired fertilizer and pesticides are released to the market after changing expiry dates. The Office of the Registrar of Pesticides does not look into these matters. Some people are planning to ruin the upcoming Yala cultivation as well. Farmers who cultivate using illegal and overpriced fertilizer and pesticides will not earn any profit,” Thennakoon added. 

“Pesticides and fertilizer containing chemicals such as glyphosate are secretly imported from India through Kalpitiya harbour. Low quality seeds are also imported from India. Seeds bought at cheap prices are sold at higher prices. A former driver of the Office of the Registrar of Pesticides is behind the importation of fertilizer and pesticides containing chemicals – Anuradha Thennakoon Jathika Govijana Ekamutuwa Chairman“

Director of the Fertilizer Secretariat Mahesh Gammanpila could not be contacted over the phone. His only response came in the form of an SMS asking this writer to mention the topics that need to be discussed. But he did not respond to the text message the Daily Mirror sent him. Deputy Registrar of the Office of the Registrar of Pesticides Lasantha Ranaweera said that cases were filed regarding pesticides and seeds imported illegally during the last 10-15 years. As the present Government halted importing fertilizer people have begun to import fertilizer illegally from India and sell here. They are available everywhere and we will have to file cases against every shop. That is not practical. Filing cases will not put an end to this. This happens everywhere in the country and is unstoppable. We have nothing to do. The Government should provide solutions,” he added.
Attempting to contact Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Alutgamage was futile as he was attending a court proceeding. He wasn’t available even later. 

No issue regarding organic fertilizer”– Dr. Ajantha de Silva

Director General of Agriculture Dr. Ajantha de Silva said that the Minister had a discussion with importers regarding the seed problem. We expect to provide solutions to their problems. There is no problem regarding fertilizer. We have permitted the import of chemical fertilizer. There is also no issue regarding organic fertilizer. We will give organic fertilizer as concessions. National Fertilizer Secretariat will coordinate that matter. The importation of fertilizer will not be affected by the dollar crisis. The Finance Ministry was informed to provide funds to import fertilizer for agriculture by giving priority to the task. The Minister discussed the issue with fertilizer importers. We have an act for fertilizer and a secretariat through which illegal importation of fertilizer will be dealt with. Nothing can be done illegally.” he added.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

---

Myanmar uses 70% of chemical fertilizer during the monsoons and 100% of such fertilizer during the dry weather

• Sri Lanka’s pride has taken a beating because it has gone to the extent of obtaining loans from Bangladesh and importing rice from Myanmar
• The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has paid 3.05 billion rupees more than what other countries pay to import rice from Myanmar, The Global New Light reported
• The newspaper article also reported that the exported rice was of low quality
• Reportedly, 100,000 MT of white raw rice and 50,000 MT of parboiled rice are to be imported to Sri Lanka

Focusing on the current plight of the paddy industry in Sri Lanka which runs back to 2600 years ago is a timely requirement. History bears evidence of a rich paddy cultivation existing in the country during the time Prince Vijaya arrived in the island. Sri Lanka was known as the Granary of the East during King Parakramabahu’s time because of the fertile paddy fields. Former Director of Agriculture K. B. Gunaratne said that more than 3000 varieties of paddy were cultivated back then. 

The annual rice consumption of Sri Lanka per person is 120 kilograms, but it has reduced to 85-90 kilograms by now. Myanmar is known to produce golden rice which contains B Carotene. Old paddy varieties of Sri Lanka contained similar nutrients, but the local political authority has ruined such varieties, – Former Director of Agriculture K. B. Gunaratne”

At present people are starving and even forced to take their own lives because they’ve failed at feeding their children. Sri Lanka’s pride has taken a beating because it has gone to the extent of obtaining loans from Bangladesh and importing rice from Myanmar. 

The global rice requirement depends on the population and economic growth of Asian and African countries. It has increased from 439 million MT to 496 million MT during the period from 2010-2020. Considering the rice requirement in 2010, it is likely to increase to 555 million MT by 2035; a 26% increase than 2010. It is calculated that farmers will have to produce an additional 8-10 MT of paddy annually,” said Gunaratne.

In the past Myanmar did not hold a stable position in producing rice, but over a period of time it became the most prominent rice exporter in the world; exporting 631000 MT of rice annually. Myanmar toiled for a decade to uplift rice production and followed policies to increase the use of lands, water resource management, infrastructure and

A website report of the rice deal that features Sri Lanka and Myanmar

harvest. Myanmar did not forsake agricultural policies because of a mere comment given by a monk or a doctor and was not strict on following an organic agricultural policy. It did not dream of increasing its harvest by 100%; with or without fertilizer. Myanmar was strict on pursuing one goal and the single policy it had to ensure success was to implement a 10-year plan.

In areas receiving monsoon rains in Myanmar paddy is cultivated in 5.7 million hectares of land. During the dry weather, roughly 5.7 million hectares of land are cultivated. The annual rice consumption in Myanmar is 160-208 kilograms per person. Myanmar is one of the most rice consuming countries in the world. The annual rice consumption of Sri Lanka per person is 120 kilograms, but it has reduced to 85-90 kilograms by now. Myanmar is known to produce golden rice which contains B Carotene. Old paddy varieties of Sri Lanka contained similar nutrients, but the local political authority has ruined such varieties,” said Gunaratne.
In a country where ministers boast of similar feats as King Parakramabahu farmers have lost all their incomes and are forced to protest and demand fertilizer and seeds,” Gunaratne said.

150,000 MT of rice is to be imported ruining the rice production in the upcoming Yala season. Politicians and officials import rice for the commission and such imported rice stocks are eventually sold as animal feed or else the rice sold as animal feed is polished and sold back as good rice, – Anuradha Thennakoon Jathika Govijana Ekamutuwa Chairman”

The Global New Light, a popular newspaper in Myanmar, recently revealed that several people in Sri Lanka had sought a commission for the stock of rice ordered from Myanmar. This article received much attention in the country. The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has paid 3.05 billion rupees more than what other countries pay, The Global New Light reported. According to the agreement signed between the two countries the export price of rice to Sri Lanka is 440-450 USD per MT, but according to the newspaper the price of rice exported to other countries is between 340-350 USD per MT. 
Accordingly, Sri Lanka pays 100 USD additionally per MT which is 20300 rupees. Sri Lanka is to import 150,000 MT of rice. 

The newspaper article also reported that the exported rice was of low quality. Myanmar uses 70% of chemical fertilizer during the monsoons and 100% of such fertilizer during the dry weather. Compared to countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia, Myanmar uses less chemical fertilizer. But when producing paddy with an increased harvest, the use of chemical fertilizer is 100%, according to Gunaratne. 
Myanmar also uses pesticides to a large extent. Paddy cultivation in Myanmar is mostly affected by 29 insects. Rice blight is mostly found in Myanmar. Therefore pesticides are used both minimally and excessively. Farmers in Myanmar take advice on pesticides from traders. These traders recommend a product that gives them the highest commission. Media reports from Myanmar regarding the quality of exported rice should receive more attention from Sri Lankan officials,” Gunaratne said. 

Those who are behind the garlic scam, water bottle scam and biscuit scam can be behind this Myanmar rice deal. Even on March 15- the World Consumer Rights Day-the authorities will make sure that Sri Lankans are in the dark or in queues. There is no end to this matter, – Asela Sampath, Foundation for People’s Rights Protection Chairman”

U Than Oo, Secretary of Bayintnaung Rice Wholesale Depot, said that rice would be exported for 2022 and 2023. Reportedly, 100,000 MT of white raw rice and 50,000 MT of parboiled rice are to be imported to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is to pay an additional 15 million US$ hence one needs to investigate whether that is the commission going into the hands of people involved in this deal. Attempting to obtain commission when most people are without electricity and gas is a huge crime. That commission in Sri Lankan rupees is 3.04 billion, according to the news article,” said Gunaratne. 

The letter issued by the Myanmar Embassy

The son of a minister and a top official of Sri Lanka State Trading Corporation (STC) were accused directly regarding their involvement in obtaining commissions through this deal. A STC spokesperson said that some documents regarding the deal had already been displaced. 

Jathika Govijana Ekamutuwa Chairman Anuradha Thennakoon said that only 15,000 MT of rice is imported annually according to the rice requirement of the country. This is done without affecting the paddy price during the two seasons-Yala and Maha- with the hope of regulating the price of rice during shortages. However 150,000 MT of rice is to be imported ruining the rice production in the upcoming Yala season. Politicians and officials import rice for the commission and such imported rice stocks are eventually sold as animal feed or else the rice sold as animal feed is polished and sold back as good rice,” Thennakoon added.

We cannot completely ignore what the Myanmar media had reported,” Chairman of the Foundation for People’s Rights Protection, Asela Sampath said. Those who are behind the garlic scam, water bottle scam and biscuit scam can be behind this Myanmar rice deal. Even on March 15- the World Consumer Rights Day-the authorities will make sure that Sri Lankans are in the dark or in queues. There is no end to this matter. They keep obtaining commission in the guise of granting concessions to people,” he added.

Secretary to the ministry of Trade Bhadrani Jayawardena could not be contacted. A spokesperson of the Ministry of Trade said that the news article from Myanmar was baseless. Rice is not exported for such low prices. The article does not mention any details of any such deal. The price of rice has increased compared to the price in 2019. With the increase in shipping cost, the price of one MT of rice was discussed to be 490 US$, but we could reduce the price to 440 US$. I can answer if accusations can be proven,” she added.

Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardana could not be contacted.
Attempting to contact Sri Lanka State Trading (General) Corporation (SLSTC) Chairman Yoga Perera proved futile. An officer of the SLSTC responding to our queries said that Perera was not in his office on Monday, had attended an urgent meeting on Tuesday and was absent on Wednesday. The Chairman does not come to the office every day,” he added. The Chairman did not call back despite this officer taking our number.

The newspaper report that appeared in The Global New Light

Rice is not exported for such low prices. The article does not mention any details of any such deal. The price of rice has increased compared to the price in 2019. With the increase in shipping cost, the price of one MT of rice was discussed to be 490 US$, but we could reduce the price to 440 US$, – Spokesperson Ministry of Trade”

Commercial Division of the Myanmar Embassy in Sri Lanka apologises  

Despite what the Myanmar media had to say regarding the rice deal the Commercial Division of the Myanmar Embassy in Sri Lanka issuing a statement said there was no issue regarding the quality of rice exported to Sri Lanka and that they could guarantee the quality. The embassy statement contained an explanation from the Myanmar Rice Federation regarding the news article appearing on Global News Light web site. Accordingly the article sporting the headline Myanmar’s rice export to Sri Lanka fetches high prices,” is not published by the federation, but is based on an interview conducted by a freelance journalist with Than O, a rice trader in Bayintnaung Rice Wholesale Depot. We are sorry that this article was used by the media criticizing the Sri Lankan Government. The Myanmar Government will also make an explanation. The newspaper has misunderstood the Free on Board (FOB) price and Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) price. 340-350 USD per MT is the FOB price and 440 USD is the CIF-Colombo price and includes the shipping cost, insurance cost and other fees. As informed by Sri Lanka State Trading Corporation, one MT of rice is sold at 440 US$ according to the CIF Colombo price through a Letter of Credit of 90 days. The prices are the same as the rates for other countries.

‘This article is false. Compared to other countries, rice will be exported without disturbances. The rice variety exported to Sri Lanka is 5% broken white raw rice milled and polished properly and its quality is certified by a third party. The embassy can reassure on the quality of rice exported to Sri Lanka,” the statement said. 

Courtesy Adaderana

The Director General of Health Services has confirmed another 08 coronavirus related deaths for March 14, increasing the country’s death toll due to the virus to 16,407.

The deaths reported today include 04 males and 04 female patients, according to the Government Information Department.

Two of the Covid-19 victims are between the ages 30-59 years while the rest are aged 60 years and above. 

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry says that another 428 persons have tested positive for Covid-19 today, pushing the tally of confirmed cases detected in the country to 656,814.

Courtesy Sputnik

Sanctions against Russia and the arms supplies to Kiev will not solve the current crisis, while Ukraine’s guaranteed neutrality would be a reasonable solution, argued Sahra Wagenknecht, a member of the Bundestag for The Left, in her latest interview with Die Welt. Could Berlin become a responsible peace broker?”The German government under Chancellor Scholz is more subservient to Washington than the Merkel government,” says Gilbert Doctorow, an international relations and Russian affairs analyst. “As a US vassal, Germany is dancing to the melody coming from Washington which is to extend the Ukraine-Russia war as long as possible in order to inflict maximum economic and political damage on Russia in the hope of precipitating regime change. The interests and welfare of the Ukrainian people count for nothing. For Germany, as for the United States, all the sympathy to the suffering refugees from Ukraine is all Public Relations. The reality is that for Scholz the Ukrainians are just cannon fodder.”Sahra Wagenknecht, a member of the Bundestag for The Left, told Die Welt on Monday that Russia has long warned the West against providing Ukraine with offensive weapons and integrating the country into NATO. “After all, 2,000 US soldiers were already in Ukraine, and NATO maneuvers were taking place on its territory,” the leftist politician stressed.She noted that the weapons delivered by NATO member states to the Ukrainian leadership “are prolonging the war, but they will not result in Ukraine winning it.” The promise of NATO membership did not help Ukraine either, Wagenknecht remarked.Nevertheless, it’s highly unlikely that the German Left could stop Berlin’s armament of Ukraine, says Dr. Christian Blex, an AfD lawmaker, state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. Wagenknecht’s party, Die Linke, largely supports the federal government which has recently resorted to Cold War rhetoric, according to the politician.”My party, the Alternative for Germany, is the only exception here,” Blex notes. “The AfD parliamentary group of the Bundestag passed a position paper this week in which we clearly speak out against arms deliveries in war zones.”

Smoke rises amid damaged buildings following an attack on the Yavorov military base, in Yavorov, Lvov Oblast, Ukraine, March 13, 2022 in this picture obtained from social media. @BackAndAlive/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.

Courtesy The Straits Times

COLOMBO (AFP) – An IMF delegation was in Sri Lanka on Monday (March 14) for talks on the island’s worsening economic crisis, with the public suffering through months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.

A lack of foreign currency has left traders unable to pay for vital imports in what authorities concede is the South Asian nation’s worst financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.

Long queues outside gas stations and rolling blackouts have become the norm, while record inflation has caused serious hardship among the island’s 22 million people by repeatedly pushing up the cost of groceries, transport and pharmaceuticals.

A senior staffer from the International Monetary Fund “will hold talks” with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, a spokesman for the leader told AFP.

Sri Lanka’s government is divided on seeking a bailout, but the international lender said it was “ready to discuss options if requested” in a Monday statement.

The IMF warned earlier this month that the country’s US$51 billion (S$70 billion) foreign debt was “unsustainable”, and called for a currency devaluation and higher taxes to revive its almost bankrupt economy.https://55bc105189822b518dfb8ed9ce1f646d.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

Sri Lanka last week allowed the rupee to float, a move that saw the currency nosedive 25 per cent against the US dollar and triggered a fresh wave of price increases.

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Fuel costs have risen by nearly 80 per cent since early February while food prices rose by a quarter according to January figures.

The coronavirus pandemic hammered the South Asian island’s tourism sector – a key foreign exchange earner.

Sri Lanka needs nearly US$7 billion to service its foreign debt this year, but the country’s external reserves at the end of January were just over US$2 billion – enough to finance one month of imports.

International ratings agencies have downgraded Sri Lanka over expectations it may not be able to repay its borrowings, though the government insists it will.

Courtesy Wire

‘There may be long queues at grocery stores, gas stations, and pharmacies,’ UK warned those travelling to the island nation whose economy has been severely hit by the pandemic.

New Delhi: Responding to the economic crisis caused by foreign exchange depletion in Sri Lanka since the pandemic, the United Kingdom has issued a travel advisory for its citizens travelling to the island nation. 

According to Sri Lankan news reports, the latest advisory has warned British citizens about the dire economic situation in that country leading to shortage of basic necessities like medicines, fuel and food.

A report in Daily Mirror, published from Colombo, said the advisory stated, There may be long queues at grocery stores, gas stations, and pharmacies. Local authorities may impose rationing of electricity, resulting in power outages.”

It also mentioned the prevalence of COVID-19 and dengue in the country, adding that these might trigger fresh lockdowns, thus leading to flight cancellations.

Sri Lanka has been facing a hard currency crisis affecting its imports for some time now due to the pandemic.

Last September, Lankan foreign minister Basil Rajapaksha had called the crisis dangerous”. The government had by then declared a state of emergency as most of the private banks had been emptied of foreign exchange – affecting import of essential goods.

