උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

රජය විසින් ගෙන යන කාබනික පොහොර වැඩපිළිවෙළ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අද කොළඹ පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී වෘත්තිකයන්ගේ ජාතික පෙරමුණ විසින් විවේචන එල්ල කරන ලදී.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=830397407629112&t=0

මාධ්‍ය හමුවට පෙර එහි පැමිණි රජයේ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරීන්ගේ සංගමයේ සභාපති අනුරුද්ද පාදෙණිය මහතා එම පෙරමුණේ ලේකම්වරයාට උපදෙස් දෙන ආකාරය පටිගත වී තිබිණි.

කාබනික වැඩපිලිවෙල හෙට කරන්න කියා නොකී බවත්, එය විය යුතු බව පමණක් කී බවත් මාධ්‍යට කියන්නැයි ඔහු උපදෙස් දුන්නේය.

සුරක්‍ෂිත ආහාර තිබීම වෛද්‍ය සංකල්පයක් නිසා කියූ බවත් ඒ සදහා වැඩපිලිවෙලක් සකස් කලද රටට කියන්ට බාර නොගත් බවත් ගොවියාත් ඇතුළු දෙදෙනාම රැකගත යුතු බවද පවසන්නැයි ඔහු එහිදී පැවසීය.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව පොහොර ගැන මෙලෝ දෙයක් දන්නේ නැතැයි ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී මහාචාර්ය තිස්ස විතාරණ මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

විශාල මිලක් වියදම් කරමින් කිසිම ගුණාත්මක බවක් නැති පොහොර මිලදී ගන්නා බව ගන්නා බවද ඔහු පැවසීය.

ඒ මහතා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ ලංකා සමසමාජ පක්ෂ ශ්‍රවණාගාරයේදී පැවති විශේෂ සාකච්ඡාවක් අමතමිනි.

දැනට ඉන්දියාවෙන් ආනයනය කරමින් ඇති පොහොර වර්ගයට වඩා ලාභ සහ ගුණාත්මක භාවයෙන් වැඩි පොහොර ස්ලින්ටෙක් ආයතනය විසින් දියුණු කර ඇති බවද ඔහු සඳහන් කළේය.

ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට එම පොහොර වර්ගය සාදා විදේශයන්ට අපනයනය කල හැකි බවත් ඔහු තව දුරටත් කියා සිටියේය.

MUNZA MUSHTAQ, Contributing Writer Courtesy Nikkei Asia

Central Bank has been printing money as tax take falls and prices soar

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s COVID-stricken economy is being likened to a ticking time bomb that could go off at any moment as foreign reserves plummet, the cost of living rises and the central bank carries on printing money.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka printed over 130 billion rupees ($640 million) in October alone, but that is just the iceberg’s tip. From December 2019 to August 2021, Sri Lanka’s money supply increased by 2.8 trillion rupees — a massive 42%.

Much of the money went to pay the salaries of 1.2 million state sector employees, and to cover pensions that each year cost the government a thumping one trillion rupees. Unlike the private sector, which suffered salary cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic, state employees carried on at full pay despite the empty public coffers. Money was also printed with a view to keeping interest rates low.

Though it has generally been characterized as printing money, most of the increase in the overall money stock — or “broad money” as it is termed — since the end of 2019 is made up of government borrowings from the central bank and commercial banks.

Addressing a press conference earlier this month, Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal defended the decision to print money on the grounds that it was needed to maintain stability.

“If you read the monetary law, one of the responsibilities of the central bank is price stability as well as financial system stability,” he said. “Sometimes, in the interest of financial system stability — as well as economic and price stability — there can be instances where additional treasury bills could be issued to the government.”

Cabraal said similar money supply increases have been seen in about 120 countries “as a result of the pandemic.

This view is not acceptable to W. A. Wijewardena, a former central bank deputy governor. He has warned that the 42% increase will pump severe inflation, possibly to over 40% in the next few years.

“Normally a central bank can allow this money stock to increase without causing inflation if the increase is equivalent to the real growth of the economy,” Wijewardena told Nikkei Asia. Since growth in 2020 was -3.6% and is expected to be around 4.5% in 2021, real net growth for the two years will be “about 1%,” he said.

It was Wijewardena who used the economic time bomb analogy: “It is now ticking and can go off at any time,” he told Nikkei.

Some experts warn that inflation in Sri Lanka could go beyond 40% from just over 6% at present.     © Getty Images

Sirimal Abeyratne, an economics professor at the University of Colombo, is more supportive of the current monetary policy because of the fiscal damage the pandemic has caused. The extra money has helped fund government spending and kept interest rates down for private credit.

But he thinks the approach should be “only temporary,” and notes that the central bank actually tightened monetary policy in September when inflationary signals were detected. He told Nikkei that a price has also been paid “in terms of exchange rate pressure.”

Sergi Lanau, deputy chief economist at the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, has taken a similar view. Sri Lanka’s central bank was compelled to finance the government’s significant expenditure during the pandemic, “which was not unusual.” The central banks of the Philippines and of Indonesia did much the same. But he cautioned that “if money printing continues, we can expect pressure on inflation and on the exchange rate, which does not help resolve the ongoing crisis.”

Cabraal told the press conference that higher inflation is a concern. “We are conscious of that and we will manage it,” he said. “We don’t want to see a situation where inflation could rise unduly.” He predicted “a slight dip” in December, and said the central bank intended to ensure price rises do not accelerate into double digits.

In mid-October, Colombo lifted price controls on essential food items, including household gas. That saw the the price of a 12.5 kilogram cylinder of cooking gas jump from 1,400 rupees to 2,675 rupees in the space of a week. A 400 gram pack of milk powder, a staple in almost every Sri Lankan home, increased to 480 rupees from 380 rupees, and wheat flour went up by 10 rupees a kilo causing a domino effect in bread and other flour-based products.

Last week, the Lanka Indian Oil Company, which competes with the state-run fuel distributor Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), announced a 5-rupee increase per liter of fuel with effect from Oct. 21. CPC has since been seeking approval to increase fuel prices after suffering a loss of 70 billion rupees this year up to August.

Sri Lanka’s inflation rate has increased this year from around 4% to about 7%, but fell back slightly in September. The September food index was meanwhile up 22% compared to two years earlier.

Abeyratne said the price increases were in large part due to ad hoc and piecemeal policy decisions.

In 2019, soon after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected president, sweeping tax cuts were announced to make good on an election pledge. The bonanza included cutting value-added tax to 8% from 15%, and abolishing the 2% nation-building tax on domestic goods and services.

Whilst the government blames the pandemic for the economic reversal, Eran Wickramaratne, a former state minister of finance, considers the tax cuts to be one of the main causes.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa marking Independence Day in Colombo on Feb. 4. On his watch, government revenue sank last year to 9.6% of gross domestic product from 12.6% in 2019.   © Reuters

“The financial crisis was brought on soon after President Rajapaksa did away with taxes, and following their removal government revenue fell by nearly 30% in 2020,” he told Nikkei. “The government created the financial crisis itself, but certainly the pandemic made it more complicated, resulting in total mismanagement of the economy.”

In 2020, government revenue in Sri Lanka amounted to approximately 9.6% of the nation’s gross domestic product, down from 12.6% in 2019 ahead of the tax cuts.

Both local and international economic experts, including Lanau and Wijewardena, insist that the only way out now is for Sri Lanka to turn to the International Monetary Fund.

Wijewardena said that an IMF special drawing rights loan facility of about SDR 2 billion ($2.8 billion) at a rate of 3.55% repayable over 4.5 to 10 years would help Sri Lanka recover foreign investor confidence and buttress foreign exchange flows. That would provide a breathing space to introduce necessary long-term economic reforms to return the country to growth.

By Dr PARAKRAMA WAIDYANATHA Courtesy The Island

The consignment of nano urea, much spoken about produced by Indian Farmer Fertiliser Corporation (IFFCO}, had just arrived! Locally it is named Nitro Raja!” Can the imported Raja settle our fertiliser woes, where the ‘local Raja’ has hitherto failed?

What is nano urea, many people ask! For the layman it may best be described as something akin to Seeni- polkohu” or Bombai-motai”, where sugar particles are attached to a fibrous material. Similarly, in nano urea, the urea molecules are attached to oligosaccharide (examples, starch and sugar) molecules. This greatly enhances the efficacy of the applied urea to crops.

The advantage is that, whereas urea when applied to the soil, often much of it is wasted through leaching, run-off in rain water and vaporisation, losses are very small with the nano formulation. Even normal urea if applied to plants as a leaf spray in good weather, the losses are far less than application to the soil. Up to a maximum of 5% of chemical nutrients can be applied as foliar spray, and in fact urea is, for example, routinely applied in tea plantations usually mixed with zinc sulphate, which research has reported, to boost crop yields substantially.

Regrettably the imported consignment apparently is exclusively for rice cultivation. Is it because the tea growers were not as vociferous and violent as the rice farmers in their demonstrations and ministerial effigy-burning? Ideally, for the tea growers, too, urea is critically important. As most would have applied all nutrients over the years, the soil reserves of nutrients should suffice to tide over an year or more except for nitrogen, the most yield determining nutrient; and the current huge tea crop losses could have been saved, if at least urea in whichever form were supplied to the tea industry.

The critical issue is, however, whether at the recommended rate, the imported nano urea could effectively meet the crop nitrogen demand. It is imported in 500 ml bottles and each bottle content, the advertisement says, is equivalent to a 50 kilo bag of normal fertiliser urea. Nevertheless, it is further stated in the advertisement that the contents has a nitrogen(N) concentration of only 4%, whereas normal urea has 46%.

Meeting Demand?

Let us see whether the supplied nano urea can meet the crop nitrogen demand at the prescribed application rate. The national average yield of rice is now 5 tons /hectare. Therefore, an average rice crop by way of grain and straw removes about 80 kg/ha, and the normal rate of application of nitrogen for a good rice crop is 100kg/ha . So, in whatever way the crop is fertilised (with nano urea or normal urea) a 5 ton rice crop/ha should remove a minimum of 80 kg of nitrogen. Theoretically, however, the recommended nano-urea formulation imported can only provide 20 grams of nitrogen per 500 ml bottle, and to provide the requisite nitrogen of 80kg/ha to the crop, therefore, 4000 such bottles should be applied! The cost of a 500 ml bottle is reported to be Indian Rs 240, which is about local Rs 500. Theoretically then, the nano fertiliser per crop to provide the entire crop nitrogen requirement should cost two million rupees! Can this nano urea then practically meet the total crop nitrogen demand ?

The crux of the matter is that, in India, where nano urea is used, usually a basal application of conventional urea is made to the crop, and nano urea is only sprayed at mid- maturity as a foliar spray for boosting the crop.

The other serious concern is that when nano urea is spayed as the crop is growing, the emerging weed growth in the absence, now, of the two standard herbicides used in rice, one before crop emergence (usually Propanil) and the other ( MCPA )when the crop is in early growth(post emergent), could be substantial. Nearly 95% of the rice growers broadcast seed, and hand weeding is difficult in such crops. Row seeding is highly labour demanding and row seeders are costly. Much of these weeds are highly competitive C4 grasses and sedges, which too will benefit from the foliar nano urea spray and increase the competitiveness, reducing the crop yield!

One of the growing concerns today, globally, in the fertiliser scenario is, not whether it is organic or chemical, but with the grain production anticipated to increase by at least 40% in the next decade and 60% of the nitrogenous fertiliser used for it, the devastating environmental AND pollution issue . Many argue the answer is in cutting down meat consumption as bulk of the grain in the developed world is used as animal feed!

However, there is already technology generated for improving N management practices at the farm level, and nitrogen uptake efficiency (NUE) increases of 36% and 32% have been achieved in the U.S and Japan respectively in the last few decades; one of them being nano fertilisers. With novel plant breeding and fertisier technologies many scientists envision reaching 90-100% NUE in the near future.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Controversy involving fertilizer imports from China took a dramatic turn yesterday when the Chinese company, in a lengthy statement, disputed sample testing done here saying the  unscientific detection method and conclusion of National Plant Quarantine in Sri Lanka obviously does not comply with international animal and plant quarantine convention.

Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co., Lt, issuing a statement through the Chinese Embassy in Colombo said it had participated in the bidding and had won the bid successfully. It was officially listed as a qualified supplier for Tender No. IFB No.SMOF/OFPR/2021/1 on August 11, to supply 99,000 tons of organic fertilizer to Sri Lanka.

The statement said, After being awarded the tender, Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group signed contracts with the buyers through a local biding agent in Sri Lanka, and strictly fulfilled the contract. It overcame many difficulties, such as busy international and domestic orders, soaring global raw material prices, tight shipping schedules and berthing space, high sea freight cost and so on, and gave priority to ensure the production and delivery of the tender contract for Sri Lanka. After the buyer issued Letter of Credit (L/C), Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group shipped the organic fertilizer which comply with the quality requirements on September 23rd according to the time schedule required by L/C (before September 25th). While the goods were on the way by sea, CFC informed that “the import permit has not been obtained” and “the goods will be rejected”. However, according to international trade practices, it is the buyer’s obligation to obtain the import permit.

The failure to obtain the import permit is caused by the buyer’s mistakes and negative inaction. On September 23rd, Sri Lanka NPQ received the seller’s product samples. On September 27th, the seller received an oral notice from the buyer and was informed that Sri Lanka Plant Quarantine Center (NPQ) issued a conclusion of “suspecting that the samples contain Erwinia”, but did not provide the test report, test method and standards. According to ISPM27 rule in IPPC (International Plant Protection Convention), it will take more than 6 days to identify Erwinia, but NPQ only takes 3 days to draw a “suspicious” conclusion. After the supplier raised doubts, NPQ Sri Lanka updated the report on October 11th. 7 days was used to test, but it still did not indicate the test standards and methods.

Testing temperature of Erwinia shown in the report is 37 ℃, and carrot slices at 37 ℃ are used for pathogenicity test. According to the relevant agreement of IPPC, the testing temperature of Erwinia is 25 ℃, and healthy plants should be used for pathogenicity test. At least 13~14 days should be used to confirm Erwinia through pathogenicity. The unscientific detection method and conclusion of NPQ in Sri Lanka obviously do not comply with international animal and plant quarantine convention. In fact, the supplier’s product samples have passed the test of Schutter group, a third-party international testing organization designated by the buyer (SLSI) and
passed the export plant quarantine of China Customs before shipment on September 23. On October 5, according to the requirements of Sri Lanka NPQ, Testing Center of China Customs made a supplementary statement on the samples that the products do not contain Erwinia. However, Sri Lanka NPQ and the buyer openly denied the above test results and unilaterally used the test report issued by NPQ laboratory as the basis for judging the product quality, which is inconsistent with the contract agreement, international trade rules and the test result of their own designated third-party. After the seller received the buyer’s letter of credit, the buyer repeatedly violated the principle of independence of letter of credit, and obstructed the bank from paying the payment to the seller by arbitrarily changing the negotiation conditions of L/C, changing the settlement method from letter of credit to collection, applying to the court  for a stop payment order of letter of credit, etc. In the case of major differences between the two parties on the facts of contract performance and major disputes over the product quality test results, the buyer and NPQ Sri Lanka have irresponsibly conveyed false and even controversial remarks to the media for many times. The media that do not know the truth have made negative reports on the quality of Chinese enterprise and Chinese products, and even used “Toxic, garbage, pollution” and other derogatory words that seriously slander the image of Chinese enterprise and the Chinese government. Such unilateral, untrue, and irresponsible remarks mislead the public and undermine the credibility of the media. The above “deliberately creating difficulties”, “unreasonable” and even “malicious” acts of Sri Lanka NPQ, the buyer and some media give people reason to suspect that the buyer is creating various obstacles to obstruct the performance of the contract, and even has bad commercial intentions. What is the so-called “toxic” fertilizer?