Import of several luxury goods have since been banned.

In February of this year, the government had appealed to non-resident Lankans to send money home. As per reports, overseas remittances have fallen sharply too. 

With the country’s economy heavily dependent on tourism and trade, Sri Lanka has received a huge blow from the lack of travel and other worldwide restrictions brought to tackle the pandemic. 

Courtesy RT

Ukraine said Russia was seeing the situation much more adequately” than before

© Getty Images / EA

A member of the Russian negotiating team, Leonid Slutsky, has said he believes the significant progress” he has observed in talks between Moscow and Kiev might soon lead the two sides in the conflict to sign an agreement.

Speaking to RT Arabic on Sunday, Slutsky – who also chairs the State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs – said, If we compare the positions of both delegations at the talks, at the very beginning and today, we see significant progress.”

I am happy to report that, according to my personal expectations, in the next few days, this progress may develop into a joint position of the delegations and into documents to sign.”

Slutsky stressed that signing such documents would be a matter of paramount importance,” as it would provide a basis for de-escalation and for saving many people who are dying today.”

Russia has consistently accused Ukrainian nationalists” of using civilians as cover and of preventing their evacuation through humanitarian corridors. Slutsky described these alleged actions as monstrous” in their cynicism,” but said the crisis would be addressed in the very near future.” Kiev has consistently denied it has obstructed the evacuation, and blamed Russian shelling for preventing the safe passage of people.

Ukraine has nonetheless apparently witnessed some progress in the negotiations, too. Presidential aide Mikhail Podolyak said in an interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant that the two sides were approaching a compromise. He opined that the Russian side was already seeing things much more adequately,” but noted that it would likely be some time before it fully, 100%, understands the situation it has got into.”READ MORE: Turkey reveals Putin’s stance on meeting Zelensky

Podolyak said he sees any agreement between Kiev and Moscow as being in the form of a multi-component” document. It should include provisions on the termination of the war, the terms and time schedule of the withdrawal of the Russian forces, the guaranteed terms of the peace agreement, and a detailed description of compensation mechanisms, he stressed, as recovery efforts would likely amount to billions of dollars.”

Moscow attacked its neighbor in late February, following a seven-year standoff over Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

Courtesy Sputnik

© Sputnik / Pavel Lvov / Go to the photo bankSubscribeSvetlana EkimenkoAll materialsWrite to the authorBeing updatedEarlier, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy to the United States reportedly rejected media allegations that Moscow had sought Beijing’s help with military equipment and other logistics for its operation to de-Nazify Ukraine. Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the embassy, reportedly told Reuters on Sunday that he had “never heard of that.”China’s Foreign Ministry has slammed claims by US officials that Russia allegedly asked Beijing for military equipment after the start of its special operation to demilitarise Ukraine as ‘disinformation’.Furthermore, the United States must fully clarify its military-biological activities on the territory of Ukraine, added the Chinese Foreign Ministry.Reference here was made to the documents, released on 10 March by the Russian Ministry of Defence, related to the suspected military biological activities of the United States on the territory of Ukraine. The US Defence Threat Reduction Agency played the leading role in financing and developing components for biological weapons, according to the Russian MoD.Situation in UkraineWhat’s Behind Washington’s Denial of Biowarfare Weapons Programme in Ukraine?YesterdayThe comments, coming during a regular Chinese foreign ministry briefing in Beijing, came after earlier a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy to the United States, Liu Pengyu, was reported by Reuters as rejecting media allegations that Moscow had approached Beijing for military equipment and other logistical support, saying he had “never heard of that.”Situation in Ukraine‘Never Heard of That’: Chinese Embassy to US Rejects Claim Russia Asked China for Help in Ukraine11 hours ago“The current situation in Ukraine is indeed disconcerting,… The high priority now is to prevent the tense situation from escalating or even getting out of control,” the Chinese diplomat noted in response to Reuters.US officials were also reported by Reuters as confirming that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan intended to meet with senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday to warn that Beijing would face economic penalties should it extend Russia aid in its ongoing operation to demilitarize Ukraine. Siding with Russia, according to cited US officials, would result in further global isolation of China, Sullivan plans to underscore.The fallout for Beijing would purportedly affect trade flows, development of new technologies and, possibly, secondary sanctions. Last week, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Chinese companies which defy American restrictions on exports to Russia may be cut off from the US-made equipment and software they require to make their products.The US could “essentially shut” down Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp or other Chinese companies who continue to supply chips and other advanced technology to Russia, Raimondo said in an interview for the New York Times.Ever since Russia announced on 24 February its special military operation in Ukraine, seeking to demilitarize and achieve a “de-nazification” of Ukraine, China has been under pressure from Washington over the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) relationship with the Kremlin.On Saturday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stressed that the CCP is pursuing a peaceful independent foreign policy, and called for all member nations to respect the UN charter that states, in part, “to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest.”China’s Wang Slams US Over Bid to Create ‘Indo-Pacific NATO’, Calls Russia Main ‘Strategic Partner’7 March, 09:55 GMTChinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also commented on the state of Russia-China ties on 7 March, calling Moscow Beijing’s most important strategic partner.” He added the relationship remains one of the most crucial bilateral relationships in the world,” and one conducive to world peace, stability and development.”

Courtesy Sputnik

r two weeks after starting the operation to demilitarize Ukraine, Russian forces have been hesitant to enter major populated centers -especially in areas where Ukrainian ultranationalist battalions are holed up. The Russian MoD has repeatedly accused the latter of placing heavy weapons in residential areas, and using civilians as human shields.

Moscow considers recent statements by US and European officials on President Putin’s supposed “frustration” with the state of the operation in Ukraine to be provocative, and aimed at getting Russia to storm Ukrainian cities and cause civilian loss of life, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov has said.

On Sunday, in an interview with CNN, Biden national security advisor Jake Sullivan suggested that the Russian president was “frustrated by the fact that his forces are not making the kind of progress that he thought they would make against major cities,” prompting him to “lash out” and “to cause damage in every part of the country” with new strikes. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell reportedly expressed similar sentiments elsewhere.”The aforementioned US and EU officials seem to be pushing Russia to storm major cities in Ukraine in order to lay the blame on our country for the deaths of civilians. We consider this position to be provocative,” Peskov told reporters at a briefing Monday.

Military operations in heavily populated areas will indeed “inevitably lead to heavy losses among the civilian population,” Peskov said. The Russian operation “was planned precisely with this circumstance in mind” to avoid such losses, he added.”At the start of the operation, the Russian president did in fact instruct the Ministry of Defence to refrain from an immediate storming of large settlements, including Kiev, due to the fact that armed nationalist formations are setting up firing points and placing heavy military equipment directly inside residential areas,” Peskov said.“At the same time, the MoD, while making sure to ensure the maximum security of the civilian population, does not exclude the possibility of taking complete control of those settlements which are practically surrounded, with the exception of zones used for humanitarian evacuation,” Peskov said.

The United Nations reported Sunday that at least 596 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, and 1,067 more injured in the course of the Russian military operation in Ukraine to date, and expressed concerns that the true numbers may be “considerably higher.”The Russian military and its Donetsk and Lugansk people’s militia allies have repeatedly accused Ukrainian forces and particularly ultranationalist and/or openly neo-Nazi National Guard formations like the Azov Regiment and the Right Sector of deliberately holing up in urban areas, in apartment buildings, schools and hospitals -knowing that Russian and Donbass troops will be more hesitant to attack them in these positions.

At the same time, the MoD and local residents have accused Kiev forces of indiscriminately targeting civilian infrastructure – including using artillery fire during retreats, and of attempting “monstrous provocations” against Ukraine’s nuclear power sector, aimed at least in part at getting NATO to institute a no-fly zone over the country.Situation in UkraineAt Least Six Killed, Several Injured After Kiev Forces Fire on Volnovakha Hospital – MedicsYesterdayRussian President Vladimir Putin ordered the start of a “special military operation” in Ukraine aimed at demilitarizing the country and ridding it of the outsized influence of neo-Nazi elements on 24 February, following an urgent request for assistance from the newly recognized Donbass republics, which faced weeks of escalating shelling, sniper and sabotage attacks by Kiev.

Western nations broadly condemned the operation, characterizing it as an unprovoked, out-of-the-blue “invasion” and committed hundreds of millions of dollars in new military aid to Ukraine.The Ukraine crisis is the culmination of a calamity which began in the winter of 2014, when the country’s neutrality-seeking government was overthrown in a coup by forces seeking to pull the country into the EU and NATO.

Dr Sudath Gunasekara. Mahanuwara.

I request all my Sinhala and Tamil readers both at home and abroad, particularly the Sinhala people to read very carefully the following letter at the end of this note, addressed to President Rajapaksa by one of the most versatile and veteran young journalist Shenali D Waduge as it focuses and highlights on the fundamental rights of both these communities living in this country,   as this is the only piece of land we have to live, totaling to 25,332 sq miles only, on this planet.

This letter by Senali, in my opinion is of very special relevance particularly Ato all those 6.9 million Sinhala voters who elected him in Nov 2019 and gave him a 2/3 majority government in May 2020 with so much of hope and great expectations but now disgusted and left in dire desperations for the folly they made in electing him.

Thereafter I also want them to support my open call for Island wide agitation against Ali Sabry being kept as the Minister of Justice in this predominantly Buddhist country any more for the reasons I have listed below.

1 He is a diehard Muslim who openly espouse the Muslim cause.

2 He is only a personal friend of the President brought to Parliament through the infamous so-called National list (Back Door List) and not a representative of the people as he is not an elected man by the people and therefore is a person not answerable or under obligation to the people either. He is only answerable to the President who selected him as Justice Minister. His appointment as the Minister of Justice therefore is a blatant violation of the democratic rights of the Sinhala majority who elected GR as the President with hope in high heaven. It is also  a gross discrimination against the Sinhala Buddhists and a also a betrayal of the trust the Sinhalese Buddhists who  had elected him to power with so much of hopes and great expectations to retrieve and protect their lost rights for the past 510 years since  the arrival of the Portuguese in 1505.

3 He has been openly agitating for Muslim communal rights throughout, with impunity under Presidential cover. Therefore the nation is caught in a big trap as he can always make laws in favour of his community that discriminate against the Sinhalese again under Presidential protection. He also has openly protested against the Appointment of Rev Galaboda Atte Gnanasara as the Chairman of the One Country and One Law Commission” and even threatened to resign from his post and later reconciled after the President returned from India and changed his stance after he discussed the subject under closed doors with the President. Only God knows what the President has promised to him But the President’s statement made to media obviously indicate the Appointment of Galaboda Atte is only political rhetoric as Ali Sabry himself has openly disclosed to the media.

The common notion in the country is that the President had agreed to cut the wings of the Thera as the president’s press statement indicated. Obviously for the President Ali Sabry is more important than Galabodatte Thera or any other Thera or Sinhala Buddhist Lawyer for that matter. Because it is obvious that the President has some deeper personal obligation to Ali Sabry for undisclosed reasons, but know to the whole country as he was supposed to be President’s private lawyer a factor that should never be taken in to account in appointing him as a Cabinet Ministers and more particularly as the Minister of Justice in this Sinhala Buddhist country. The general public ask as to why he ignored the eminent Sinhala Buddhist Constitutional Lawyer Manohara de Silva who played a major role in the Viyathmanga, the dynamo that fired the Presidents Election campaign. Just like appointing  the firebrand Rev Gnanasaara with steel chains in his legs the President has appointed Manohara De Silva  to the so-called Advisory Committee on the new Constitution making as an ordinary member with wings cut perhaps

The general public who new Manohara De Silva as an eminent Constitutional Lawyer, also being a Sinhala Buddhist who is highly connected and known to the leading Buddhist clergy in this country, including Asgiriya and Malwatta expected him to be appointed as the Chairman of this Committee.as he is exceptionally qualified to hole that responsibility. However finally he was dumped in to an il-constituted advisory Committee on Constitution making whose report submitting date have already expired passed longtime time ago. According to reliable internal information coming from inside this Committee Report will also finally end up in archives or a dustbin as mere political rhetoric, I repeat

The fate of the Gnanasara Committee Report

As Ali Sabry has already declared this report will have to be technically approved by the Minister of Justice, the question that is raised in many a circle is what justice Sinhala Buddhists can expect from an extremist Muslim Minister of Justice casting aspersions on this Committee even before it had its first sitting, humiliating the President as well, who has appointed this Committee with so much of publicity. Whatever Gnanasara Thera writes finally, it will have no impact as All mighty Alla will sit on it as long as Ali Sabry remains as the Minister of Justice. So what justice the Sinhala Buddhists in this country can ever expect from a Government under Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

 As Sonali has very analytically explained in her article Ali Sabry is obviously, an anti -Sinhala and anti- Tamil man, by his discriminatory open pro Muslim policies.

His open support not only for polygamy for Muslims but even his support for Burqua shows that he is first a Muslim, second a Muslim and thirdly also a Muslim

Therefore, the appointment of a Muslim as the justice minister was a first-class political blunder GR has made.

What I more is he is a super Minister and not an ordinary man others  in the Cabi nut

The President has made one of the biggest mistakes by appointing him as the Minister of justice. In my view he is committing political suicide   by keeping him in the Cabinet.  I am lost to understand what his chief advisor is doing when things are happening like this.

Even when Rev Galabaada atte was appointed as Chairman of this Commission Ali Sabry protested openly. But He won the battel to cut Galabodaatte’s wings successfully and cleverly and prevail over GR. What more proof is needed to prove how powerful Ali Sabry is in the inner Cabinet of GR?

The billion-dollar question people in this country pause is, if GR cannot understand that much, how can he run this country

Under these gathering dark thunder storm clouds health either he should resign or GR should sack him. Earlier the better for the health of the President as well as Ai Sabry before the sky fall on their heads with thunder. GR will have to pay heavily for appointing an unknown unsuitable man to the cabinet and making him the most powerful minister in the Cabinet sitting on destiny of the Sinhala nation.

This Government was elected by Sinhala Buddhist as GR himself said at the Ruwanweli Se maluwa on his day of swearing in as the President of this Sinhala Buddhist country. But today it is run by people like Ali Sabry

I really don’t know how GR is going to pay the debt to those 6.9 M people who virtually died to elect him as the modern Dutugemunu to save the Sinhala nation, their bellowed motherland and the Buddha saasana with sky high expectations.

If Ali Sabry does not resign or GR doesn’t remove him, the day the masses will pull out both of them from their thrones and throw them on the road is not that far as Mao se tung once said.  Isn’t it the responsibility of the 6.9 million Sinhala Buddhist to force GR to remove him before he makes this country, a fully pledge Mono Muslim State like Maldives Islands, Indonesia or Afghanistan, all former Buddhist countries?

President Rajapakse why is Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister promoting Polygamy against One Country One Law policy

Posted on March 1st, 2022

Shenali D Waduge

Sans political colours, the policy of One Country One Law was looked forward to being implemented without favour or bias by all citizens of Sri Lanka. This meant that in front of the law civil and criminal laws would be one & applicable to all. It was also accepted that while personal laws deriving from cultures/traditions could exist, these could not overrule the country’s national law applied to all whatever their ethnicity. In such a scenario, it is puzzling why the country’s justice minister should push for the continuance of polygamy camouflaging this quest with ‘amendments’. If there is a One Country One Law Policy there cannot be variance and in front of the law all must face the same law – marriage included.

Given that the Justice Minister is promoting polygamy, he may like to provide statistics as to how many (what percentage) of the less than 10% Muslims in Sri Lanka actually practice polygamy in its true format, to justify polygamy to the President & the Government. Can we have numbers please.

When questions are raised, the general response is that polygamy is part & parcel of Islam. Not so, polygamy existed far before Islam was founded but this practice was abandoned.

In Islam too, polygamy is NOT MANDATORY. In Islam monogamy is a must but polygamy is allowed in exceptional cases, the primary of which is during wars where casualties and orphans arise. Such a scenario is not applicable for Sri Lanka’s Muslims. There is no war, there are no casualties & there are no orphans from wars.

Thus, polygamy is not a general rule for all Muslims to follow and polygamy is not obligatory of any Muslims and Islam does not encourage or promote polygamy.

Thus, it is questionable why Sri Lanka’s justice minister supposed to be appearing for all ethnic and religions across Sri Lanka should be canvassing for only the religion he belongs to or rather to satisfy a miniature number of Muslim elite practicing polygamy probably not for the reasons Islam allows.