CHATURANGA SAMARAWICKRAMA Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The government yesterday said that the new health declaration system inaugurated at the BIA was one of its kind which would enable passenger to complete fulfilling their health declaration in 20 seconds to proceed to clear immigration. 

This health declaration system was inaugurated by the Aviation and Export Zones Development State Minister D.V. Chanaka at the BIA premises on Tuesday.

The Minister told the Daily Mirror that the prime objective of introducing this system was to reduce the use of physical form filling and encourage passengers to opt for an online platform, thereby reducing physical contact and passenger processing time.

He said passengers could log on to www.airport.lk official website or on https://www.airport.lk/health_declaration/index and enter their details.

Passengers can access the above links before boarding the flight, while traveling if the flight has an internet facility, or after arriving at the airport.

Chanaka said with the new system, health authorities will be able to receive passenger information in advance, which will help in reviewing the passenger’s health records while reducing the queuing time.

“Passengers should fill out the web based Health Declaration form, attach the vaccination card, and COVID-19 PCR test report done within 72 hours prior to departure to the health declaration. Next, the passengers should submit the form online. Upon submission, passengers will have the facility to capture a QR code and will also receive an email with that QR code,” Chanaka explained.

“The health officials at the airport will receive the passenger information before the passenger arrives at the airport, and they will review the information. Finally, passengers who have submitted their health declaration forms online should have the QR code ready (either in the email or on their mobile device) upon arrival, for scanning at the health declaration counter,” he said.

“After passengers arrive at the airport, they should report to the airport’s health declaration counter to check their COVID reports. Earlier, passengers had to fill out a special form at the counter, and it took at least two minutes. After introducing the new system, other than filling out the papers, people can scan the QR code they received. The scanning and retrieving of the passenger information by the Health Declaration counter official will take a few seconds,” airport officials said.

“After scanning the QR code, the passenger will receive a receipt. The passengers can keep that receipt for any further inquiry by the area Public Health Officer (PHI) or any other health inquiry,” officials added.

If the provided documents are verified, the passengers will be directed to the immigration counter. The immigration counter procedures have also been digitalized, which will allow passengers to exit in the shortest time. 

The exit time however will depend on the passenger. That will change if the passengers prefer to shop at the duty-free.

Chanaka said it will take 20 seconds, to scan the QR code and to certify the details. Later, the passengers will be directed to the immigration counters.
Passengers who do not have access to the new system, should visit the Health Declaration counter at the BIA and fill out the forms manually.

The State Minister said that this project was launched at BIA with the expectation of providing a convenient travel experience to passengers. ()

Courtesy Adaderana

The total number of people, who died of COVID-19 infection in Sri Lanka, moved up as 20 more fatalities were confirmed by the Director-General of Health Services on Tuesday (October 26).

The new development has pushed the official death toll from the virus outbreak in the country to 13,674.

The latest victims include 11 males and 09 females, the Department of Government Information said.

According to official data, 08 deaths were reported among elderly people aged above 60 years. In addition, 12 people aged between 30-59 years have also fallen victim to the virus infection.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry says that another 425 persons have tested positive for the novel coronavirus today (27).

This pushes the total number of Covid-19 cases registered in the country thus far to 538,186.

The number of infected patients currently being treated across the island is 20,136 while total recoveries have risen to 504,376.

The death toll in the country due to the virus is 13,674. 

Shenali D Waduge

Sri Lanka’s post-independence history has been marred by bloodshed. We have had assassinations of Prime Minister/President/Politicians/Public Officials, unarmed civilians and even children. All of these killings have had hidden foreign hands behind them. Amidst this, the hidden hands have deployed people to cause further mayhem. To cover their insidious designs, they mimic ‘conspiracy theories’ to prevent people joining the dots to the money trail. Unfortunately, politicians have become easy bait & their weaknesses are tapped to legislatively weaken the nation, public officials are being tapped to do the same, while we can assume many in the private sector prefer to only view what is profitable to them regardless of what calamity it may cause the country. This leaves us with the armed forces, police & the national security & intelligence apparatus. It is no surprise that this key component would also be targeted along multiple fronts to dilute their role in securing the sovereignty of Sri Lanka.

The first hit to Sri Lanka’s national intelligence apparatus came with the Millennium City debacle that was choreographed well to create a bogus notion of a threat to the life of the former PM RanilW by the intelligence operatives, which not only resulted in raiding the hideout but the disclosure of all of the names of these intelligence operatives to the LTTE which ended up in over 50 of these brave men being gunned down by LTTE. To this day the UNP hierarchy have not apologized to the families of the dead. These intelligence operatives had done a marvelous job in penetrating LTTE operations & helped the armed forces breach LTTE lines of defense. The Millennium City debacle occurred after the 2002 infamous ceasefire agreement signed between Ranil Wickremasinghe & Prabakaran that confined our armed forces to camps and armed LTTE were allowed to go wherever they liked. The inroads LTTE and the camouflaged LTTE in suits would have made to penetrate into the national systems no one will know.

This was the first of the breaches in national security and attempt to destabilize Sri Lanka from within when it looked like the LTTE needed other reinforcements. These came in various forms all funded by foreign sources and probably all kept separate from each other and following orders only. It also made it easy for them to change their modus operandi each time their game plan was on the verge of exposure.

The Church is currently making many allegations. The persons the Church deems guilty need to be first proved guilty. Simply because the Church claims them to be guilty, they cannot be put under the gavel. This is the same Church that openly played a key role in LTTE terrorism – not only via robes but also via their missionary laymen and their organizations.

We can recall over 3000 NGOs were operating in the war-torn areas where LTTE ran a defacto rule. None of them saw fit to take legal action against LTTE for child recruitment except compile lovely reports. None of these terrorist-linked clergy or church-employed laymen were held accountable for every crime LTTE committed. So when the Church now accuses the slow pace of justice, perhaps the Church may care to explain Church inaction over 3 decades against people in robes and laymen linked to LTTE. The Church was part of the bandwagon that openly canvassed for all that the LTTE fought for.

We cannot omit to mention the role played by UNP who led the slogan ‘the war is unwinnable’ demoralized our troops and was prepared to even sign sovereign territory to terrorists. Unfortunately, the nature of cross overs is such that proponents of these statements are even holding key posts in the present government.

That the armed forces, police and intelligence services played a key role in the eventual demise of the LTTE cannot be mentioned enough. These were the unsung heroes and these were also unknown heroes and it was important that their identities were kept secret from public to prevent another Millennium City debacle. However, came regime change in 2015 and we saw how a plethora of NGOs, so-called ‘civil society organizations’ converged to bring about regime change and it was they who decided which armed service personnel was to be transferred, were to be sent to prison, were to be demoted etc. This resulted in the second attempt to dilute and weaken the intelligence and security apparatus of Sri Lanka.

The secret cells that were following and monitoring various likely insurgent groups and leaders were disbanded and politicization within security units led to service heads being at odds with each other. All this was naturally being watched in glee by the handlers who were no doubt elated at the manner their pawns were performing.

It is a puzzle that 8 men decided to commit suicide attacking 3 churches and 3 hotels without leaving a reason for doing so or at least making a demand even after a dramatized ISIS pledge relayed over social media. That unsuited personnel were manning the crucial security apparatus & taking lenient notice of the warnings highlighted the bad selection to these roles which led to their inability to respond proactively to prevent the carnage inspite repeated warnings.

However, none of the officials who were in security roles during the Easter attack are holding positions currently. Therefore, when the Church decides to nitpick names of current officials and plug these names to the Easter Sunday attack, it is playing political mischief. This generally happens every time the country is on a vulnerable footing and the mischief handlers love to make the atmosphere worse.

It is important for the general public to realize that today there are only a handful able to call a spade a spade because they have not compromised their integrity – most others are pawns. We live in times when most doctors are bribed by big pharma to prescribe their medicines, our politicians & their families have lost their integrity as well, public officials also need to be investigated, private sector also have skeletons.

Thus, the Sri Lankan public must be aware of why Sri Lanka is important to many except the leaders of Sri Lanka. The historical attempt to acquire Sri Lanka continues. Our resources and assets are valued by those that seek their takeover but not the owners who have no issue in siphoning them off, while a handful of us are trying to safeguard the little we have left to call our own as we realize the need to preserve it to pass on to future generations.

Our faith in the armed forces, police & intelligence & security apparatus should not be shirked and we must be attuned to attempts to dislodge their importance from the very quarters that played a role in sponsoring and fanning terror.

The people are no doubt intelligent and have studied the various operations to destabilize Sri Lanka. Thus, the pawns are tasked to regularly come up with more ‘stories’ to keep the process moving.

Rev Siril claims on 23 October 2021 that the main suicide bomber Zahran Hashim leader of NTJ was given monetary and other support from Sri Lanka’s intelligence services & that the present head of SIS had links to Zahran & his followers.

What is he implying and what is the proof he has and what is the objective behind this allegation?

In March 2021 Rev. Siril said that the Church was yet to be convinced that the Government was on the ‘right track to identify Easter Sunday architects’ – what is the track that the Rev wishes the Govt to take? Does the Church have its own list of suspects & have they given this list to the authorities or found their own evidence?

In August 2021 Rev Siril told the Sunday Morning that the Cardinal was mooting ‘international assistance’ – perhaps the Rev has forgotten that FBI bolted to Sri Lanka no sooner the bombings took place and went off with most of the mobile evidence! We are yet to know what their conclusions are. Other foreign intelligence also landed to ‘assist’ but none of their findings have been made public by them or the previous government. Could it not be possible that the majority of evidence has been removed or taken out of Sri Lanka during the last government!

It is also noteworthy to mention that the quarters that claim to seek justice for Easter Sunday are also demanding the release of an arrested lawyer not bothered to even wonder what his role was in the Easter Sunday attack. Many in the legal fraternity are also jumping to his defense simply because he is ‘one of them’ – no wonder we can never get justice for anything. Everyone appears to be happy to accuse some lower-rung people of the crime and ignore the main brains – why!

What needs to be clearly said however, is that if the authorities have pinned down the suspects with evidence beyond doubt and if the current laws in place are insufficient to indict, the AG’s department is tasked to create the laws to do so. No one should be released or given a lesser sentence simply because we do not have the legal provisions to indict them in proportion to the crime they have committed. This is regarded as a terrorist attack and the severest punishment should be given for this calculated & planned murder of innocent people & LTTE crimes should be covered as well.

While the Church is demanding the complete implementation of the recommendations by the Easter Sunday Commission, it is pertinent that we demand the GoSL conduct investigations into the Church links to LTTE and the role played by Church fathers in helping LTTE with their terror, taking part in pro-LTTE protests, running LTTE child solder orphanages and allegations of transporting arms in their vehicles. The prominent Church fathers that have led pro-LTTE protests going so far as to even lobby the UN/UNHRC. Why didn’t the Church take action against these Fathers for their role in helping terror?

The country’s security & intelligence apparatus is nothing for external entities (local or foreign) to interfere in. It is an important entity that must be protected by the State.

Shenali D Waduge

Pathik Hasan

Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are both South Asian countries. As an island county in South East Asia, Sri Lanka has been utilizing some facilities in the sector of international maritime trade, commerce. Sri Lanka is known as a maritime hub in South Asia. Its Colombo port is very famous in the world map.

On the other hands, Bangladesh has some geo-strategic significance that’s why China is interested in investing in Bangladesh. Now Western powers want to see Bangladesh as a strategic partner in the Indo-Pacific region. But Bangladesh has joined China run BRI in 2017. Its location across the Bay of Bengal gives a strategic position in South East and South Asia. Bangladesh can utilize this properly.

However, Pakistan is the only South Asian country who is showing its full-scale strategic significance to the world leaders at this moment. Its foreign policy has shifted towards geo-economic from Geo strategy. CPEC and Gwadar port has added extra value in this regard. China run Gwadar port and CPEC has increased more confidence between China and Pakistan to prove that they are really all weather ally”.

Sri Lanka has some advantageous position in South Asia in case of maritime connectivity. It is also known as a maritime hub in South Asia. Sri Lankan Hambantota port is a hot cake in international politics. Sri Lanka has leased it to China for 99 years. There is some debate regarding this. But that is another issue. However, China is more interested to connect Sri Lanka with its connectivity project Belt and Road Initiative”

It is very pertinent to mention that Sri Lanka and Pakistan are both the active members of China ‘BRI’ project. Sri Lankan Hambantota and Colombo ports are considered as epic center and hub of China’s BRI project in South Asia. Sri Lankan ports can be used a regional maritime hub between South Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia and Middle East.

Sri Lanka and Pakistan can work together in the sector of bilateral trade, investment, science and technology, and culture through enhancing connectivity. Sri Lanka is the one of the top most business partner of Pakistan in South Asia.

Pak PM Imran Khan visited Sri Lanka in February 23-24, 2021. During his visit to Sri Lanka, Mr. Khan focused on Pakistan’s connectivity with Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has historical connection with Pakistan. Sri Lankan Colombo port’s connection with Pakistan’s Karachi port is well to Known.

Pakistan is the part of the Chinese president’s Belt and Road Initiative through its flagship China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, Sri Lanka could benefit from it through enhanced connectivity up to the Central Asian states. Bi lateral connectivity would increase the bilateral trade between the two states. Basically, Sri Lanka and Pakistan would benefit mutually.

Sri Lanka can ensure its maximum interest from using of Gwadar Port for warehousing to facilitate trade with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Western and Central China, Central Asian Republics and Middle East. Gwadar is connected with CPEC. Ultimately, Sri Lanka can easily export to and import from the markets of above-mentioned states. Sri Lankan can to use Gwadar Port’s gateway for export to Afghanistan and then Uzbekistan and from there to entire Central Asia.

During the visit of Sri Lanka, Imran commented that Pakistan is allocating land to Uzbekistan for warehousing and export, the same facility can also be provided to Sri Lanka. (February 26, The Business Recorder)

On the other hands, according to a leading Bangladesh daily (Daily Observer), Bangladesh can benefit from using Pakistan’s Gwadar port. The Daily Observer published an article titled Bangladesh can benefit from Gwadar port’ on September 30, 2021.

Pakistan’s another daily Pakistan Today” has also published an article titled ‘Why Bangladesh should use Pakistan’s Gwadar port?” on September 26, 2021. Leading Pakistani daily Pak Observer” has also republished the article urging the Bangladesh and Sri Lanka both to utilize the Pakistan’s Gwadar port for ensuring their business interest. It is pertinent to mention that Sri Lanka’s another online portal Lanka Web and India’s Maritime Gateway’ republished the article on September 26,qmd 27 respectively with referencing.