It is unfair by the majority ethnic Sinhalese & the Tamils to legally allow polygamy which means that the state is bound to look after the health & education etc of 4 or more spouses & their children while the state only allows Sinhalese & Tamils to legally have one spouse & those that marry multiple times are accused of bigamy & liable to land up in jail. There are plenty of examples of Sinhalese & Tamils charged with bigamy. Therefore, One Law for all must mean that any national law pertaining to the citizens of Sri Lanka must be applied to all with no exceptions.

The favorite automatic response for this is – what about the foremost place for Buddhism, while this is certainly given in the constitution & there is valid reason to continue this even in any new constitution, in terms of applying the law & Buddhists facing the law (whether laymen or clergy) there is no favouritism because they are Sinhalese or because they are Buddhists. Just count the numbers in prison!

There are many more arguments that addresses the issue of polygamy but these become irrelevant as the citizens of Sri Lanka were assured the policy of One Law One Country, which means that civil and criminal laws in Sri Lanka must be one & applicable to all & any laws existing from tradition/culture can exist but cannot take precedence or overrule the application of the national law.

It is prudent to remind all that One Country One Law did exist under the Sinhale kings & the personal laws for Tamils & Muslims were only permitted after the arrival of colonial invaders.

Thesavalami applicable to ONLY The Malabar inhabitants of the Province of Jaffna” (Malabars were from India) was only codified by the Dutch in 1707. Muslim personal laws did not exist pre-colonial rule.

India’s Supreme Court in February 2015 completely banned polygamy in India ruling that polygamy was not part of Muslim fundamental right. The logic was that the Indian Constitution is bound to protect the Muslim faith but not practices that only a handful practice. Only 5% Muslims of the 150m Muslims in India practiced polygamy. This is why Sri Lanka’s justice minister must produce statistics on how many Muslims practice polygamy to demand its continuance.

One Country One Law essentially means that a parallel justice, judicial system, parallel laws cannot prevail if citizens are to be treated equal and given equal rights. Therefore, demands for equal rights cannot include exclusive rights for a handful.

At a moral level if a man cannot bear to see his wife with another man, same applies to a woman who would not like to share her man with another woman.

At a financial level too – in times of economic hardships how can a man look after 4 wives & their children equally?

At a political level, polygamy will cause major demographic change where Sinhalese & Tamils are asked to practice planned parenting while Muslims are encouraged to bear more children.

There is also the issue of non-Muslims converting to Islam simply to keep 4 women legally!

One Country One Law must be applied – it clearly means there has to be one law for all – no parallel legal systems as per religious practices.

Shenali D Waduge

Jayantha Herath

මහාචාර්ය

PADe Silva

මොරටුව විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ මහාචාර්ය වරයෙකි.

දැන් Emeritus ය.

ඔහු සිටියේ

යාන්ත්‍රික ඉංජිනේරු විද්‍යා පීඨයේ ය.

ඔහුගේ

එංගලන්තයේ

සිට

ලංකාවට

මෝටර් රථයෙන්

ආ

කථා

ඒ දවස් වල

සුරන්ගනාය.

ඔහුට 

ඒ

කාලයේ

විදුලි වාහන

ගැන පර්යේෂණ  උනන්දුවක් තිබුනේය.

එය

ඔහුගේ signature ව්‍යාපෘතිය විය.

ඉඳ හිට

ඔහු

විදුලි

රථය පදවා

campus එක වටේ

රවුම් ගැසුවේය.

කලානම් හොඳ යයි

දැන් සිතේ.

1970 මැද ගණන්වල

මොරටුව සිසුන්

බොහෝ විට

පන්ති වර්ජන

වලට සහභාගී විය

අපට

සැබෑ ප්‍රශ්න තිබුණේ නැත

කිරි පිටි

තෙල්

විදුලිය

නැතුව අපි දිව්වේය.

අපි පන්ති වර්ජනය

කලේ

සිලි දෙවල්වලටය

චිලීගේ ඇලෙන්ඩේටය.

දවසක් දා

PA

මේසයක් උඩට පැන

වර්ජිත සිසුන්ට

දේශනයක් පැවැත්වීය

වර්ජනය

නවත්වන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටියේය

පන්ති යන්න

ඉගෙන ගන්න

ජීවිත

ආලෝකමත් කරන්න

කරගන්න.

මේසයෙන්

බිමට පැන්නේය.

යන්න ගියේය.

1970 දී

UNP කාරයෝ

මැතිවරණ පරාජය විය

මන්ත්‍රී සංඛ්‍යාව

7

දක්වා 

අඩු විය

PADeSilva

පක්‍ෂයේ

ශක්තිමත් 

ආධාරකරුවෙක් විය.

ඔහු

70 දශකයේ

මැද  භාගයේ

UNPය වටා

තරුණයින්

එක් කිරීමේ සංවිධානයට

නායකත්වය දුන්නේය.

UNP එකට කැම්පේන් කළේය.

මැතිවරණ කොට්ඨාස

වල රට වටේ ගියේය

සති අන්තවලදී

මොරටු සිසුන්

ගෙයින් ගෙට ගියේය

ජනතාවට

ඡන්දය දීමට

ඉල්ලා සිටියේය.

1977 දී

මැතිවරණය

දිනුවේය.

2020 දී

UNP එක

ආසන

බින්දුවය.

ශුන්‍ය ය.

සුන්නත් දූලිය.

මහජන

විශ්වාසනීයත්වය

බංකොලොත් විය.

The crisis is opportunity.

ඉරිදා ලංකාදීප

ප‍්‍රබල දේශපාලන බලධරයන්ගේ අතින් එසවූ දෝලාවල නැගගත් දේවාලවල කපු නෝනලාට අසීමිත දේශපාලන බලය ලැබෙන විට නීතිය නිහඬ කළ හැකිද? මෙම දේශපාලන ක්‍රියාදාම රාමුවට මුවා වී මුදල් හා දේපොළ හම්බ කිරීමද මීට සමාන්තරව සිදු වෙයි. එවන් ක්‍රියාදාමයක් වාර්තා වෙන්නේ අනුරාධපුර නගරයෙනි. දේශපාලකයන්ගේ සාස්තර ගෙදර නමින් හඳුන්වන ඥානාමැණියන්ගේ දේවාලය ඊට කදිම නිදසුනකි. අනුරාධපුර ජනතාව අතර ඥානක්කා නමින් ප්‍රසිද්ධ මෙම සාස්තරකාරිය මෙහි ප්‍රධාන චරිතයයි. ඇය සාස්තර සහ අනාවැකි කියමින් මෙරට දේශපාලකයින්ගේ සිත්දිනා ගන්න දක්ෂය.

රට කරවන්නන්ගේ මුල් අසුන්වල පටන් මැති ඇමැතිවරුන්, විපක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්, ආරක්ෂක අංශ ප්‍රධානීන් මෙන්ම ඇතැම් ප්‍රසිද්ධ නිළමේලාද ඥානක්කාගේ සාස්තර සාමාජිකයෝය. තවත් පිරිසක් වන්නේ ව්‍යාපාරිකයින්ය. උගත් බුද්ධිමත් විද්වත් ආචාර්ය මහාචාර්යවරු පවා මේවෙන විට ඥාන අක්කාගේ සාමාජිකයින් වී හමාරය. එසේම තරුණ පිරිස් ද ඥානක්කාගේ සාමාජිකයින්ය. මේ අය හඳුනා ගැනීම පහසුය. ඔවුන් අතේ රතු නූලක් බැද ඇත. එය ඥානක්කාගේ සාමාජිකයින් හඳුනාගැනීමට ඇති සංකේතයකි.

ඥාන අක්කාගේ සමහර අනාවැකි මේ වෙන විට ටක්කෙටම හරි ගොස් ඇත. එනිසා තනතුරු ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමට, කැබිනට් ඇමතිකමක්, සංස්ථා සභාපතිකමක්, වෙනත් උසස්වීමක් හෝ ව්‍යාපාර දියුණුවක් ගැනීම සඳහා බොහෝ පිරිස් ඥානක්කා සොයා ගෙන එති. මේ අය ඥානක්කාව හදුන්වන්නේ ඥාන මෑණියන් කියාය. වැඬේ හරියන නිසා බොහෝ දෙනෙක් ඥානාගේ දේවාලය සොයා එන්නේ එහෙයිනි.

තමන්ට රටේ දෙවැනි පුටුවට යන්න අවශ්‍ය යැයි කියා පැමිණි දේශපාලකයෙකුට දෙවැනියා නොව පළමු වැනි පුටුවට යා හැකි බව කී අනාවැකිය ටක්කෙටම හරි ගියේය. මේ විදියට ඥානක්කා බොහෝ දෙනෙකුට අනාවැකි කියා තනතුරු ලබා දී ඇත. ඇගෙන් තනතුරු ගත් සමහර දෙනා අද ද ඇය පසු පස යන්නේ ඒවා ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමටය. නමුත් ඇගේ අනාවැකි හා සාස්තර ටක්කෙටම හරි යන බව විශ්වාස කරන්නේ ඉහත කී පිරිස පමණි.

අනුරාධපුර බොහොමයක් ජනතාව පවසන්නේ ඥානක්කාට අනාවැකි හෝ සාස්තර කීමට බැරි බවලූ. කාලි මෑණියන්ගේ දේවාරූඪයෙන් සාස්තර කියන ඥානක්කා මේ වෙන විට ඉතා ප්‍රසිද්ධය. මේ නිසාම ඇයට දේශපාලන බලය නිල බලය ව්‍යාපාරකයින්ගේ සහාය නිරන්තරයෙන් ලැබෙයි. කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරයෙකු ඥානක්කා හමුවීමට පැමිණියේ කැබිනට් ඇමැතිකමක් ලබා ගැනීමේ අදහසිනි. මේ ඇමැතිකම ගැනීමට අදාළ මන්ත්‍රීවරයා කොපමණ තෑගිබෝග දුන්නාද කියා අප දන්නේ නැත. නමුත් අනුරාධපුර ඇතැම් පිරිස් පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ ඒ වෙනුවෙන් නිවසක් පවා තෑගි කළ බවය. අවසානයේ එම මන්ත්‍රීවරයාගේ කැබිනට් ඇමැතිකමද ගහලා ගියේය.

ඥානක්කාට මෙතරම් මුදල් හෝ ධනයක් පෙර තිබුණේ නැත. ඇය අනුරාධපුර රෝහල් සුළු සේවිකාවක් ලෙස සේවය කළ බව කියයි. ඉන් පසු රෝහලේ දුරකථන ක්‍රියාකාරිනිය ලෙස ද සේවය කර ඇති බවට තොරතුරු වාර්තා වෙයි. ඥානක්කාගේ සැමියා මියයන්නේ 88-89 කාලයේදී බව අනුරාධපුර ජනතාව දන්නා කරුණකි. සැමියා මැරුවේ කවුද කියා තවම ඥානක්කාට සොයා ගැනීමට බැරිවූ බවද ඒ අය පෙන්වා දෙති. එවන් පසුබිමක සිට ඥානක්කා කියන සාස්තර සහ කරන ගුරුකම්වලින් පලක් වේද යන්න එම ජනතාව සැක පල කරයි. සැමියා මියගිය පසු ඥානක්කාට සාස්තර කීමේ වරමක් ලැබී ඇත. මුල් කාලයේදී ඉතා පොඩියට පටන්ගත් මෙම දේවාලය දියුණු වී ඇති බව අනුරාධපුර ජනතාව පෙන්වා දෙති.

මෙලෙස ටිකෙන් ටික ගොඩ නැගෙන ඥානක්කා ගැන නිතර කතාබහට ලක්වෙයි. මෑතකදි කතා බහට ලක් වූයේ අනුරාධපුර ගුවන්තොටුපළ පාරේ ලේක් මොනාක් හෝටලය මිලදී ගැනීමෙන් පසුවය. හෝටලය මිලදී ගැනීමෙන් පසුව එහි නඩත්තු කටයුතු සහ අලු‍‍ත් ඉදිකිරීම් කළේ යුද හමුද‌ා නිලධාරීන් යොදාගෙන බව ප්‍රදේශවාසීන් පෙන්වා දෙයි. එසේම ඇය අනුරාධපුර කඩ 50න් කෝටි ගණනක් දී කඩයක් මිලදී ගෙන ඇති බව අනුරාධපුර මහ නගර සහාවද සහතික කරයි. මෙලෙස ධන බලයෙන් ක්‍රියා කරන ඥානක්කාට මෙරට පමණක් නොව එංගලන්තයේද ව්‍යාපාර ඇති බව පසුගිය කාලයේ මාධ්‍ය හරහා වාර්තා විය. ඇයගේ පුතා එම ව්‍යාපාර බලා ගනිමින් එංගලන්තයේ සිට ඇත. මෙරට ව්‍යාපාර බලාගන්නේ ඇයගේ බෑණාය. ඔහු දැනට මෙම ව්‍යාපාර බලා ගන්නා අතර පසුගිය කාලයේ ඥානක්කාගේ පුතා වන අනුරුද්ධ ජයසූරිය ලංකාවට පැමිණ ව්‍යාපාර බලා ගන්නා බවද වාර්තා වෙයි.

කෙසේවෙතත් අනුරාධපුර ගුවන්තොටුපොළ පාරේ ඥානක්කා මිලදි ගත් හෝටලය බලාගන්නේ පන්තක බව ද ඔහුගේම හිතවත් අය කියති. මෙම හෝටලයේ ඉදිකිරීම් කිරීමේදී නීති උල්ලංඝනය කර ඇති බවද වාර්තාවේ. අප මේ ගැන සොයා බැලීමකදී වාර්තා වූයේ හෝටලය ඉදිකර ඇත්තේ නුවර වැවේ රක්ෂිත කොටසේ බවය. එම කොටසට බලපත්‍රයක් හෝ ඔප්පුවක් නැති බවද කියැවෙයි. හෝටලයේ ඉදිරි පස කොටසට ඔප්පුවක් ඇති අතර එම ඔප්පුව ලබා ගත්තේ කෙසේද කියා වාරිමාර්ග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව ද නොදන්නා බව එහි ප්‍රකාශකයෙකු අපට කීය.

නුවර වැවේ රක්ෂිත කොටසේ හෝටලයේ පිහිනුම් තටාකය ඉදිකර ඇත. එතැන ගහක් ඇත. එහි පුටුවක් තබා ඇත. සවස් කාලයට නුවර වැවත් සමග රමණීය දර්ශනයක් දිස්වෙයි. මෙම පිහිනුම් තටාකය ඉදිකර ඇත්තේ Infinity pool එකක් ලෙසිනි. එහි අනන්තයක් දැකිය නොහැකිය. එතරම් ලස්සන දසුනකි. මෙම පිහිනුම් තටාකයට බසින විට විසිවෙන ඉවත් වෙන ජලය එක්වන්නේ ද නුවර වැවටය. නුවර වැව සහ මෙම පිහිනුම් තටාකය එතරම් ආසන්නයේ රක්ෂිත කොටසේ ඉදිකර තිබේ. වැවේ වතුර ද පිහිනුම් තටාකයට එක්වෙයි. ආරක්ෂක හමුදා නිලධාරීන් යොදාගෙන එලෙස රක්ෂිතයක ඉදිකර ඇති මෙම හෝටලය අනවසර ඉදිකිරීමක් බව අනුරාධපුර ජනතාවද පෙන්වා දෙති.

එසේම මෙම හෝටලය ඉදිකිරීමේදි තවත් වරදක් සිදු වී ඇති බව අනුරාධපුර ජනතාව පෙන්වා දෙති. ඒ යුද හමුදාවේ නිලධාරීන් යොදාගෙන පෞද්ගලික ඉදිකිරීමක් කළ හැකිද යන කාරණයයි. හමුදාවේ භට පිරිස් පෞද්ගලික ඉදිකිරීම් සඳහා යොදාගත නොහැකි බව මීට පෙර ‘ඉරිද‌ා ලංකා’ පුවත්පත හරහා ඉඩම් සංවර්ධනය කිරීමේ සංස්ථාවේ ව්‍යාපෘති කළමනාකරුවෙකු වන විශ්‍රාමික මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කුමා හේරත් ද ප්‍රකාශ කොට තිබුණි. එහිදී කුමා හේරත් මහතා පෙන්වා දී තිබුණේ යුද හමුදාවට රජයෙන් වැටුප් ගෙවන්නේ හමුදා රාජකාරි සහ රජයේ වැඩ සඳහා පමණක් බවය. එසේ නැතිව හමුදා සෙබළුන් යොදාගෙන පුද්ගලික වැඩ කිරීම බරපතළ වරදක් බවද විශ්‍රාමික මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කුමා හේරත් පෙන්වා දී තිබුණි. හමුදා සෙබළුන්ට පෞද්ගලික ඉදිකිරීම් සඳහා එක් වීමට නීතියෙන් නොහැකි වුවත් ඥානක්කාගේ හෝටලය ඉදිකිරීමට විශාල භට පිරිසක් යොදවා තිබූ බව අනුරාධපුර ජනතාව කියති. එම භූමිය වටා විශාල තාප්පයක් ඉදිකර ඇත. එහි ඉදිරිපිට ආරක්ෂාවට සෙබළුන් යොදවා සිටි බවද ගුවන් තොටුපොළ අසල ගැටේ හන්දියේ ජනතාව පවසති.

ඥානක්කා මේ වෙන විට කෝටිපති ව්‍යාපාරිකයෙක්. රජ වුණාට පස්සේ ආයි මොකටද රජ වෙන්නේ මහත්තයෝ
-අනුරාධපුර නගරාධිපති

මේ ආකාරයට දේශපාලකයන්ගේ බලය හයිය උපයෝගි කරගෙන නැගී සිටින ඥානක්කා මේ වෙනවිට අනුරාධපුර නගරයේ කෝටිපති ව්‍යාපාරිකයෙක් බවට පත්ව ඇත. මේ බව කියන්නේ අනුරාධපුර මහ නගර සභාවේ නගරාධිපති එච්. පී. සෝමදාස මහතාය. බලය ඇති තැන පවතින නීති නිහඬ කරන්නට ඥානක්කා සමත්වී ඇත්ද යන්න සෝමදාස මහතාගෙන් විමසූ විට ‘මහත්තයෝ කෙනෙක් රජ වුණාට පස්සෙ ආයි මොකටද රජ වෙන්නේ යැයි ද නගරාධිපතිවරයා පැවසීය. මේ ගැන අදහස් දක්වන නගරාධිපතිවරයා කියා සිටියේ මෙවැන්නකි. නුවර වැව ඉස්මත්තේ ඉදිවෙන ඥානාගේ හෝටලය ඉදි කර ඇත්තේ රක්ෂිතයේ බවත් එය කලින් ඉදි කළත් නව ඉදිකිරීම් සහ නඩත්තු ද මෙම රක්ෂිත කොටසේ ඉදිවෙන බවත් දැනගන්නට ලැබී ඇති බවය. මෙම ඉදිකිරීම් සඳහා අනුරාධපුර මහ නගර සභාවේ අනුමැතියක් ගෙන නැති බවද නගරාධිපතිවරයා කීය. අවසර ගෙන නැතිව කරනවා නම් එය අනවසර ඉදිකිරීමක්. නගර සැලැසුම අනුව නගර සභාවෙන් සහ නාගරික සංවර්ධන අධිකාරිය මගින් සැලැසුම් දෙකක් ලබා දෙනවා. නාගරික සංවර්ධන අධිකාරිය මගින් දෙන සැලැසුම් ඒ අය දෙනවා. අපට මේ හෝටල් සැලැසුම ඇවිත් නැති බව ද නගරාධිපතිවරයා කීය. එසේම මෙම අනවසර ඉදිකිරීම නවතා දැමීමේ බලය ඇත්තේ වාරිමාර්ග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට බවද නගරාධිපතිවරයා කියා සිටියි.

හෝටලය ඉදිකර තිබුණේ සැලැසුමක් අනුමත නොකර සමහර රක්ෂිතවලට ස්වර්ණභූමි ඔප්පු තියෙනවා.
-නැනුප ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවේ සභාපති

එහෙත් මේ ගැන නැවත සොයා බැලීමේදී අනුරාධපුර මහ නගර සභාවේ නගරාධිපති එච්.පී. සෝමදාස මහතා කියා සිටියේ මෙම හෝටලය හදන කොටස අයිති වෙන්නේ නැගෙනහිර නුවරගම් පළාත ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවට බවය. එනිසා එම සභාවෙන් තොරතුරු විමසන ලෙසය. ඒ අනුව අප නැගෙනහිර නුවරගම් පළාත ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවේ සභාපති කුමාරදාස මහතාගෙන් ඥානක්කාගේ හෝටලයේ ඉදිකිරීම රක්ෂිත කොටසක ඉදිකර ඇත්ද? එය අනවසර ඉදිකිරීමක්දැයි විමසීමු. එහිදී කුමාරදාස මහතා කියා සිටියේ මෙවැන්නකි. සැලැසුමක් නැතිව වැඬේ පටන් ගෙන තිබුණේ. ඉදිකිරීම් අනවසරයි කියා පැමිණිලි ආවා. අපි ගිහින් බලලා සැලැසුම සහ ඉඩමේ හිමිකම ගැන ෆයිල් එකක් දාන්න කියා වැඩ නතර කරලා ආවා. තාම ෆයිල් එක දාලා ද දන්නේ නෑ. අපි වැඩ නවත්තලා ආවට එයාල ආයි වැඩ පටන් ගත්තද දන්නේ නෑ. මේ ගැන ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයාටත් පැමිණිලි කළා. එතුමා කිව්වේ නීතිය හරියට කරන්න කියලා. නුවර වැව රක්ෂිත කොටසේ ඔය විදියට හෝටල් හදලා තියෙනවා. ඒවාට රක්ෂිත කොටස අයත් කියලා ඔප්පුත් හදාගෙන. කොහොම හදාගෙනද දන්නේ නෑ. ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් අත්සන් කළ ඔප්පු තියෙනවා. සමහර ඒවාට ජනාධිපතිවරු අත්සන් කළ ජයභුමි” ස්වර්ණ භූමි ඔප්පු තියෙනවා. මිනින්දෝරු සැලැසුම් තියෙනවායි සභාපතිවරයා කියා සිටියේය. ජයභූමි ඔප්පු හැදෙන්නේ ග්‍රාම නිලධාරිවරයාගේ සිට එන ක්‍රියාදාමයක් හමුවේ. ඒත් මේවා කොහොම හදලද කියලා මම දන්නේ නැතැයි සභාපතිවරයා කියා සිටියි. මේවායේ ඉදිකිරීම් සඳහා නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්න බෑ. කල් පැනලා වැඩි යැයි ද සභාපතිවරයා කියා සිටියි.

ඥානාගේ හෝටලයේ කොටසක් වැව් රක්ෂිතයට අයිතියි
-නැනුප ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම්

රක්ෂිත ඉඩම්වලට ඔප්පු තැනීම අනවසර ඉදිකිරීම් කිරීම ගැන අප නැගෙනහිර නුවර ගම් පළාතේ ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් රුවන් ඒකනායක ගෙන්ද විමසා සිටියෙමු. එහිදී රුවන් මහතා කියා සිටියේ හෝටලය ඉදිකර ඇති කොටසකට පමණක් ඔප්පුවක් ඇති බවය. ඒක පැරැණි පැවරීමක්. කොටසකට ඔප්පුවක් නෑ. රක්ෂිත කොටසට සින්නක්කර ඔප්පු දෙන්න බෑ. ඔප්පු දෙන්න මැනුම් කරන කොට රක්ෂිතය අහුවෙනවා. එතකොට ඔප්පු දෙන්න බෑ. හෝටලය පිටුපසට යන කොටස රක්ෂිතයට හසුවෙනවා. ඒ නිසා ඒකට ඔප්පු දෙන්න බෑ. ඒක වාරිමාර්ග මැණුමක් අනුව තහවුරු වෙන්නේ. ඔප්පු හදාගෙන තිබුණත් ඒක නීත්‍යානුකූල නෑ. කවුරු හරි ඔප්පුවක් ඉල්ලු‍‍වොත් මැනුම කරන්නේ අපි. වාරිමාර්ග එක එයාලගේ නිර්දේශ දෙනවා රක්ෂිත කොටස පෙන්නලා. ඒ අනුවයි ඔප්පුව දෙනවද නැද්ද කියා තීරණය වෙන්නේ යැයි ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම්වරයා කියා සිටියි.

ඥානාගේ හෝටලය අනවසර ඉදිකිරීමක් අපි නඩු දැම්මා. අපි කියන දෙය මේ අය අහන්නේ නෑ.

අපි මේ ගැන වාරිමාර්ග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවෙන් විමසූ විට එහි ප්‍රකාශකයෙකු කියා සිටියේ ඥානක්කාගේ හෝටලයට නඩු පැවරීමට කටයුතු කර ඇති බවය. එතැන ඉඩම් දෙකක් ඇති බවත් එක් කොටසකට ඔප්පු ඇති බවත් අනෙක් කොටස නුවර වැව් රක්ෂිතයට අයත් බවද එම නිලධාරියා තහවුරු කළේය.

නුවර වැව අවට තිබෙන එවැනි හෝටල් රැසකට මේ වෙන විට නඩු පැවරීමට කටයුතු කර ඇති බවද එම ප්‍රකාශකයා කීය. රක්ෂිත කොටස කියා නඩු පැවරීමට කටයුතු කළත් හෝටලයේ ඉදිකිරීම් නවතා නැති බවද එම ප්‍රකාශකයා කියා සිටියේය. අපි ඒකට ඉදිකිරීම් නවත්වන්න කියා දැනුම් දුන්නා. පොලිසියට සහ දිස්ත්‍රික් ලේකම්වරයාද ප්‍රදේශීය ලේකම්වරයා ද දැනුවත් කළ බව එම ප්‍රකාශකයා පවසයි. අනවසර ඉදිකිරීම් නවත්වන්න කියා නියෝග යවලා තියෙනවා. ඒකට එයාලා ඇහුම්කන් දෙන්නේ නැත්නම් බලෙන් කරනවා නම් වාරිමාර්ග ආඥා පනත යටතේ නඩු පවරනවා. වාරිමාර්ග අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් තමයි අපේ නිසි ඉඩම් බලධාරියා.

එතුමගේ තීන්දුව අනුව නැවත මේ අයගෙන් රක්ෂිත කොටසේ අයිතිය පෙන්වන්න කියනවා. ඒක පෙන්වන්න අපොහොසත් වුණොත් නීතිපතිවරයා වෙත යොමුකොට නඩු පවරනවා. නමුත් නුවරවැව අවට රක්ෂිත කොටසේ ඔප්පු ලබා දී ඇත්තේ, වාරිමාර්ග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අවසරයකින් හෝ නිර්දේශයකින් තොර බවද එම ප්‍රකාශකයා කියා සිටියේය.

වාරිමාර්ග අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් පිළිතුරු දීම මග හරියි අපට තනිවම මේවා නතර කරන්න බෑ. අනික් අයගේ සහය ඕනෑ.
– වාරිමාර්ග නිලධාරියෙක් කියයි.

අප මේ ගැන වාරිමාර්ග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල්වරයාගෙන් ද විමසීමක් කළ අතර ඔහු කියා සිටියේ අනුරාධපුර කාර්යාලයේ නිලධාරියෙකුගෙන් මේ ගැන විමසන ලෙසය. අප අනුරාධපුර කාර්යාලයේ නිලධාරියෙකුගෙන් මේ ගැන විමසීමකදී කියා සිටියේ නඩු කටයුතු සඳහා අවශ්‍ය කටයුතු සම්පාදනය කර ඇති බවය. රක්ෂිත කොටසේද ඥානක්කාගේ හෝටලය ඉදිකර ඇති බවද එම නිලධාරියා තහවුරු කළේය. රක්ෂිතයක හෝටල් හැදුවොත් අනිවාර්‌යයෙන්ම සන්තකය ආපසු ගැනීමේ පනත යටතේ නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරලා ඒවා ඉවත් කරනවා යැයි එම නිලධාරියා කීය. මේවා කරන්න පරක්කු වෙන්නේ පවතින නීතිවල ඇති අඩුපාඩු නිසා බවද එම නිලධාරියා පෙන්වා දෙයි. වාරිමාර්ග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට පමණක් මෙම කටයුතු කළ නොහැකි අතර අනෙක් ආයතනවල සහයද ඊට ලැබිය යුතු බව එම නිලධාරියා කියා සිටියේය.

හොර ඔප්පු හදපු අයට සහ අනවසර ඉදිකිරීම්වලට නඩු දාන්න වාරිමාර්ගයට පුලු‍‍වන්
– අනුරාධපුර දිස්ත්‍රික් ලේකම්

ඉන්පසු අප මේ සියලු‍‍ කාරණා ගැන අනුරාධපුර දිස්ත්‍රික් ලේකම් ජනක ජයසුන්දර මහතාගෙන්ද විමසීමක් කළෙමු. එහිදි දිස්ත්‍රික් ලේකම්වරයා කියා සිටියේ වාරිමාර්ග රක්ෂිත කොටසක කවුරු හෝ අනවසරයෙන් ඉදිකිරීමක් කරනවා නම් ඒක නතර කිරීමේ බලය ඇත්තේ වාරිමාර්ග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට බවය. එසේම එම ඉඩම් සඳහා වැරැදි ලෙස බලපත්‍ර හෝ ඔප්පු ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කෙනෙක් ලබා දී ඇත්නම් ඊටද නීතිමය පියවර ගැනීමට වාරිමාර්ග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට බලය ඇති බවය. වැරැදි ඔප්පු දුන්න අයයි, ඉදිකළ අයයි දෙකොටසටම නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්ම කිරීම වාරිමාර්ග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට කළ හැකි බව දිස්ත්‍රික් ලේකම්වරයා කියා සිටියේය.

හෝටලය අයිති මස්සිනාට, මම ඔය ගැන දන්නෙත් නෑ. හෝටලයට යන්නෙත් නෑ – ඥානක්කාගේ බෑණා පන්තක ෆැනැන්ඩු කියයි

ඥානක්කාගේ හෝටලය අනවසර ඉදිකිරීමක් මෙන්ම රක්ෂිත කොටසේ ඉදිකර ඇති බවට එන චෝදනා සහ අනුරාධපුර ජනතාව කියන කතා ගැනද අප ඥානක්කාගේ බෑණා වන පන්තක ෆැනැන්ඩු ගෙන්ද විමසීමක් කළෙමු. එහිදි පන්තක කියා සිටියේ තමන් එම කතා ගැන කිසිවක් නොදන්නා බවය. හෝටලය අයිති ඥානක්කාගේ පුතා වන සිය මස්සිනාට බවත් ඔහු එංගලන්තයේ සිට පැමිණ ඇති බවද පන්තක කීය. තමන් හෝටලය ගැන දන්නේ නැති බවත් හෝටලය ගැන බලන්නේ නැති බවද පන්තක කියා සිටියේය. ඉන්පසු පන්තක මේ ගැන විස්තර සිය මස්සිනා වන අනුරුද්ධ ජයසූරියගෙන් ලබා ගන්නා ලෙස කියා 0713 68xxxx දුරකථන අංකයද ලබා දුන්නේය. එම දුරකථන අංකය හිමි අනුරුද්ධ ජයසූරියට අප ගත්තද ඉන් ප්‍රතිචාරක් නොවීය. අප ඥානක්කා ගැන කියැවෙන කාරණා දැන ගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය යැයි කී විට පන්තක සිය නැන්දම්මාගේ දුරකථන අංකය ද ලබා දුන්නේය. ඒ අනුව අප 0714 08 xxxx අංකයට කිහිප සැරයක්ම ගත් නමුත් ඊටද ප්‍රතිචාරයක් නැති විය.

යුද හමුදාවේ සාමාජිකයන් යොදා ගනිමින් පෞද්ගලික ඉදිකිරීමක් කළ හැකිද යන්න අප යුද හමුදා මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශකගෙන් ජංගම දුරකථනය ඔස්සේ සහ ස්ථාවර දුරකථනය ඔස්සේ විමසීමක් කළ ද ඊටද ප්‍රතිචාරයක් නොවීය.

ප්‍රගීත් සම්පත් කරුණාතිලක
ඉරිදා ලංකාදීප

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නිදහසින් පසු මුහුණ දුන් බරපතලම අර්බුදය ට මුහුණ දී සිටියත් මේ මොහොතේ ආර්ථිකය කඩා වැටෙද්දී ඊට පිළියම් ලෙස කිසිවක් නොකර ආර්ථිකය කඩාවැටීමට ඉඩ දී බලා සිටීමට බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා කටයුතු කරන බව පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමයේ නායක නීතිඥ උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටියේ ය.

බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ රටට අහිතකර ව්‍යාපෘතීන්ට එරෙහිව ජනතාව නැගී සිටින බවත් රට තුළ ඖෂධ, ආහාර සහ ඉන්ධන හිඟයක් ඇති කර ජනතාව අසරණ කිරීම තුළින් එම ව්‍යාපෘතීන්ට එරෙහි විය නොහැකි බෙලහීන ජාතියක් නිර්මාණය කිරීම ඔහුගේ සැලසුම බවත් ඒ මහතා වැඩිදුරටත් ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටියේය.