But That is not issue of my article. My point is here that the main theme of the article is connectivity amongst Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The author of the article shows that If Bangladesh’s Chittagong, Payra, Mangla ports can be connected with Pakistan’s Gwadar ports including Karachi port, Port Qasim and Keti bandar via Sri Lankan Colombo port and Hambantota port, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan would benefit trilaterally. Regional connectivity would ensure their own maximum business interest. The millions of people in the region could benefit.

Sri Lanka’s Tea, apparel, machinery and Bangladesh apparel, mangoes, medicines, potatoes can be easily exported to the above-mentioned markets. On the other hands, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka both import goods such as cotton from Pakistan, Central Asian States, Western and Central China even Russia. But a holistic trilateral effort is much needed in this regard. If Sri Lanka and Bangladesh use CPEC, they can take part in the development process in Afghanistan with Pakistan, China, Russia, Iran. SAARC may be revived through these activities. Revival of SAARC is must at the present context or scenario of South Asia.

Pakistan’s Gwadar port could benefit Sri Lanka in this regard. If Sri Lanka starts to use Gwdar port, its export to Central Asian states, Central and Western China and Pakistan would increase. Sri Lanka’s connection with Pakistan’s CPEC project would accelerate the regional connectivity more.

The bilateral connection between two states would boost up. Sri Lanka and Pakistan can increase their joint bilateral efforts to counter terrorism, tackle covid-19 etc. Terrorism has been harming the economic interests of both states. Sri Lanka saw Easter Church attack in 2019. Pakistan has been facing the challenging from TTP threat. If Pakistan and Sri Lanka increase the connectivity through utilizing of these connectivity project, bilateral efforts of tackling and countering terrorism would ensure automatically.

Tourism is another sector. Pakistan has many historical Buddhist sites such as ancient civilizations of Gandhara, Takhsila. Sri Lanka people can easily visit these historical holy sites if connectivity between two states would build. On the other hands, Sri Lanka has historical places for Muslims like Adam peak. Pakistani Muslims will be able to more to visit the holy site. But bi-lateral connection is must for ensuring that. CPEC is a regional connectivity project.

As a regional state, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh each can and should join the project to exploit the benefit. This trilateral connection would boost up the business connection, people-to-people connection. The public diplomacy, economic diplomacy, cricket diplomacy would be strong more.

Pathik Hasan is a Dhaka based human rights activist, analyst and columnist.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The army took care to remove all possible LTTE monuments once the Eelam war was over. They knew that otherwise these monuments would become shrines. The only LTTE ‘monuments’ at the time were the LTTE cemeteries such as the cemetery at Chaaty Beach near Jaffna.

The army bulldozed all of them. The Tamil Separatist Movement watched with dismay. They alleged that Thuyilum Illam7, a graveyard in honor of slain LTTE soldiers was destroyed and an army camp set up over it. I think this is most unlikely.  Thereafter court orders were obtained in 2014, banning events of remembrance and mourning in Jaffna.

However, the Yahapalana government which came to power in 2015 was very pro-Eelam and the Tamil Separatist Movement took the opportunity to erect memorials to the LTTE.   If JVP was free to remember its dead leaders, so should the Tamils, said TNA.

Ten years after the war, around 2019 the Tamil Separatist Movement started to put up memorials. The motive was political. Tamil Separatist Movement was planning to use Memorialisation as a political tool. One memorial was, predictably, put up at Mullivaikkal where the LTTE was defeated.

In September 2021 three persons including Jaffna District MP Sevarasa Gajendran were arrested for organizing a ceremony to commemorate former LTTE political wing leader Thileepan, in contravention of quarantine regulations. They were arrested when they were preparing for the commemoration at Thileepan’s statue in Nallur. They were told htat court had issued an order barring commemorations in the place. As they continued regardless, police arrested them. British All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT) have expressed deep concern about this arrest, and urged the Foreign Secretary to raise it with her counterpart in Sri Lanka.

Three memorials to the Eelam war have been set up in the University of Jaffna premises. The Pongu Thamilmonument in the Arts Faculty,  Thileepan memorial in the science faculty  and a memorial to those who died at Mullavaikkal,  known as Mullavaikkal memorial”  on the grounds of the University. The Mullavaikkal monument was for those civilians who lost their lives in the last battle as they were trapped on the battlefield. These people needed a memorial and students believed that one set up within the university would be safer than one put up anywhere else.

In 2021, the Mullavaikkal memorial” came to public attention. Tamil people’s right to commemorate came under sharp focus when authorities at the University of Jaffna recently demolished a memorial on campus, built to remember those who died in the final phase of the war in 2009, announced the media.

The memorial had been approved by the previous Vice Chancellor.  Construction had begun in April 2018 and completed by February 2019, a decade after the LTTE was militarily defeated. Parts of the memorial had been pre-cast outside, brought into the campus and assembled. University Grants Commission   had issued a directive to halt the construction. This had been ignored.

In October 2020 Deputy Inspector General of Police (Jaffna) had sent Vice Chancellor Srisatkunarajah a ‘secret’ report, originating from the army, containing information from intelligence agencies. One in particular from the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) spoke about links between ‘pro LTTE’ students and activities related to the memorial. Also that the memorial was becoming the centre for different ceremonies linked to the LTTE during anniversaries and other events. The army had wanted the memorial demolished.Also the VC was told that no construction could take place in a university without the express permission of the University Grants Commission.

Whenever Vice Chancellor Srisatkunarajah interacted with military or Police seniors during conferences, the first issue to be raised was the Mullavaikkal memorial.” When would it be demolished?  Vice Chancellor was under heavy pressure to do so and this reached a peak in January 2021.  The VC had told the Hindu” newspaper later that that his demolition order was based on instructions from defence, intelligence, Education Ministry, everyone”.

The Vice Chancellor decided to demolish the monument. After consultations with engineers and others he decided that the demolition should take place after 10 p.m. on Friday January 8, 2021. Students were asked to leave the premises that night. The VC and his Registrar Viswanathan Kandeepan were on the premises.

 When a backhoe fixed with spotlights on the roof, began to demolish the memorial, residents at nearby Ramanathan Road and Parameshwara junction heard what they suspected was unusual activity within the campus. Soon the people, including students, turned up at the entrance and watched what was going on. The backhoe was loading the destroyed debris of the memorial and was later unloading it in a corner area.

As the night went on, there was hectic activity. Nine university students launched a hunger strike. By Saturday morning crowds had swelled. That included V. Mannivannan, a lawyer and Mayor of Jaffna. He hurriedly appeared for two persons taken into custody and obtained bail.

Police from Jaffna, Kopay, Manipay, and Atchuveli Police stations were deployed around the campus.  Army troops from the 521 Brigade in Kondavil and Special Task Force (STF) personnel of the Police were stationed at strategic points. They dispersed the crowds but more began coming in. the Army and the Police prevented damage being caused.

The Vice Chancellor initially had taken a firm stance. He told students that the Mullaivaikal memorial” had been built without obtaining approval. But around 3 a.m. the Vice Chancellor changed his position. He turned up before the fasting students with a bowl of rice porridge and declared let us lay a new foundation stone in the morning for a new memorial.” He accompanied the students to the demolished site where they laid flowers. The Vice Chancellor then recited a stanza from Tiruvasagam, a song for Lord Shiva.

On Monday morning VC announced I have received orders from the Government to resolve this issue amicably. Authorities wanted him to diffuse the situation”. This has caused some issues in Tamil Nadu as well.  I have written to the UGC. We are going to put some stones as a symbolic ceremony. The construction of the monument will commence with proper approval.  UGC Chairman and Jaffna University Vice Chancellor had been in touch with each other till the wee hours of Monday, said the media.  