එමෙන්ම 1997 දී ඉන්දුනීසියාව තුල සිදුවූ අයුරින්ම ලංකාව විදේශ බලවේගයන්ට යටත් කිරීම මෙහි යටි අරමුණ යැයි ඒ මහතා සඳහන් කර සිටියේය.

පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමයේ නායකයා මේ බව සඳහන් කර සිටියේ පසුගිය දින සිරස 10 Questions වැඩසටහන හා එක්වෙමිනි.

මෙහිදී කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය තුළ බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රකෝපකාරී හැසිරීම් ඇතුළු කාලීන දේශපාලන රහස් රැසක් උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා විසින් හෙළි කළේය.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ නම් අවලස්සන ඇමරිකානුවා විසින් මේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව විනාශ කරමින් සිටින බව හිටපු බලශක්ති අමාත්‍ය පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

අද ඇතිව තිබෙන ඩොලර් අර්බුදයට වගකිව යුත්තේ මුදල් අමාත්‍ය බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ බවත් මේ රට බංකොලොත් වුණා නොව බංකොලොත් කර ඇති බවත් හෙතෙම කියා සිටී.

බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා විසින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව බංකොලොත් කරමින් සිටින්නේ ඇමරිකානු උවමනාවට බව ද හෙතෙම චෝදනා කරයි.

අග‍්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අද අවලංගු කාසියක් වී ඇති බවත් රට පාලනය කරන්නේ ජනාධිපති හෝ අගමැති නොව බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා විසින් බවත් හෙතෙම පැවසීය.

අන්තර්ජාල නාලිකාවක සාකච්ඡාවකදි ඔහු මෙම අදහස් පළ කළේය.

Courtesy Adaderana

The three Cabinet sub-committees, appointed by the President last month to negotiate with China, Japan and the Middle East Region on economic matters met for the first time on the 9th and 10th of March at the Parliament under the chairmanship of the Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris.

Commencing its task, the Cabinet sub-committees convened the initial meetings with the participation of Cabinet Ministers Bandula Gunawardena, Namal Rajapaksa, Ali Sabry, Ramesh Pathirana and Johnston Fernando, who function as the members of the sub-committees.

The Committees were appointed based on a Cabinet Memorandum presented by the Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa, under the theme Economy 2022 and the Way Forward” to negotiate with countries from which essential food items, raw materials and industrial goods required for the export-oriented industries are imported to the country, with a view to identifying alternative methods of importing such goods.

The Foreign Minister outlined that the President has appointed the Cabinet sub-committees to explore an economic way forward in collaboration with reliable trading partners to create a facility that supports trade.

Secretaries and senior officials of the relevant ministries briefed on various matters such as issues related to trade, employment and foreign remittances.

The Cabinet sub-committees on China was briefed on the current progress related to the ongoing negotiations in respect of the proposed China – Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement, while the Committee agreed to fast-track the possible next steps in consultation with the relevant stakeholders at the earliest.

The sub-committees have directed the relevant officials to obtain a list of urgent requirements from all ministries and agencies, which Sri Lanka may solicit from partner countries, to achieve economic stability and quick progress.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has given directives to make arrangements to generate 5,000 MW via renewable energy sources and add them to the national grid within next six years, Minister of Highways Johnston Fernando says.

As a part of the new programme, the approval of the cabinet sub-committee has been given to India’s Adani Group to invest USD 500 million in developing renewable energy projects in Sri Lanka, minister Fernando said, adding that the Indian company is expected to invest in several more similar projects here.

The minister, who is also the chairman of the cabinet sub-committee to expedite renewable energy projects, also stated that the government has decided not to delay any foreign directed investments and is also determined to act severely against those who delay them.

The country’s energy requirement is increased annually by 5 to 8 per cent owing to new development projects, construction of more houses and new factories. The government is of the view to cover the increased demand making use of electricity generated from renewable energy sources.

Minister Fernando said that the focus of the cabinet sub-committee is centered on selecting suitable investors from those who had expressed their willingness to invest in identified renewable energy projects, identifying new projects with higher feasibility, taking actions to reform laws and regulations in an expedite manner to remove existing legal and other barriers, upgrading the facilities used for adding the power generated from renewable energy sources to the national grid.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) is considering bringing forth a motion of no confidence against Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa.

SJB National Organiser MP Tissa Attanayake said the party has initiated internal discussions on the matter.

He added that the finance minister’s conduct is responsible for the downfall of the country’s economy, adding that there is lack of confidence in the actions of the lawmaker.

Attanayake also slammed the finance minister for not delivering a statement in the parliament pertaining to the ongoing economic crisis.

So, we have taken into account a no-confidence motion against him. The parliamentary group and the management committee of our party are discussing the matter.”

Courtesy Adaderana

The Health Ministry says that another 311 persons have tested positive for Covid-19 today, as the daily count of new cases continues to rise in the country.

This brings the tally of Covid-19 cases registered in the country thus far to 656,041. 

According to official figures, 618,886 positive cases have recovered.

Following the new development, the number of virus-infected people who are undergoing treatment moved to 20,758. Meanwhile, the death toll stands at 16,397.

The Director-General of Health Services has confirmed another 07 coronavirus-related deaths for March 12, pushing the country’s Covid-19 death toll to 16,397.

This figure includes 05 males and 02 females, according to the Department of Government Information. 

All seven victims are reportedly in the age group of 60 years and above. 

Chanaka Bandrage

Since September last year the government kept the Rs/US Dollar rate static (Rs 203 = US$1).  Sri Lanka being imports driven country, this artificial arrangement served the country well – it kept the inflation under watch. 

It was a very clever achievement by the government (solely due to the efforts of the Central Bank Governor Mr Cabral).

But, on 10 March 2022 the government decided float the dollar. This means that the government would no longer fix the exchange rate for the dollar, it will be determined by the forex market based on supply and demand.

At the time of writing this article (13 March 2022) the dollar has fetched Rs 260 (in the black market it is about Rs 270). 

Inevitably this rate will rise.  Many speculate that before the April New Year the dollar will pass the Rs 300 mark. How much will it be by Wesak?  By Christmas?

Thanks to this latest move, Sri Lanka’s inflation will rise at breakneck speed (before it was a slow-paced rise).

Sri Lanka is now definitely heading the Zimbabwe, Venezuelan ways.  In these countries, a wheelbarrow of cash is needed to buy a loaf of bread. These countries too have long fuel, gas queues and long power cuts.

We are soon going to be not just Asia’s but World’s ‘basket case’.

The decision to float the dollar will hit the banks very badly.  When buying a dollar, the banks will find it extremely difficult to pay an additional Rs 60 – Rs100. Small banks do not have huge money reserves; historically they have made small profits (Sri Lanka has too many banks in the first place).

It will be almost impossible for the banks to earn money in selling dollars as they simply do not have dollars to sell. This is the reason why importers are stuck – banks do not have dollars to open L/Cs.  Thousands of shipping containers are lying in the port unable to be cleared due to this reason.

If we do not safeguard our banks (like our two eyes), they could collapse one after another.  People will lose all their  life savings. Similar things have happened in Argentina and Greece.  Many innocent people committed suicide in those countries.

Those who have citizenships in other countries like in the US, Canada, Australia may flee to those lands. Some may flee secretly in private jets. These jets can take off from Rathmalana airport. It is the poor Sri Lankans who will always be here and suffer.

Once the horse has bolted there is no pointing in closing the stable door.

So, let’s act now; fast.

True, due to the Central Bank’s fixing of an upper limit for the dollar (Rs 203), the expatriates stopped sending dollars (and other currencies) to Sri Lanka through local banks. Almost everyone resorted to the Undiyal system. Undiyal paid about Rs 240 for a dollar (as opposed to the banks Rs 203).

After the Central Bank’s move last week, it is difficult to believe that the expatriates would revert back to the conventional way of sending money here – via local banks. According to pundits, the expatriates are now used to sending money through the Undiyal system and they will not give that up (unless very good incentives are offered to them). The problem that the government failed to foresee is that Undiyal will always give a higher exchange rate than the banks.

The Finance Minister seems to be saying he did the change due to the Opposition’s demands. He further states ‘we need to listen to the Opposition also’.

This is a most ridiculous statement on the part of a Finance Minister.  Does he run the economy according to the whim and fancy of others? Does he not have his own fiscal policy?

Clearly, the government is doing experiments with the country’s economy.  They do not know what they are doing.

The Opposition must also take responsibility for the current mess/crisis.  When the dollar was fixed (which was the right thing to do), they exerted enormous pressure on the government that it should be floated. Even in their meeting with the Central Bank Governor on 9 March 2022, they espoused that floating of the dollar is the only and best solution available for the country to find dollars.  The government heeded to them.

But, after realizing that this has caused the rupee to devalue drastically and inflation to skyrocket, the Opposition now blames the government.

Even previously they have made irresponsible statements such as that loans must not be re-adjusted/re-financed, the government must not seek loan moratoriums etc.  Surely, the Opposition wants to capitalize from the situation, but they should not send the government wrong pathway, especially when they know that the country is currently run by incompetent people.  Ultimately it is the people who suffer.

The Finance Minister blames the hyperinflation on external factors such as Covid 19 and the Ukrainian war.  There is some justification in this.  Due to the Ukrainian war the prices of all imported items will tremendously increase. The country may not be able to sell tea directly to Russia; and also to Ukraine. But, the foolish idea to float the dollar at this moment was taken by him.

The Opposition has responded to the Finance Minister’s analysis well. They say these external factors apply to all the countries in the world. In South Asia only Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have deep foreign exchange problems. Bangladesh, Pakistan and Maldives – all have positive dollar deposits. 

As stated before, there is no doubt that with time to come Sri Lanka’s economic problems will further worsen. The problems will become unbearable to people.

The government is faced with an unprecedented situation.  Though the Corona pandemic is less now, Omicron curve has not yet flattened.  Still about 20 people die a day. A massive US$ 1 billion loan is required to be paid by May/June this year. Various strikes/demonstrations are propping up in various parts of the country.

It is very tough for the government.  No one would like to manage a finance that is in such dire strait.

Finding dollars is the solution to all the present problems.  This has become an essential issue in everyone’s lives.

Sadly, the government has no idea as how to tackle the problem.  Every day the economy goes into deeper red.

Bribery, corruption, maladministration and bureaucratic inefficiency are rampant.  They are significantly contributing to the decline.

At a time when vehicles cannot be run due to lack of fuel, the government is still hell bent on building new expressways.  Everybody knows expressways are a good source for the politicians to earn huge illegal incomes. Millions of dollars are continued to be borrowed for these projects. This is Sri Lanka’s example of ‘Nero playing violin when Rome burned’.

The government still foolishly thinks that mega projects is the only way to achieve development.  Very little is done to introduce micro loan schemes to improve the lives of the down trodden. 

In regards to solving the dollar crisis, the government believes that obtaining currency swap assistance is the best solution forward.  True, in crisis situations they are helpful; but they are only stopgap measures. We cannot go on doing them forever.

Currently none of the foreign assistance comes free of charge. They are all loans.  As it is obvious that we do not have the means to pay off these loans, we will end up selling our valuable assets to foreigners, especially the real estate. Already we have given away precious lands to China (Colombo and Hambanthota), Trincomalee Oil Tanks to India, Kerawalapitiya LNG Electricity plant to USA and thousands of fertile Wellassa lands to Singapore.

JR Jayawardane was very clever in obtaining foreign aid. During his first term (1977 – 1984) the country received many grants from Western countries (including Japan).  The loans received were soft loans. Instead of helping us, the Western countries today are gearing up to impose sanctions on us. TNA and other Tamil parties travel to Geneva and lobby against Sri Lanka. The country was foolish in listening to the leftists and saying No to the MCC grant. MCC funds were to fix the country’s traffic problem (we have bumper-to-bumper traffic in many major cities) and streamline the (corrupt) land transfer deed system.

The government has not done anything substantial to increase exports.  Expanding the garment industry is a good way to earn extra dollars. This is how Bangladesh somewhat prospered.  We have the niche in the world’s lucrative tea market, but we have failed to capitalize.  The world’s tea auctions are not held in Colombo but in Dubai (where no tea is grown).  We produce the world’s best cinnamon, but we do not know how best to market them. Are we getting the correct price for our fish exports? The list of our failures is endless.

It is doubtful that the government has skilled, capable people to undertake its tasks. The cabinet is full of lethargic persons.

Why the government is not seeking or reluctant to obtain IMF assistance is a million dollar question.

Lebanon has sought active IMF assistance, and it is gradually coming out of its grave economic crisis. France is helping Lebanon immensely. Argentina was also rescued by the IMF. Greece was rescued by the EU. Zimbabwe is coming out of its economic mess due to own efforts and South Africa’s assistance.  Like Venezuela, there is no one to rescue us. If things continue this way, we may not be able to survive.

If the government is refusing IMF assistance due to any reasons, it has a duty to tell those reasons to the people.

The government fears that the IMF will imposes strict conditions.  If they do so that will be in order to streamline the country’s economy. The IMF generally acts in good faith.

Currently this is exactly what we need (strict conditions).  Of course we could negotiate the conditions with them.

The IMF may ask the government to reintroduce the corporate taxes that it scrapped soon after coming to power in 2019. The government’s ‘best friends’ will resist the reintroduction of the high-end taxes. The IMF will definitely ask the government to cut costs and reduce the public service (we have one of the Asia’s largest, on a per capita basis). Under an IMF assistance package, the perks and privileges enjoyed by the politicians and top government officials will be drastically reduced.

How to raise new dollars, using our own resources – 10 suggestions

The writer outlines the following suggestions hoping that they would be implemented. They are all simple and easy to implement:

• We have an abundance of men and women working overseas. They number at least two million (includes the Sinhala and Tamil Diaspora in the West, and workers in the Middle East, South Korea, Japan etc). Lots of them are good patriots.  The government must tap into them in this moment of grave economic calamity – to secure dollars from them.  Surely, if they are approached correctly, these patriots will reciprocate kindly.

Most of our overseas brethren are smart, hardworking and intelligent. In the past they have remitted to the country large amounts of foreign exchange, say up to US$7 billion per year. Now they are not sending money here. As stated before, since recently they have resorted to sending money to their loved ones here through the Undiyal system. Thus, the country has missed out on receiving much needed dollars. Now that the dollar is floated, the government must request the expatriates to send money directly to our banks, and that they must abandon the Undiyal system. They must be told by the government that it is their solemn duty to come forward to help Sri Lanka at its grave financial risk. Our overseas missions can do a lot in this regard.

• A sound idea is to allow them (long term expatriates who have regularly sent remittance to Sri Lanka) to send a vehicle (car, van. motorbike, three wheeler) to Sri Lanka (without opening L/Cs here), and to pay their customs duty in dollars.  As Sri Lanka’s vehicle import duties are very high, this will be a good source of dollar revenue for the country. This will also ease the current vehicle shortage in Sri Lanka that has arisen due to the prevailing vehicle import ban. The ban has existed for 2 years.

The government is not doing this as the motor car dealers strenuously oppose the scheme. The government must look at the benefit of the scheme to the country and the public at large. It should not be biased towards a small group of people.

• Apart from vehicles, customs duty for all other imports should be allowed to be paid in foreign currency, and such payees should be afforded incentives/discounts.

• Expatriates used to send lots of monies to Sri Lanka through the NRFC scheme. Local banks offered them good interest rates. Now our banks are again offering promising rates. Thus, our overseas citizens must re-start sending money here. People were scared that they will lose their hard earned money (dollars and other currency), the government must alley these fears.

• The government is doing a fine job in promoting tourism.  Despite the worldwide Omicron advance, the government has done well to attract large numbers of foreign tourists.  Are they bringing in valuable foreign exchange?  This is doubtful. The tourists (and Sri Lankans living here who have dollars and other foreign currencies) must be encouraged to pay for their goods and services in foreign currency. For example, those who patronize reputed hotels (3 – 5 star range), holiday destinations should be allowed to pay their bills in dollars. Foreign tourists must be encouraged to pay various entrance fees (Temple of the Tooth, Sigiriya, Dambulla, various botanical gardens etc) in foreign currency. Fees should be slightly lowered to those who pay in dollars.

• Sri Lankans who are buying electrical appliances like TVs, refrigerators, washing machines etc from leading stores should be given the option to pay in dollars. Then, Incentives must be afforded to them such as tax concessions.

• A Duty Free shopping complex must be opened in Colombo where trading must be done in foreign currency. After judging its success, two more such complexes must be established in Kandy and Jaffna. The duty free shops in the two airports must be modernized.

(The government must ensure that the Central Bank will buy dollars from the respective businesses promptly after paying the dollar collectors a reasonable commission in addition to the actual item price that they have sold).

• Sri Lankan Airlines tickets should be sold locally in dollars and other reputed currencies to all those who have dollars and those reputed currencies. (With immediate effect the government must scrap the air routes that the Sri Lankan Airlines is making long term losses).

• The Central Bank must have a scheme to buy dollars from the private money exchange market.  There are large scale dollar deals occurring in the private market each day.

• The government can set up a ‘Support Sri Lanka’ dollar account with the Public Trustee and the Government Auditor as Joint Trustees to manage it.  If it is honestly managed, expatriate Sri Lankans and Sri Lanka’s overseas friends will contribute. Ukraine has established such a fund.

What we need to realise is that all these new dollar revenues would collectively add to a sizable amount.  Today, every dollar is valuable to the country.

ජයන්ත හේරත්

1962

පොලිස්  කුමන්ත්රණයට

ආණ්ඩුව  වැඩේ දුන්නේය 

පොලිස්කාරයාට වැරදුනේය

ලංකාව පොලිස් රාජ්ජයක් වීම වැලකුනේය

පොලිසියට  ගියා නම් ආපසු ඒමක් නැත 

අපිට වැරදුනේ නැත

රට අරාජික උනේ නැත.

71

JVP කාරයාට

ලංකාව සුං

කරන්නට ඕනා විය

කිම් ඉල් සුං 

උනා නම්

රට සුනේ සුං ය

අපි කන්නේ කොරියන් ය

ඒ වැඩෙන් 

දැන් අපිට වත්

ඕවර් නයිට් 

ගහන්නට බැරිය

වැඩ කෑවාය

අනාගත පරම්පරාවකටවත් 

ආයුධ අරන්

චේ ගුවේරා style  ආණ්ඩු පෙරලන්න

හිතන්නත් අමාරුය

අපිට වැරදුනේ නැත

රට ෆේල් උනේ නැත 

අපි බේරුනේය 

රටම බේරුනේය.

74

සිරිමා

උසස් අද්යාපනය

parallel and distributed  කළේය

අපිට හරිගියේය 

වැරදුනේ නැත

MIT engineering tuition ෆී එක Dollar 75000

අවුරුදු 4 ට

ලක්ෂ 3 ක

අපට ස්වීප් ටිකට් එක

ඇදුනේය

අපි කලේ පොලිටිකල් සයන්ස් ය

ඉගෙන ගත්තේ ශිෂ්‍ය අරගල කරන්නය

ශිෂ්‍ය අරගල කඩන්නය  

අපිට හරිගියේය 

වැරදුනේ නැත

රට දිනුම්ය.

87-89

jvp කාරයා

දෙවන වතාවටත් 

බලය ගන්නට බැලුවේය

මිලිටරිය

ජයග්රහණය කර

යුද්ධය අවසන් කලේය

අපිට වැරදුනේ නැත

රට දිනුම්ය. 

76-2009

LTTE

කාරයාට eelam එක

ලංකාවේ හදන්නට ඕනා විය

සංකල්පය සිත් ගන්න සුළුය 

LTTE කාරයාත්

අවුරුදු 30ක් වැඩේ දුන්නේය

හමුදාව 

රිටන් එක දුන්නේය

කීප වරක් abort වූ නමුත්

අන්තිමට යුද්ධය අවසන් කලේය

ජයග්රහණය කලේය.

වැරදුනේ නැත

අපිට වැරදුනේ නැත

ප්රධාන පක්ෂ අසාර්ථක වුණේ නැත

රට අසරණ කලේ නැත

රට අරාජික නැත

කට්ටියක් වෙනුවට තව කට්ටියක්

සාමකාමී

තට්ටු මාරු

ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදීව

රට පාලනය කර ගෙන යන්නේය.

වැරදීමක්

හදාගන්නට

Unions යා යුත්තේ අධිකරණයටය. 

ඕනෑම කෙනෙකුට

Supreme Court ගිය හැක.

වර්ජන නැත

Supreme Court තීරණ හැම දෙනාම පිළිගත යුතුය.

බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ඉංජිනේරු ගාල්ලේ දෙව්සිරි පී. හේවාවිදාන ලන්ඩන් නුවර සිට ලියයි

කොළඹ ආනන්දය රටට බිහිකළේ ෆොන්සේකා, කරන්නාගොඩ, වීරසේකර, ගෝඨාභය වැනි රණවිරුවන් පමණක් නොවේ.  ලොව ඉහළ පෙළේ ඉංජිනේරුවන් හා වෛද්‍යවරුන්ට අමතරව සාහිත්‍යය ලොව බැබළ වූ පත්තර කලාවේ පතාක යෝධයෝ දුසිම් ගණන්ද ආනන්දය රටට දායාද කළේය.

ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න, සිසිර පරණතන්ත්‍රී, ජටිල වැල්ලබඩ   මෑතකදී පුවත්පත් ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ ඉහළටම ගිය ආනන්දීයයන්ගෙන්   සමහරෙකි.   එසේම සුනිල් මාධව ප්‍රේමතිලක හා බන්දුල පද්මකුමාර ආනන්දය නිර්මාණය කළ ඉහළම පෙළේ මාධ්‍යවේදීන් දෙදෙනෙකු යැයි මා කිවහොත්  එයට කිසිවකු විරුද්ධ නොවනු ඇත.  ශ්‍රී ලංකා පත්තර කලාව උඩු යටිකුරු කළ ආනන්දයේ මගේ සමකාලීනයන් දෙදෙනා එකම සතියක අපෙන් සමුගෙන ඇතැයි යන ආරංචිය කන වැටුණු මොහොතේ මට ඇතිවූ සංවේගය අතිමහත්ය.

බන්දුල හා සුනිල් මේ රටේ පුවත්පත් කලාවට සිදු කළ අනුපමේය මෙහෙවර ගැන පසුගිය සතිය පුරාම ඔවුන්ගේ සහෘදයන් පත්තර දුසිම් ගණනක පිටු පුරවමින් ලියා ඇති නිසාත් මා නැවත එවා මෙහි සඳහන් කළ යුතු නැත.  මා මෙහි ලියන්නට අදහස් කරන්නේ කුඩා කාලයේ සිට මා දැන හැඳිනගත්  විශිෂ්ට ආනන්දියයන් දෙදෙනා ගැනය.

වතු පරිපාලකවරයකු හා දකුණේ සුප්‍රසිද්ධ දානපතිවරයෙකුව සිටි මගේ පියා ඩී. සී. හේවාවිදාන මහතා උපන්නේ කඹුරුපිටියේ උල්ලල නමැති සුන්දර ගම්මානයේය.  තාත්තගේ ඉතා සමීප මිතුරකු වූ ඔහු වැනිම ක්‍රියාකාරී සමාජ සේවකයකු වූයේ උල්ලලට අල්ලපු ගමේ මාපලානේ වාසය කළ සුගතපාල ගොඩවත්ත ඉස්කෝලේ මහත්තයාය.  පාසල් යන වයසේ සිටි කඹුරුපිටිය හා අවට කුඩා ළමුන් දහසක් දෙනා දරිද්‍රතාවය නිසා තේ වතු වල වැඩට යනවා දුටු මේ සමාජ සේවකයන් දෙදෙනා බොහෝ කම්පාවට පත්වූහ.  රටේ අනාගත පරපුර රැක ගැනීම සඳහා හැම ගමකටම පාසලක් තිබිය යුතු යැයි ඔවුන් තේරුම් ගත්හ.  එහි ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස මගේ පියා උල්ලල  මහා විද්‍යාලය ආරම්භ කළ අතර ගොඩවත්ත මහතා කහගල විද්‍යාලය ආරම්භ කළේය.  පළාතේ ධනවත් තේවතු හිමියන්ගේ දහසක් තර්ජන ගර්ජන බාධක මැද්දේ ආරම්භ කරන ලද මේ විදුහල් දෙකේ අද ළමයින් 600 කට වඩා සතුටින් අධ්‍යාපනය හදාරති.

සුගතපාල ගොඩවත්ත මහතා දක්ෂ විදුහල්පතිවරයෙකු පමණක් නොව ප්‍රවීණ පුවත්පත් කලාවේදියෙක් විය. කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයේ දේශපාලන වැඩ කටයුතු කළ නිසා තම ගුරු වෘත්තිය තහනම් කෙරුණු විට ඒ මහතා ඇත්ත පත්‍රයේ කර්තෘ මණ්ඩලයේ සාමාජිකයකු බවට පත්වී  එ.ජා.ප රජය නිර්දය ලෙස විවේචනය කළේය.

කඔුරුපිටිය පළාතේ පාසල් තවදුරටත් දියුණු කරන්නේ කෙසේදැයි මගේ පියා සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කිරීමට ගොඩවත්ත මහතා ඉමදුව වවුලුගල වතුයායේ පිහිටි අපේ නිවසට වරින්වර පැමිණියේය.  වරක් ඔහු පැමිණියේ පේෂකර්මාන්ත ගුරුවරියක වූ තම බිරිඳ සෝමාවතී හා වැඩිමහල් පුතුන් දෙදෙනා සමගය.

තාත්තාලා සමාජ සේවය ගැන කතා කරද්දි මමත් ගොඩවත්ත පවුලේ ලොකු පුතා ප්‍රභාත් හා දෙවන පුතා බන්දුල සමග මිදුලේ ක්‍රිකට් ගැසුවෙමු.

බන්දුල පද්මකුමාර නැමැති විශිෂ්ඨ මාධ්‍යවේදියා පුංචි කාලයේ මුල්වරට මට හමු වූයේ එසේය.  බන්දුල ඉන්පසු මට නැවත හමුවූයේ ආනන්දයෙදීය.  දවස් කෝලයකු වූ බන්දුල හා බෝඩිං පරිප්පුවකු වූ මා සමහර දිනවල ඉන්ටවල් එකේදී හමුවී කතාබස් කළෙමු.  අපේ කතා වලට බොහෝ විට මාතෘකාව වූයේ අපේ තාත්තලා දෙන්නා කඹුරුපිටිය පළාතේ අලුතෙන් කරමින් සිටි සමාජ සේවා ව්‍යාපාර ගැනය.  බන්දුල අයියා ආනන්දයේ සිටියදීත් පත්තරවලට කවි හා ලිපි ලිවීමට සමතෙක් විය.  ඉරිදා පත්තරවල පළ වූ ඔහුගේ පුංචි කවි හා ලිපි කපාගෙන සදුදා පාසලට පැමිණ යහ ලුවන්ට ආඩම්බරයෙන් පෙන්වීම ඔහුගේ සිරිත විය. බන්දුලගේ සාහිත්‍යය දස්කම් ඔපවත් වූයේ ආනන්දයේ අපි සැමට සිංහල ඉගැන්නූ  ගාල්ලේ බර්ටි ජේ විජේසිංහ  සර් නිසාය.

බර්ටි සර්ගේ තවත් හොඳම ගෝලයෙකු වූයේ සුනිල් මාධව ප්‍රේමතිලක ය.  ආනන්දයේ අපි සුනිල් අයියට වැඩි ගෞරවයෙන් සැලකණුයේ ඔහු එවකට සුප්‍රසිද්ධ කවියකු හා කර්තෘවරයකු වූ මීමන ප්‍රේමතිලකගේ පුතා වූ නිසාය.  සුනිල් අයියා පුංචි කාලයේදීම ලස්සනට ලියන්න හැකියාව තිබූ සිංහල සාහිත්‍යයට තෑගි පිට තෑගි ගත් ළමා ලේඛකයෙකු විය.  ඔහු තම විවේක කාලය ගත කළේ අයිස්ක්‍රීම් කෑමෙන් නොව පුස්තකාලයට වැදී සිංහල හා ඉංග්‍රීසි පොත් පත් කියවීමෙනි.

බර්ටි විජේසිංහ සර් අනුශාසකත්වය දැරූ විද්‍යාලයේ සාහිත්‍ය සංගමයේ සභාපති වූයේ බන්දුල පද්මකුමාර අයියාය.  සංගමය හරහා රචනා තරඟ හා කවි තරඟ පවත්වමින් පහළ පංතිවල මල්ලිලා සාහිත්‍යයට වඩාත් නැඹුරු කිරීමට ඔහු සමත් විය.

එ කාලයේ ලංකාවේ ප්‍රසිද්ධතම ළමා පත්තරය වූ මිහිර ශත 25 ක් දී මිලදී ගැනීමට අප බොහෝ ළමුන්ට වත්කමක් නොතිබුණි. ඒ  බව දැන සිටි බන්දුල අයියා කිරණ නමින් බිත්ති පුවත්පතක් ආනන්දයට හඳුන්වා දුන්නේ ය.  විදුහල්පති රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ පූර්ණ ආශිර්වාදය ඇතුව ආරම්භ වුන බිත්ති පුවත්පත ඉතා කෙටි කාලයකින් අතිශයින්ම ජනප්‍රිය විය.  බ්‍රහස්පතින්දා උදේ පාන්දර බන්දුල අයියා පත්තරයට ලැබුණු ලිපි කවි හා චිත්‍ර තම අතින්ම ලියා හෝ ඇඳ තීරුව තීරුව බැගින් බිත්තියේ අලවන තුරු අපි බලා සිටියේ නොඉවසිල්ලෙනි. පාසල් දරුවකු වශයෙන් මගේ ලේඛන කලාව ඇරඹුණේ කිරණ බිත්ති පුවත්පතෙන් යයි කීම නිවැරදිය.  මා හැරුණ විට බන්දුල  අයියාගේ කිරණ පුවත්පතට නිතර ලිපි සැපයූ පුංචි ළමුන් වූයේ අද ´ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ ඉහළ පෙළේ අධිනීතිඥවරයකුව සිටින මෛත්‍රී පනාගොඩ, වත්මන් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී බකීර් මාකර් හා ආරක්ෂක ඇමති අද්මිරාල් සරත් වීරසේකරය.

කිරණ ලංකාවේ පාසලක නිර්මාණය වූ ප්‍රථම බිත්ති පුවත්පත වීය.  පුවත්පතේ ජනප්‍රියතාවය කොතරම්  වැඩි වී ද කියනවා නම් සමහර දිනවල පාසල් කාලයෙන් පසුව ආනන්ද බාලිකාවේ බොහෝ සිසුවියන්ද කිරණ කියවන්නට පැමිණියහ. සාහිත්‍ය පොතක් ඇහින් නුදුටු අපේ බෝඩිමේ සමහර යාළුවෝ මේ ආරංචිය ඇසුවාට පසු බුරුතු පිටින් කිරණට කවි ලියන්නට වූහ.

කිරණ පුවත්පතට වසරක් පිරීම නිමිත්තෙන් බන්දුල අයියා ඕල්කට් ශාලාවේ ලොකු උත්සවයක් සංවිධානය කළේය.  එහි ප්‍රධාන අමුත්තා වූයේ එවකට දිවයිනේ ප්‍රසිද්ධ ලේඛකයකු වූ පියසේන නිශ්ශංක මහතාය.  වසරේ හොඳම කිරණ ලේඛකයා ත්‍යාගය  නිශ්ශංක මහතා අතින්  ලබාගත් ශිෂ්‍යයා වූයේ ඉම්තියාස් බකීර් මාකර්ය.

ආනන්ද නාලන්ද සමරු කලාපයට මම වරක් කවි පෙළක් ලියූවෙමි.

 මේක සමරු කලාපයට හොඳ වැඩියි දෙව්සිරි”  බර්ටි විජ්සිංහ සර් මට කීය. මම ලියුමක් දෙන්නම් ඒකත් අරන් ලේක්හවුස් එකට හෙට ගිහින් සුනිල් මාධව අයියට මේ ලස්සන කවි ටික දෙන්න.” සුනිල් අයියා එය ජනතා පත්තරේ අග පිටුවේ පළ කලදා මට ඇති වූයේ රට රාජ්‍යයක් දිනුවා වැනි සතුටකි. මගේ නිර්මාණයක් මුල්වරට පුවත්පතක පළ වූයේ එදාය. මම අහසේ ඇවිද්දෙමි.  මගේ තාත්තා ජනතා පත්තර 25ක්ම අරගෙන යාළුවන්ට ඛෙදුවේ මහත් ආඩම්බරයෙනි.