VC told the students that they would be allowed to re-erect the memorial.  A symbolic foundation stone was laid that Monday morning, using stones from the demolished memorial. Students demanded that the VC himself lay the foundation stone. As the rains were continuing the VC wanted to put it off, but the students demanded that he do as they said despite rain. The VC bowed to pressure and laid a foundation stone amidst rain and the students ended their agitation.  

The media pointed out that placing stones to resemble a foundation, also raised an issue. It could be argued that this act, to diffuse a situation,” has been carried out without any formal approval.Minister Wimal Weerawansa condemned the Vice Chancellor for allowing the laying of a foundation stone for a new memorial. On the following Friday, holes were dug to lay concrete to begin erection of a new monument.  

The Presidential Secretariat had not known of the event. Officials had hurriedly telephoned Vice Chancellor to ask who gave instructions” for the demolition I explained the situation in detail to an official of the President’s office,” Prof. Srisatkunarajah told the Sunday Times.

India’s High Commissioner Gopal Baglay had told Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa that the demolition of Mullaivaikal memorial” could lead to protests erupting in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Premier Rajapaksa went into action promptly said the media.  The Vice Chancellor was informed that Tamil Nadu is boiling.”  Media observed that hereafter the Vice Chancellor of Jaffna University would have to be mindful of issues in Tamil Nadu” in the conduct of his official duties.

The demolition of this monument received much local attention.  Local television stations gave wide coverage and the entire peninsula was aroused”.   Tamil newspapers ran banner headlines in black about the incident. The Jaffna Municipal Council adopted a resolution condemning the removal of the memorial. It called for the re-construction of it in the same place.

The Tamil National Alliance called for a hartal.  All shops, offices, and other establishments in Jaffna and in many key towns in the east, closed. Both Tamils and Muslims participated, a new feature, commented the media. National Peace Council said this was the only public monument to those Tamil civilians who perished in the last stages of the war. There is a need to rebuilt this soon.

The demolition also received international attention.          The destruction and desecration of the Mullivaikal Memorial Monuments on the eve of the Annual Remembrance Day is one of the most barbaric acts any decent human being can contemplate, announced the Global Tamil Forum.

In Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami said he was shocked” to hear about the demolition of a memorial that was dedicated to the war dead. Viduthalai Chiruthai Pulikal (VCP) party leader Thol Thirumavalan declared in Chennai he would join Vaiko Gopalsamy’s Marumalartchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to protest outside the Sri Lanka Deputy High Commissioner’s office in Chennai. We demand that the Sri Lankan government reconstruct the memorial inside the campus,” he said. There were also other groups planning protests in Tamil Nadu, he added.

Speaking in the UK House of Commons, Siobhan McDonaugh, Labour MP for Mitcham, and Morden, called for the British government to move a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on the memorial demolition saying it was a denial of religious freedom. She is known for espousing the cause of Tamils who form a sizeable number in her constituency.

In Canada, mayor of Brampton promised to build a monument to commemorate the lives lost in the Sri Lankan civil war, since the Jaffna University memorial had been torn down. Brampton City Council unanimously voted to build their own memorial. Brampton Tamil Association president Benat Mariyanayagam says this was a significant step not only for Tamil people in Canada, all Tamils abroad. The monument will be funded by the local Tamil community.

In February 2021 the media reported that undergraduates of the Jaffna University had unveiled the new memorial. The monument is in memory of those who had been killed at Mullaivaikkal, in 2009 during the final days of the war between the LTTE and the security forces. They were innocent civilians who got trapped on the battlefield, they said.

That is incorrect. These civilians were not residents of Mullavaikkal to start with, to get trapped there. And because of this, they were   not eligible for protection under International Humanitarian Law either.

 This monument is celebrating a group of   persons who willingly left their homes and travelled miles into Mullavaikkal to help the LTTE win the war. They went there holding their land deeds, clearly hoping to return home.  The LTTE were engaged in high treason and these civilians were complicit.  Governments do not permit the memorialisation of high treason.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

කුරුණෑගල මහ රෝහලේ නව සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘති සංකල්පය ඇතුළත් සංදේශය අනුමැතිය සඳහා  ලබන කැබිනට් හමුවට යොමු කරන්නැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අද (26) දින පෙරවරුවේ සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම්වරයාට උපදෙස් දුන්නේය.

කුරුණෑගල පළාත් මහ රෝහලේ නව සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ පැවැති සාකච්ඡාවේ දී අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේය.

කැබිනට් අනුමැතිය ලබා ගැනීමෙන් අනතුරුව 2022 අයවැය තුළින් මේ සඳහා මුදල් ප්‍රතිපාදන වෙන්වන පරිදි රෝහලේ මූලික ඉදිකිරීම් ලබන වසර මුල දී ආරම්භ කරන්නැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

කුරුණෑගල රෝහල ශික්ෂණ රෝහලක් ලෙස නාමකරණයට ඇති බාධාවන් ඉවත් කරමින් කුරුණෑගල ශික්ෂණ රෝහල යන්න නෛතිකව ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන්නැයි ද අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා මෙහිදී සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම් විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය එස්.එච් මුණසිංහ මහතාට උපදෙස් දුන්නේය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගේ උපදෙස් පරිදි නව රෝහල ඉදිකරනුයේ සුවිශේෂ පහසුකම් ද ඇතුළත්වන පරිදිය.

බස් රථයෙන් පැමිණෙන රෝගීන්ට වෙනම බස් සේවාවක් සහ රෝහල අභ්‍යන්තරයේම බස් නැවතුමක් ඉදිවීම, පළමු වතාවට රෝහලක් ආකර්ශනීය හරිත සංකල්පය යටතේ ඉදිකිරීම, ශික්ෂණ රෝහලක් මෙන්ම ශෛල්‍ය වෛද්‍ය, ළමා රෝග හා මාතෘ සේවාවල උසස් මට්ටමේ සේවා සැපයීම, කුරුණෑගල දිස්ත්‍රික්කය මෙරට වැඩිම විහාරස්ථාන සංඛ්‍යාවක් සහිත ප්‍රදේශය හේතුවෙන් අංග සම්පූර්ණ භික්ෂු වාට්ටු සංකීර්ණයක් සහිතව ඉදිකිරීම සහ රෝහලේ සිට අධිවේගී මාර්ගයට හා දුම්රිය ස්ථානයට සෘජු මාර්ග පහසුකම් සැලසීම ඒ අතර ප්‍රධාන වේ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගේ උපදෙස් පරිදි  අමාත්‍ය ජොන්ස්ටන් ප්‍රනාන්දු මහතා ඇතුළු දේශපාලන අධිකාරිය, සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශය, රජයේ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරීන්ගේ සංගමය සහ නාගරික සංවර්ධන අධිකාරිය එක්ව හරිත සංකල්පයට අනුව රෝහල ඉදිකිරීමට අදාළ මූලික සැලසුම සකස් කර තිබේ.