වයස දාහතරේ පුංචි කොල්ලකු වු මාව රට පුරා ප්‍රසිද්ධියට පත් කිරීම ගැන ස්තුති කරමින් මා සුනිල් අයියාට ලිපියක් ලියූවෙමි.

මල්ලි දිගටම කවි ලියන්න.  ඔයා ලොකු උනාම ලංකාවේ ඉහළ පෙළේ සාහිත්‍යය විශාරදයෙක් වේවි” යයි කියමින් ඔහු මට පෙරළා තැපැල් පතක් එවීය.  පසු කලෙක මා ඉංජිනේරුවකු වීම ගැන ඔහු මොනවා සිතුවා දැයි මම නොදනිමි.

සුනිල් මාධව අයියා මට උදව් කළේ එදා පමණක් නොවේ. මා අහම්ඛෙකින් චිත්‍රපට නළුවකු කළේ ද සුනිල් මාධව අයියාය. අපි  අටවන පන්තියේ සිටින විට A D රංජිත් කුමාර, නිලවීර සහ රංඡිත් ලාල්  වැනි ලොකු අයියලා නිම්වළල්ල නමින් චිත්‍රපටයක් නිෂ්පාදනය කරන්නට වූහ. එහි සහාය  අධ්‍යක්ෂක වූයේ බන්දුල පද්මකුමාර අයියාය.  චිත්‍රපටයේ තිරපිටපත ලිව්වේ  ජනතා පත්තරෙ උප කර්තෘ වූ සුනිල් මාධව අයියාය.

චිත්‍රපටයේ දර්ශන බොහොමයක් ආනන්දයේ ලෙඩ්බීටර් දෙමහල්  ගොඩනැගිල්ලේ සෙනසුරාදා රූගත කෙරෙනවා බෝඩිමේ අපි බලා සිටියේ මහත් උද්යෝගයෙනි. එවැනි එක් දවසක පන්ති කාමරයට ප්‍රධාන නළුවා ඇතුළුවන දර්ශනය රූගත කිරීම සඳහා පංතියේ වාඩි කරවීමට ළමුන් මදි බව අධ්‍යක්ෂකවරයාට තේරුම් ගියේය.  මල්ලි ඔය යාලුවත් එක්ක මෙහාට එන්න” යනුවෙන් ගාම්භීර හඬක් ඇසී මා හැරී බැලුවෙමි. ආ ඔයා නේද අපේ ජනතා පත්තරේට කවි ලිව්වෙ˜. සුනිල් මාධව පෙර පරිදිම මුව පිරුණු සිනාවෙන් මාව ඇමතීය. මෙන්න මේ ඩෙස්ක් එක ගාව වාඩි වෙලා සද්ද නැතුව ඉන්න.” රූගත කිරීම ආරම්භ කෙරුණි.  කැමරාවල ආලෝකයෙන් දෑස අන්ධවූවත් අපි අධ්‍යක්ෂකතුමා කී විදියට නොසැලී රඟපෑවෙමු.

දැන් මාතලේ උපාලි ස්ටෝර්හි අධිපති ආනන්ද රාජපක්ෂ මිතුරා හා මා විනාඩි දෙකක චිත්‍රපට නළුවන් වූයේ එසේ ය. රූගත කිරීම් අවසන් වූ වහාම බන්දුල පද්මකුමාර අයියා මගේ පිටට පොඩි තට්ටුවක් දමා” වෙරි ගුඩ්  මල්ලගි ගාමිණී ෆොන්සේකා කැලේ” යැයි මට විහිළුවක් ද කළේය.  සුනිල් මාධව හා බන්දුල පද්මකුමාර අන්තිම වරට මට මුහුණට හමු වූයේ එදාය.

කාලය වේගයෙන් ඇදී ගියේය.  මං එංගලන්තයේ කොටු වීය.  එහෙත් බන්දුල හා සුනිල් මාධව යන විශිෂ්ට ආනන්දීය මිතුරන් දෙදෙනා ශ්‍රී ලංකා පුවත්පත් ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ  ඉහළට ගමන් කරන අන්දම මා බලා සිටියේ මහත් අභිමානයෙනි.   අටවෙනි පිටුව ” හා සත්‍යවාදියෙකුගේ දිනපොත, දිවයින පත්තරය තුළ වෙනම පත්තරයක් ලෙස බිහිවීය.  අන්තර්ජාලය නොතිබුණු ඒ කාලයේ මම තැපෑලෙන් දිවයින ගෙන්වා ගත්තේ සුනිල් අයියාගේ අටවෙනි පිටුව” කියවීමට ය.  ඉඳහිට මම ඔහුට කතා කළෙමි.  මොකද දෙව්සිරි මල්ලි මගේ පිටුව ගැන හිතන්නෙ”.  ලංකාවේ පාඨකයන් අතර ඉතාම ජනප්‍රිය ඔහුගේ අටවෙනි පිටුව ගැන පිටරට අපි හිතන්නේ මොනවාදැයි දැනගැනීමට සුනිල්ට අවශ්‍ය වීය. සුනිල් අයියා කිව්වට තරහ වෙන්න නම් එපා දැන් නම් කැරොලිනාගේ කතාව බෝරිං වේගෙන එන්නේ. ලංකාවේ ඉන්න පාඨකයන්ට එල් සැල්වඩෝර් එකේ විප්ලවකාරියෙක් ගැන උවමනාවට වඩා දැනගන්න අවශ්‍ය නැහැනේ.”

එහෙනම් මොනවා ගැනද මම ලියන්න .”

අයියේ උදේට කහට උගුරක් වත් නැතුව බඩගින්නෙ ඉස්කෝලෙට ඇවිත් කලන්තෙ හැදිලා වැටෙන දරුවෝ ගැන ලියන්නකෝ.  යූ.එන්.පී මැති ඇමතිවරු හෝටල් වල පාටි දමද්දී  රෑ ට කන්න පාන් ගෙඩියක් ගන්න රුපියලක් නැතුව ලත වෙන දුප්පත් මිනිස්සු ගැන ලියන්නකෝ.”

සුනිල් මාධව අයියා ඉන්පසු විදේශ විප්ලව කතා මෙන්ම ලංකාවේ දුගී දරුවන්ගේ දුක ගැනද ලිපි ලීවේය. එහෙත් සුනිල් මාධව අයියට එක තැනක වැඩි කලක් වැඩ කරන්න බැරි ගායක් හැදී තිබුණි‚. ඔහු පත්තර මාරු  කළේ අපි සපත්තු මාරු කරන ගානටය.  භීෂණ සමයේ ඔහු වැඩ කළේ ලක්දිව පත්තරේය.  ඔහු ප්‍රේමදාස ජනාධිපතිට නිර්දය ලෙස පෑනෙන් පහරක් දුනි.  සුරා පොදක් කට ගා නොතිබූ සුනිල් හදිසියේ මධුවිතට ඇබ්බහි වී තිඛෙනු ආරංචි වී මා ඔහුගෙන් ඒ ගැන විමසුවෙමි. මල්ලි අඩියක් දෙකක් ගැහුවොත් තමයි මට මේ හැත්ත ගැන තියෙන වෛරය තද වෙන්නේ.  එතකොට දිගට හරහට ලියතැකි”යි කියමින් ඔහු සිනාසුනේය.

මාධව අයියා ගැන තවත් රසවත් සිදුවීමක් මට හොඳටම මතකය.1991 වන විට ඔහු සිටියේ ලක්දිව පත්තරේ ය. එංගලන්තයේ වටිනා සිද්ධි ගැන මම වරින් වර ලක්දිවට ලියූ නිසා අපි නිතර ටෙලිෆෝනයෙන් කතා කළෙමු.

ලංකාවට වරක් නිවාඩුවට පැමිණ මනමාලියන් 50ක් පමණ බලන්න ගොස් ඔවුන්ගේ ගෙවල්වලින් බඩ පිරෙන්න කාපු බීපු හැටි මා විස්තර කරද්දී මාධව අයියා අසා සිටියේ ආසාවෙනි. මම නම් මල්ලි මනමාලියො බලන්න යන්නේ නැහැ.  මනමාලියො ගෙදරට ගෙන්න ගන්නවා.”

ඒ  කිව්වේ˜

අපේ ඔෆිස් එකට කවි අරන් කෙල්ලෙක් එනවා.  මාර ලස්සනයි.කවද හරි එයා තමයි මම බඳින්නේ.”

මොනවා?  එයාගේ නම මොකක්ද අයියේ ”

මනෝරා”

අයියට කැපෙනම නම තියන කෙල්ලෙක් කොහොම හරි සෙට් කරගත්න. ”

ඒ ඇයි.”

ඇයි ඉතිං ඔයාගේ මනෝකායෙ නිතරම තියෙන්නේ රා”නේ. බැන්දට පස්සේ මනෝ- රා ඔයාට ඕනතරම් බොන්න ඉඩ දෙයි.”

සුනිල් මාධව මගේ විහිළුවට විනාඩි ගණනක් මහ හඬින් සිනාසුණේය. ඉන් වසරකට පමණ පෙර පසු සුනිල් අයියා මනෝරා සමඟ විවාහ වූ බව අසා මම බොහෝ සතුටට පත්වීමි.  මනොරා දැන් අරුණ පුවත්පතේ දක්ෂ මාධ්‍යවේදිනියකි.

මේ අතර බන්දුල පද්මකුමාර ජනමාධ්‍ය ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ බලවත් පෙරළියක් ඇති කරමින් මුල් පිටුව” පටන්ගත්තේය.  ආනන්දයේදී කිසිම ළමයකු පටන් ගන්නට නොසිතූ කිරණ˜ බිත්ති පුවත්පත බිහි කරමින් ළමා පත්තර කලාව වෙනස් කළ බන්දුල අයියා මුල් පිටුව වැන්නක් පටන් ගැනීම මට පුදුමයක් නොවී ය.

ආනන්දයේදී බන්දුල පද්මකුමාර ඇන්ඳේ හැන්ඩියටය.  මනාව මැද තිබූ ඔහුගේ පිරිසිදු සුදු කමිසය හා කලිසමේ කිසිම රැල්ලක් දකින්නට නොවීය.  කන්නාඩියක් ලෙස පොලිෂ් කර තිබූ කළු සපත්තු දෙකක් දමා කොළපාට ෆයිල් කවරයක් අතේ තබාගෙන පාසැල් කොරිඩෝර වල ඔහු ගාම්භීර ලෙස ඇවිදින අන්දම මට දැනුත් මැවී පෙනෙයි.

පුවත්පත් වෘත්තියට බැස්ස පසු ද ඔහු ඉතාමත් ස්මාට් එකට අඳින්නට සැලකිලිමත් විය.   මුල් පිටුව”කරද්දී සතියේ දවස් හතට එකිනෙකට වෙනස් වර්ණවලින් ටයි පටි හා කමිස හතකින් සැරසී පාඨකයන් ඉදිරියට පැමි ණී මට ඔහු වග බලාගත්තේය.

නමුත් සුනිල් මාධව අයියා පාසැල් යන කාලයේ පවා ඇඳුම් ගැන උනන්දුවක් නොදැක්වීය.  ඔහුට අවශ්‍ය වූයේ හැඩට අඳිනවාට වඩා ජනතාව හැඩකරන්නය. නොකෙරෙන විප්ලවයක් ගැන තරුණ පරපුර ආවේගශීලී කිරීමට ඔහු සමත් වීය.  කියුබාවේ හා එල් සැල්වදෝරයේ මෙන් ධනවාදයට විරුද්ධව ලංකාවේ ජනතාව කවදහරි කැරලි ගසනු ඇතැයි යන්න ඔහුගේ විශ්වාසය විය.  නමුත් භීෂණ සමයේ සුනිල් වටා එක්වුණු තරුණ පරපුර පවා ඔහුගේ අවසන් කාලයේ ඔහුව අමතක කර දමා තිබුණි.

බන්දුල හැමදේම කළේ මනා පිළිවෙලකට ය. සතියේ ඉදිරි දිනවල කළ යුතු දේ හා හමුවිය යුතු අය කවුදැයි තම දිනපොතේ ඔහු මනාව ලියා ගත්තේය. එනිසා ඔහු වෙලාවට වැඩ කළ පුද්ගලයකු වීය. නමුත්  සුනිල් මාධව එයට මුළුමනින්ම වෙනස් චරිතයක් විය.

හෙට කරන දේ තියා අද හැන්දෑවෙ කළයුතු දේ ගැනවත් ඔහුට කිසිම නිශ්චියක් තිබුණේ නැත.බන්දුල තුළින් කාටත් දකින්නට ලැබුණේ සාන්ත දාන්ත භාවය හා තැන්පත් ගති ලක්ෂණයන්ය. නමුත් සුනිල් මාධව අයියා ඛෙහෙවින් කළබලකාරිත්වයෙන් යුතු  ආවේගශීලී පුද්ගලයෙකු වූයේ ය.  මොවුන් දෙදෙනා අතර තිබුණු එකම සමානකම නම් පවුලේ වැඩ   කටයුතු කිරීමට ඉඩක් නො තිබීමයි.   බන්දුලගේ  පුතා හිරු හා දියණිය මුතු හැඩි දැඩි කිරීමේ තනි වගකීම බාර ගෙන සිටියේ පේරාදෙණියේ උපාධිධාරිණියක  හා සුප්‍රසිද්ධ ළමා පොත් කතුවරියකු  වූ ඔහුගේ බිරිඳ සමන්මලීය. එසේම සුනිල් මාධවගේ එකම පුතා සංජීවගේ ඉගෙනීමේ කටයුතු හා වගකීම් සියල්ලම ඉටු ක ළේ  මාධවගේ මාධ්‍යවේදී  බිරිඳ මනෝරාය.  රටේ උන්නතිය සඳහා නිර්භයව දිවා රෑ පෑන මෙහෙයවන්නට හැකි වූයේ ඔවුන්ගේ මේ  සුන්දර බිරින්දෑවරු දෙදෙනා නිසාය.

අප විසින් පිහිටුවා ගන්නා ලද එක්සත් රාජධානියේ ගාලු මිතුරු පදනම හරහා කඹුරුපිටියේ පාසල් 16ක දරුවන්ට පුස්තකාල පොත්පත් අලුත් නවීන සපත්තු හා ලැප්ටොප් ලබාදෙමින් සිටින බව ආරංචි වූ බන්දුල පද්මකුමාර මට එක් දිනක ටැලිෆෝන් කළේය.

මල්ලි බැරිද අපේ ඉස්කෝලෙටත් මොනවා හරි කරන්න.”  ඔහු ඒ කතා කළේ කඹුරුපිටියේ කහගල විද්‍යාලය ඔහුගේ පියා නමින් සුගතපාල ගොඩවත්ත විදුහල ලෙස නම් කළ පසුවය.

මෙන්න වැඩක්. ලේක්හවුස් එකේ සභාපතිතුමාට පුළුවන්නේ තාත්තගේ ඉස්කෝලෙට තට්ටු තුනක බිල්ඩිමක්  තනියම හදලා දෙන්න”. මම ඔහුට විහිළු කළෙමි.

කොරෝනාවට පෙර අවසන් වරට මා ලංකාවට ගිය වෙලේ සුගතපාල විදුහලට පා තැබුවේ ළමුන්ට පොත්පත් ක්‍රීඩා උපකරණ ප්‍රින්ටරයක් හා අයිස්ක්‍රීම් වෑන් එකක් ද රැගෙනය.  දැනට මාස කිහිපයකට පෙර බන්දුල අයියා උපන් ගමේ මාපලාන විදුහලට අපි අංග සම්පූර්ණ පුස්තකාලයක් පරිත්‍යාග කරන දවසේ එය විවෘත කිරීමට පැමිණෙන ලෙස මම ඔහුට ආරාධනා කලෙමි.

එන්න නම් හරි ආසයි මල්ලි, නමුත් මේ ලෙඩේ නිසා සමන්මලී මට කොහේවත් යන්න දෙන්නේ නැහැනේ. එයා නැත්නම් මම මෙලහකටත් වලපල්ලට ගිහින්” යයි ඔහු කීවේ දුක හා සතුට මුසු ස්වරයෙනි.

දෙව්සිරි මල්ලි කඹුරුපිටියේ ඉස්කෝල වලට ඔච්චර උදව් කරන්නේ ඊළඟ සැරේ ඡන්දෙ ඉල්ලලා අපේ  ඩලස්ව පරද්දන්න දැයි” සිරිත් පරිදි විහිළුවක් කරමින් ඔහු කතාව අවසන් කළේය.  බන්දුල  පද්ම කුමාර අයියා සමඟ මා කළ අවසන් කතාව එය වීය.