පැරණි වෛද්‍ය නිල නිවස පිහිටි භූමිය හා අක්කර දෙකක් පමණ වූ ක්‍රීඩා භූමිය ඒ්කාබද්ධ කර අක්කර 04 කින් යුතු භූමිය තුළ අලුතින්ම ඉදිකිරීමට සැළසුම් කර ඇති  රෝහලේ මහල් 10 කින් සමන්විත ගොඩනැගිලි දෙකක්  පළමු අදියරය යටතේ ඉදිකිරීමට නියමිතය.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට අමාත්‍ය  ජොන්ස්ටන් ප්‍රනාන්දු , අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් ගාමිණී සෙනරත්, අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය කාර්යය මණ්ඩල ප්‍රධානී යෝෂිත රාජපක්ෂ, අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය අතිරේක ලේකම් නීතීඥ චමින්ද කුලරත්න, සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් එස්. එච් මුණසිංහ, ජාතික අය වැය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජූඩ් නිලුක්ෂාන් , නාගරික සංවර්ධන අධිකාරියේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් එන්. පී. කේ රණවීර,  කුරුණෑගල පළාත් මහා රෝහලේ  අධ්‍යක්ෂ වෛද්‍ය චන්දන කැදන්ගමුව, රජයේ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරින්ගේ සංගමයේ සභාපති විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය අනුරුද්ධ පාදෙණිය, මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරයේ නියෝජ්‍ය ලේකම් ආර්.එම්.පී. රත්නායක මහත්වරු එක්ව  සිටියහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

ශ්‍රී ලංකා සේවා මුක්ත භට සංගමයේ සාමාජිකයෝ අද (26) දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී  අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට සංකේතාත්මකව පොපි මල පැළඳවුහ.

ලොව පුරා යුද්ධයට දිවි පිදූ  රණවිරුවන් සිහිගන්වන  ලෝක පොපි මල් දිනය ලබන නොවැම්බර් 11වැනිදාට යෙදී තිබේ.

කොවිඩ් වසංගතය හේතුවෙන් ලෝක පොපි මල් දින සැමරුම ලබන 14 වැනිදා ඉතා චාම්ව සැමරීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකා සේවා මුක්ත භට සංගමය සැළසුම් කර ඇත.

පොපි මල් අලෙවියෙන් ලැබෙන ආදායම සෑම වර්ෂයකම ප්‍රධාන වශයෙන් විශ්‍රාමික රණවිරුවන්ගේ සුබ සාධන කටයුතුවලට යොමු කරයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා සේවා මුක්ත භට සංගමය ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කළ වාර්ෂික සඟරාව “Veteran” මෙහිදී එම සංගමයේ සභාපති මේජර් ජනරල් උපුල් පෙරේරා (විශ්‍රාමික) විසින් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාට පිළිගන්වන ලදි.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට අමාත්‍ය ජොන්ස්ටන් ප්‍රනාන්දු, අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් ගාමිණී සෙනරත්, ශ්‍රී ලංකා සේවා මුක්ත භට සංගමයේ සභාපති මේජර් ජනරල් උපුල් පෙරේරා (විශ්‍රාමික) උප සභාපති මේජර් ජෙනරාල් මහින්ද  අඹන්පොල (විශ්‍රාමික) ඇතුළු පිරිසක් එක්ව සිටියහ.

Chaturanga Samarawickrama Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage today advised the ministry secretary to remove Prof. Buddhi Marambe of the Agriculture Faculty of the Peradeniya University from all posts he held at the Ministry with immediate effect.

The notice in this regard has been issued today. 

Accordingly, the professor has been removed from the Expert Committee to formulate a National Agriculture Policy, the Sri Lanka Agriculture Sector Modernization Project, and the Smallholder Agribusiness Partnerships Programme. 

The notice revealed that Prof. Marambe had held the position as a director of a chemical fertilizer company “CIC Holdings” for several years and for launching various campaigns against the previous Government’s decision to suspend the importation of the herbicide Glyphosate.

The Ministry sources said Prof. Marambe had influenced the university sector, social activist groups, and the public by making controversial statements against the agricultural policies of the government.

He has further been accused of criticizing the Government’s moves to engage in agricultural activities that safeguard the environment, the Ministry added. 

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror

Colombo, October 26: The reign of Kandy’s last King, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha (1798-1815), was at once colourful and tragic. On the one hand, it was marked by the transformation of Kandy into a beautiful celestial city” and on the other, it stood out for political intrigue, disloyalty, inhuman retribution, British machination and naked aggression, and finally, the elimination of the last indigenous sovereign entity in the island – the Kandyan Kingdom.

The British, who had been eying Kandy ever since they took over the West coast from the Dutch, fueled and exploited dissensions between King Vikrama Rajasinha and the Kandyan chiefs. And in a swift operation conducted in cahoots with the Kandyan chiefs, they overthrew the King and assumed formal power through the Kandyan Convention” signed on March 2, 1815. After acquiring power, the British disregarded their erstwhile Kandyan collaborators while looking after the deposed Sri Vikrama Rajasinha pretty well, forgetting the invectives they had used against him. 

As Kandy fell to British troops, Vikrama Rajasinha fled to Medamahanuwara gap. But on February 18, 1815, a group headed by chief Ekneligoda, and comprising the followers of Ahelepola and a British military team, arrested him. According to M.B.Disssanayake, the King was badly roughed up by his Sinhalese captors. However, a picture of the event shows British soldiers saluting the arrested King.  Apparently, the British had changed their stance towards the King.  

John D’Oyly, the British spy who had meticulously masterminded the King’s downfall by weaning away the Kandyan chiefs with a mix of vile anti-King propaganda and bribes, visited Vikrama Rajasinha and assured him that he and his family would be treated well. The promise was kept. The British became his guardians. Governor Sir Robert Brownrigg got his officers to treat the ex-King with honour. And to save him from his local enemies, the British shifted him to Colombo where they were well entrenched.

Arriving in Colombo on March 6, 1815, Vikrama Rajasinha was put up in a spacious and well-furnished former Dutch bungalow located in the Fort area (on land now occupied by Ceylinco House). British officers who were put in charge of the King treated him with the utmost courtesy. His only grievance was that Governor Brownrigg did not visit him even once! Brownrigg’s discourtesy hurt his royal ego said William Granville, author of The Deportation of Sri Vickrama Rajasinha who was also his escort on his journey to India on exile later on.  

Vikrama Rajasinha wanted to tell Brownrigg how to find the traditional emblems of his sovereignty so that his rival, chief Ahelepola, would not lay his hands on them and enable him to make a claim to the throne. But Brownrigg not only gave him the cold shoulder but decided to exile him to India.

After almost a year’s stay in relative comfort in Colombo, on January 24, 1816, Vikrama Rajasinha, his three wives and a large retinue (totally numbering 60 persons) were put on the British warship HMS Cornwallis for the 26-day journey to Madras and thence to the Vellore fort, 138 km from Madras. Gananath Obeyesekere in his book The Doomed King gives an interesting account of the journey during which Vikrama Rajasinha behaved as if he was still King. He was forever concerned about maintaining his exalted status according to William Granville.

On the day earmarked for sailing, the dethroned King reached Colombo harbor in his full regalia. When he noticed that his coach had to pass under an archway over which many common folk were perched to have a glimpse of the King, he insisted that the archway be cleared of people as the King he could not pass the gateway with any individual above him!” The British officers dutifully cleared the archway of people.

According to Granville the British officers and sailors on board HMS Cornwallis treated the fallen monarch with every mark of proper decorum” even as the King regarded everything with sternness and silence.” Six foot tall, with a bulky body, Vikrama Rajasinha found his tiny cabin in the warship a virtual torture chamber. He would make strange noises expressing despair and displeasure. But he refrained from complaining to the British officers, perhaps thankful to them for sparing his life and protecting him from the angry mob at Medamahanuwara gap. 

Giving due respect to the King, the vessel’s captain, O’Brian, would invite him to dine with him at the captain’s table. But more often than not, the King would decline the invitation. He preferred to eat with his family separately. Occasionally, the King would dine at the captain’s table with his Queens and would be in good spirits though according to Granville he imbibed no spirits which were a plenty on board. The King was an epicurean with a huge appetite. He was fussy about the quality of food and would fly into a rage if it was not up to his liking. Occasionally he would cook (mostly vegetarian) for all including the British crew who would eat it dutifully.   