මේ අතර සුනිල් මාධව අයියා ඔත්පළව ඉතා දුබලව සිටින බව මා දැනගත්තේ මෙයට වසරකට පෙර ප්‍රභාත් අත්තනායක මිතුරා මවුබිමට ලියූ ලිපියකිනි. ප්‍රභාත් ගේ ලිපිය කියවූ වහාම මම ලංකාවේ සිටින මගේ මල්ලි ලවා සුනිල්ට උපකාර කළෙමි.  ඔහුගේ පරණ පත්තර මිතුරන් කිහිප දෙනෙකු ද වහාම ඔහු හමුවන්නට ගොස් තිබු ණි. එහෙත් සුනිල් අයියා විකල්ප පත්තර වල සිටින අවධියේ ඔහු වෙනුවෙන් මස් ලේ දන් දෙන්නට පවා ලෑස්ති යයි කියූ  සටන්කාමීන් කිසිවකු අවසන් කාලයේ ඔහුගේ පිහිටට පැමිණ සිටියේ නැත. අසූව දශකයේ  හැන්දෑවන්හිදී ඔහු වටා එක් රැස් වී සිට අඩිපුඩි ගැසූ සුන්දර මිත්‍ර සමාගම ඔහුට  නැති බැරි  කාලයේ අහලකටවත් ආවේ නැත. ලෝක ස්වභාවය එය යයි කියමින් සුනිල් අයියා හිත හදා ගන්නට ඇත.

ලෙඩ රෝග අප සැමට පොදුය.  අද හෝ හෙට මරණය කෙසේ හෝ අප කරා ළඟා වනු ඇත. අකල් මරණය ඔවුන් දෙදෙනාම සොයා ආවේ නොසිතු වෙලාවකය.  රෝගීව සිටි සුනිල් මාධවත් බන්දුල පද්මකුමාරත් පසුගිය සතියේ  පැය විසි හතරක් තුළ මරණය කරා ගිය බව අසා ආනන්දීයයන් දහස් ගණනක් කඳුළු සැලුහ.

බන්දුල පද්මකුමාර හා සුනිල් මාධව ප්‍රේමතිලක එකිනෙකාට වෙනස් ශෛලියක්  හා භාෂාවකින් අප රටේ පුවත්පත් කලාවට අනුපමේය සේවයක් කළ පතාක යෝධයන් දෙදෙනෙකි.  ඔවුන් දෙදෙනා නැතිවීමේ පාඩුව අපට වඩා මතු ඉපදෙන තරුණ පරපුරට දැනෙනු ඇත.

අපේ ගම්පළාතෙන් බිහිවුණු විශිෂ්ට පත්තර කතුතුමා  බන්දුල පද්ම කුමාරයාණෙනි,  පීඩිත පන්තියේ උන්නතිය සඳහා දිවි පරදුවට තබා පෑන මෙහෙය වූ සුනිල් මාධව සොයුරාණනි, සුරලොව දෙවඟනන්  ඔබ දෙපලට සැමදා බැති ගී ගයනු ඇත.  යලි හමුවන තුරු අපි සමු ගනිමු .

 බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ඉංජිනේරු ගාල්ලේ දෙව්සිරි පී. හේවාවිදාන ලන්ඩන් නුවර සිට ලියයි.  devsiri@hotmail.com

MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR, Asia regional correspondent Courtesy Nikkei Asia

IMF warns of worse to come as South Asian nation fights shy of 17th bailout.

COLOMBO — Random flashes of public anger have erupted all across Sri Lanka, the South Asian nation in a deepening economic crisis exacerbated by the policy flip-flops of its ultranationalist government.

In some rural areas, effigies of ministers have been burnt by enraged farmers who have suffered from the government’s failed organic fertilizer policy, fingered by agriculture scientists as a main cause of the poor rice harvest.

“If they come here they will go home in a box,” a 52-year-old farmer in the north-central Anuradhapura region fumed, using an ominous idiom for a coffin.

In Colombo, the commercial capital, a fight broke out late one night earlier this month between car owners at a gas station close to the prime minister’s office in an affluent, tree-lined neighborhood. The fisticuffs occurred after sports utility vehicles of the rich had lined up with the ubiquitous three-wheel taxis for hours for the last drops of petrol and diesel — both now scarce.

The latest signs of a country on the edge have different causes from previous bouts of street unrest. Those ranged from human rights violations and media repression to angst following nearly three decades of civil war. Past protests were also staged by trade unions campaigning for better wages, and for women’s concerns and green causes.

Discontent is now being fueled by the pain families all over the strategically-located Indian Ocean island are feeling as the debt-ridden economy runs out of dollars to pay for vital imports.Fights have broken out at fuel stations where drivers queue for hours as the pumps run dry.   © Getty Images

“There is frustration over the government’s inability to handle the crisis and manage things,” Farzana Haniffa, head of the department of sociology at the University of Colombo, told Nikkei Asia, affirming the view held by many seasoned observers about who is the most to blame.

“People have just had enough,” she said. “The rank inefficiency is obvious — the powers that be have dropped the ball.”

March is being marred by mounting deprivation and daily price increases. A cooking gas shortage has forced hundreds of bakeries to shut down, milk products have become pricey — particularly hurting families with young children — and medicines are in short supply at pharmacies. Regular and lengthy power outages plunge much of the country into darkness, adding to the woes.

Cutting anti-government comments and sarcastic jibes on social media make clear the rising tide of discontent. A recent opinion poll by Verite Research, a Colombo-based think tank, mirrored the trend. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s administration received only a 10% approval rating — a dramatic contrast with the soaring popularity the hawkish candidate enjoyed when he won a landslide election victory in the November 2019 presidential derby, 11 points ahead of his main rival. 

Last week, the finance ministry issued a list of 367 imported items to be restricted, further evidence of the country’s dollar drought. The items included foreign foods, drinks, beauty products and clothes. That comes on top of the 623 imports slapped with restrictions in September,  electronic goods included.

The need for these restrictions was demonstrated in the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s February numbers. Official reserves were down to $2.31 billion with gold reserves at just $98 million. Sri Lanka’s $81 billion economy is struggling to meet foreign debt obligations of $6.9 billion this year, and its imports totalled $20.6 billion in 2021.

The International Monetary Fund has already warned the Rajapaksa government that worse is in store. The government has so far fought shy of an IMF bailout, begging instead for funds from foreign allies like China and India as so-called “home-grown solutions.”Garment workers staged a protest at their Colombo factory in early March to demand diesel and an end to power cuts following a seven hour outage.    © Reuters

Sri Lanka has needed IMF lifelines 16 times in the past 56 years. That places it behind only debt-ridden Pakistan as a seeker of help from the international lender.

“The economic outlook is constrained by Sri Lanka’s debt overhang as well as persistently large fiscal and balance-of-payments financing needs,” the IMF said on March 2 following an assessment.

The IMF said gross domestic product growth is projected to be negatively affected by the impact of the foreign exchange shortage and “macroeconomic imbalances on economic activities and business confidence.” 

Sri Lanka’s outlook will be “subject to large uncertainties with risks tilted to the downside,” it said, forecasting inflation in double digits in 2022 with weak GDP growth of just 2.6%. That is less than the 3.6% it projected for 2021 when the lucrative tourism sector collapsed with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government’s anti-IMF stance, a mantra of the ultra-nationalists in the Rajapaksa camp, is not winning friends among business leaders in the country known as Ceylon in its British colonial days.

The Joint Chambers, an influential network of nine business groups, urged the government this week to “pursue the support of the IMF and formulate a reform program” to contain the multiple crises. “It is better to do it today than face a far worse debacle tomorrow,” Vish Govindaswamy, chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, told reporters this week.

Seasoned observers concur. “We need the IMF because the domestic rout has little more to offer,” Dilshan Wirasekera, chief executive officer of First Capital, a prominent investment bank, told Nikkei. “The sooner the decision is taken the better, even if there is economic pain.”

The government’s decision this week to devalue the currency hints at the first signs of the Rajapaksa administration toying with an IMF bailout. The rupee had been trading at a government imposed rate of 201-203 on the U.S. dollar. That encouraged a thriving black market in which the dollar traded at 250 rupees. The Central Bank lost millions of dollars in reserves as foreign remittances from Sri Lankan migrant workers — key to building up dollar reserves — flowed in at the black market rate through informal networks.

Colombo-based diplomats are looking for more signs to assess the extent of this about turn. “There have been mixed messages from those in government about going to the IMF,” one told Nikkei. “This confusion does not help the country.”

Courtesy Dawn

An anti-terrorism court on Saturday indicted 89 individuals accused of lynching 49-year-old Sri Lankan factory manager Priyantha Kumara Diyawadanage in Sialkot over blasphemy allegations last year.

Kumara was lynched by a mob comprising hundreds of protesters, including the employees of the factory he was the manager of, on December 3. The mob had tortured him to death and later burnt his body. A first information report was registered against 900 workers of Rajco Industries on the application of Uggoki Station House Officer Armaghan Maqt under sections 302, 297, 201, 427, 431, 157, 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code and 7 and 11WW of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Scores of suspects were arrested in the following days.

The incident saw widespread outrage and condemnation across Pakistan with politicians, scholars and civil society members calling for swift punishment to be meted out to the perpetrators.

ATC judge Natasha Naseem presided over the case’s hearing today in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail and summoned 14 prosecution witnesses on Monday. All of the accused pleaded not guilty.

Five prosecutors, including Senior Special Prosecutor Abdul Rauf Wattoo, appeared in jail today for the trial in which challans were also distributed among the accused. Wattoo told Dawn.com that 40 witnesses have been made part of the challan by the prosecution.

According to the challan, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, videos, digital evidence, DNA evidence, forensic evidence, eyewitnesses, including Kumara’s colleague who had tried to save him from the mob, were made part of the investigation.

It stated that footage from 10 digital video recorders in the factory was sent for forensic analysis, while the accused were traced via videos from social media and footage recovered from the mobile phones of 56 accused.

It said their crime was unforgivable and called for the strictest of punishment to be meted out.

by Dr. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA Courtesy The Island

There are two cracks, not one: the crack in the Cabinet with the expulsion of the Weerawansa-Gammanpila duo, and the incipient crack in the ruling SLPP coalition manifested in the launch of a new program under the leadership of ex-president Maithripala Sirisena.

The obvious parallel is superficial, i.e., the beginnings of the crack-up of the United Front coalition in 1975. What’s happening now has a deeper dimension.

What is well-known is that Wimal and Udaya were prominent in the Mahinda Rajapaksa comeback campaign which kicked-off with the February 2015 rally in Nugegoda. That event was significant not only because of its numbers and impact but also because it was the fastest post-defeat turnaround in Sri Lankan political history.

Wimal and Udaya were the Young Turks, the dynamic drivers, of the Mahinda comeback, without which there would have not been a Pohottuwa government.

What is less well-known but is more pertinent currently, Wimal and Udaya were also the main engines of the Gotabaya candidacy project. They were the political and public opinion drivers of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa candidacy and presidency.

It is these men to whom he owes so very much, who have been dismissed from Cabinet by President GR.

However, as the expulsion from the Cabinet shows, they were not the real hardcore, the real nucleus of the GR project, though they may have thought they were.

The contradictions first began not with Gotabaya Rajapaksa, but well before he was candidate, with Basil Rajapaksa when the Pohottuwa (SLPP) was being formed.

BR exhibited scant respect for the leaders of the Joint Opposition (JO) parties which had kept the flag flying when both he and GR were out of the picture. He was rude to them on more than one occasion.

BR became a caricature of Felix Dias Bandaranaike with his undiplomatic, divisive role in the United Front coalition.

This was the beginning of the friction within the JO which has now manifested itself in the Cabinet changes.

There were three mistakes that Wimal and Udaya made and may have not yet emancipated themselves from:

1. This Government is unprecedentedly unpopular, not chiefly due to BR but to GR’s cruel move on the fertilizer issue and his autocratic style of political behavior. The entire paradigm of BR as the rightwing of the coalition government is superficial. As in the case of Felix, BR is also an economic pragmatist who is trying to keep the government afloat, repairing some of the damage of ‘closed door’ ultranationalist economic policies.

2. The strategy of fighting the rightwing BR” on behalf of, or while defending GR, is not merely irrational, it has cost Wimal and Udaya their Cabinet portfolios, proving yet again that the Rajapaksa Clan stands together even against the loyalists of each Rajapaksa taken separately. I doubt MR threw down the gauntlet on Wimal and Udaya’s behalf.

3. Wimal and Udaya were not the real, indispensable hardcore of the GR project though they may have thought they were. They were merely the populist camouflage for a Deep State/ex-military project. The hardcore of the GR project was the Viyath Maga plus Eliya.

What seems to be happening now is a GR-BR merger. It began in 2018-2019 with BR making the first move and opening the SLPP meetings to ViyathMaga/Eliya speakers, which permitted an ideological infusion and displacement from moderate-nationalist center-left to autocratic Far Right. Now GR is in such trouble politically that he has reciprocated, accommodating BR’s SLPP, which in turn is quite willing to shift from the erstwhile center-leftism to GR and his policies.

The Pohottuwa/SLPP has become a party of family fellow-travelers; a First Family Fan Club. Therefore, a gap has opened between the SLPP as ruling party and the SLPF as a governing coalition/front. The ruling party stays intact for the moment, while the ruling bloc has developed hairline cracks.

The SLPP will not stay intact for much longer. There were already SLPP MPs at the public event of the Sirisena-led grouping at which the alternative program was released.

As social rage boils over and the regime resorts to a burst of repression, escalating unrest to a volcanic upheaval, the SLPP will split. SLFPers TB Subasinghe, AM Jinadasa, Nanda Ellawela and Tennyson Edirisooriya revolted in 1976. That was far too little, far too late to save them electorally.

This time SLPPers, SLFPers and partner-party MPs will have to leave much earlier and constitute themselves a parallel Opposition if they are not to evaporate electorally.

At the center of it all is the fate of the centrist SLFP. That party dominated the island’s political life from 1994 to 2015. If you factor in the SLFP spin-off the SLPP and the shift to it, it has been in executive office from 1994 to 2022.

When it lost its way by CBK’s excess of conciliation in the face of the LTTE, MR came along and gave it another decade.

When, having won the war, MR lost his way postwar, under pressure from the competing GR and BR projects, Sirisena split off and was elected President.

When Sirisena’s SLFP was politically immuno-compromised by the Ranil-Mangala UNP, the SLPP arose and the SLFP MPs shifted to it.

Now, with the GR-BR deviation from the old MR line, the SLPP has the option of shifting back to Sirisena and the SLFP. If Sirisena’s SLFP can combine his positive side of Yahapalanaya, with the best of the CBK and MR traditions, this will give them a chance to beat the JVP-NPP and become the main Opposition or coalition partners of the main Opposition which may need allies to make up the numbers needed for Governmental and executive power.

The SLFP, the coalition parties of the SLPF and indeed the rational MPs of the SLPP, should take their seats as an independent Opposition, before the coming social explosion (around Sinhala-Tamil New Year?) consumes them politically. All it takes is a single spark. That spark can appear at a petrol shed!

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Foreign earnings from all exported goods and services have been made mandatory and to be remitted to Sri Lanka within 180 days from the date of shipment or provisioning of services, the Central Bank stated.

Issuing an Extraordinary gazette notification, Repatriation of export Proceeds into Sri Lanka” the CBSL Governor stated that every exporter of goods and/ or services shall; immediately upon all and every receipt/s of export proceeds being received, forthwith submit all related documentary evidence on each and every receipt of export proceeds, in respect of every export of goods and/ or services to the respective licensed commercial Bank or a permitted licensed specialized Bank (hereinafter referred to as a licensed bank”), that receives such proceeds, in Sri Lanka.

The Gazette notification

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/564138295/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-yXZubhGkTlZPorkrjCw4

Courtesy Adaderana

The Health Ministry says that another 347 persons have tested positive for Covid-19 today, as the daily count of new cases continues to rise in the country.

This brings the tally of Covid-19 cases registered in the country thus far to 655,730. 

According to official figures, 618,797 positive cases have recovered.

Following the new development, the number of virus-infected people who are undergoing treatment moved to 20,543. Meanwhile, the death toll stands at 16,390.

The Director-General of Health Services has confirmed another 09 coronavirus-related deaths for March 11, pushing the country’s Covid-19 death toll to 16,390.

This figure includes 07 males and 02 females, according to the Department of Government Information. 

One of the deceased patients is between the ages 30-59 years and the remaining 08 are in the age group of 60 years and above.