Though the King was polite to the sailors and British officers, he kept his wives and the servants under control with an iron hand. He always spoke in a loud voice as he thought that it was a hallmark of power. Once he severely beat up his first wife (who was like a personal servant) for an unknown misdemeanor. On another occasion, he broke a wooden bed into pieces only because one of his low caste servants had used it. And on his command, Granville threw the broken bed into the sea!

As the journey to Madras took longer than he expected, the King feared that he was being taken to England secretly. The worried man would often go into meditation to help him get over his anxieties and bear life in the floating prison”. But he perked up when HMS Cornwallis sighted Pulicat near Madras. Usually bare-bodied above his waist, Vikrama Rajasinha quickly changed into his grand Kandyan royal attire. He was to enter Madras right royally in full regalia. According to Granville, the King wore an ornate and colourful Kandyan royal dress with gold, gems and precious stones embedded in it.  

Before landing, he gave instructions to his retinue to follow the set ceremonial procedure followed when the King arrived at any place. As expected, thousands of locals were waiting to greet him on the shore. Sri Vikrama Rahasinha acknowledged the greetings of the assemblage with a slight nod of the head. After resting for a while in specially erected tents, the royal party boarded palanquins for the arduous 138 km journey to the Vellore Fort.

At the Vellore Fort, life was luxurious, writes M.B.Dissanayake. The royal family was housed in Kandy Mahal” occupied earlier by the sons of the Tipu Sultan, the defeated ruler of Mysore. The British in Madras met every request of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha and his wives. They were supplied with clothes and all household necessities. Even jewelluuers were sent to meet the fanciful requirements of the women. The Madras government fully funded the lives of the royal family. And yet, the family piled up debts. The King’s third and the most beautiful wife ran up heavy debts but these were settled by the helpful government.

Vikrama Rajasinha died at 52 in 1832 of edema (swelling that is caused by fluid trapped in body tissues). When his only son died in 1842, the Nayakar dynasty of Ceylon ceased to exist.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, October 26 (newsin.asia): The Chinese organic fertilizer company Qingdao Seawin Biotech Ltd., has demanded that the controversial procurement of organic fertilizer from it by Sri Lanka be referred to the world’s most authoritative and the No.1 third-party testing organization (Swiss SGS group) to test whether the samples are contaminated by Erwinia.

Both parties should unconditionally accept the test results and fulfill their responsibilities accordingly,” the company said in a statement.

In the statement, the Chinese company clarifies that:

1. The shipping arrangement was requested by the Sri Lanka side.

2. The Import Permit should be obtained by buyer but not the seller.

3. The product samples have passed the test of Schutter group, a third-party international testing organization designated by the buyer and had passed the export plant quarantine of China Customs before shipment.

4. The detection method and conclusion of NPQ in Sri Lanka do not comply with international animal and plant quarantine convention.

5. Some officials from Sri Lanka NPQ and the buyer, together with some local media are irresponsible when commenting the issue with baseless derogatory words that seriously slander the image of Chinese enterprise.

Background

Sri Lanka had halted the importation of a China-manufactured organic fertilizer after laboratory tests proved it contained harmful bacteria for a second time, an official the local media at the end of September.

Ajantha De Silva, Director General of Agriculture at the Department of Agriculture said in an with the privately owned NewsFirst network that the fertilizer samples collected last Friday (24) proved to have the harmful bacteria known as Erwinia.

On September 17, Minister of Agriculture Mahindananda Aluthgamage said the samples that were tested earlier were imported unofficially and therefore samples that only officially obtained samples will be tested for the second time.

Earlier, nine samples were obtained unofficially and out of those, two samples were confirmed to have this Erwinia bacteria in them”, Aluthgamage told reporters.

Since it was obtained unofficially, our ministry had doubts about the results we got because if anyone wanted they could have injected the bacteria into those samples,” he said.

Farmers in Sri Lanka are banned from using chemical fertilizer and insecticides, amid import controls.

Since the release of the results, the agriculture ministry has suspended the 63 million US dollar tender that was awarded to Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group, a China based company to bring in organic fertilizer.

The opposition National People’s Power (NPP) raised concern over the matter in parliament on September 21.

NPP MP Vijitha Herath sought explanation from the government on what fertilizer was made of, warning that municipal waste fertilizer could contain harmful residue.

Herath said a sample was collected, supposedly tested and was found to contain Erwinia, though the government had said organic fertilizer was supposed to be sanitized or sterilized.

Some species of Erwinia are plant pathogens which destroy crops.

Media reports showed that with no fertilizers available to them, farmers are reluctant to start planting seeds for the upcoming ‘Maha’ season.

Critics of the fertilizer ban have said farming is supposed to be done under a globally accepted system that specifying safe levels of chemical residues which are updated from time to time and the sudden ban is creating an economic crisis.

Sri Lanka’s tea farmers are saying crops will fall sharply as time goes on due to the lack of specific chemical fertilizers, which are needed at specific times of the growth cycle and other sectors have also expressed similar fears.

Farmers have also periodically protested the lack of chemical fertilizer.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

යූරියා සහ නයිට්‍රජන් පොහොර ඒකාධිකාරය කඩිමුඩියේ පිහිටුවා ගත් සමාගමක තනි අයිතියට ලබාදීම සඳහා සකස් කළ කැබිනට් පත්‍රිකාව බොරුව අසත්‍යය පිරුණු මුදල් මඟඩියකට සැකසූ උගුලකි. කෘෂිකර්ම කේෂ්ත්‍ර යේ රැකවලුන් ලෙස පෙනී සිටින ඊනියා බුද්ධිමතුන් ලංකාවේ කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය වලපල්ලට යවමින් පුද්ගලයින් කිහිප දෙනෙකුට ධන උත්පාදනය සඳහා තම වෘත්තීය දැනුමත් ගණිකා වෘත්තීයේ යෙදවීම කණගාටුවකි.

නැනෝ තාක්ෂණය පිළිබඳ එකම විශේඥයෙකු හෝ නොමැති තාක්ෂණික කමිටුවක් මගින් ඉන්දියාවේ රු. 484 ක් වන (ලංකා රුපියල් 1302.18) ක් වන නැනෝ නයිට්‍රජන්, ලංකාවේ මුදලින් රු. 5230 කට මිලදී ගෙන ඇතැයි මාතලේ දිස්ත්‍රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීණි රෝහිණී කවිරත්න නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් පවසයි.

කැබිනට් පත්‍රිකාවට අනුව ද, ආනයනය කර ඇති නිෂ්පාදන විස්තරයට අනුව ද, මෙම නිෂ්පාදනයට ‘කාබනික සහතිකය‘ නැත. කාබනික කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය දියුණු කිරීම සඳහා යැයි දැවැන්ත ප්‍රචාරයක් ගෙන යමින් ආනයනය කරනු ලැබ ඇත්තේ අවම වශයෙන් කාබනික සහතිකය හෝ නොමැති නිෂ්පාදනයක් ය.

ඩොලර් නැතිකම වසා ගැනීමට කාබනික පොහොර මිත්‍යාවේ ගිලෙන විටම මහ කන්නයට අවශ්‍ය පොහොර – බෙහෙත් සපයා ගැනීම ප්‍රශ්නයක් වන බව බුද්ධියත් ඇති ඕනෑම අයෙකුට වැටහී යා යුතුව තිබුණි. ඒ පිළිබඳ විශේඥයින් අදහස් දක්වා තිබුණි.

කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍යාංශය අද විට දැවැන්ත මුල්‍ය හා ශ්‍රාස්ත්‍රීය වංචා සිදු කරන හොර ගුහාවක් බවට පත්ව ඇත. චීන අශුචි ගෙන්වීමට අවශ්‍ය පරිසරය ගොඩනැගීමෙන් පසුව සියළු රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික සම්ප්‍රදායන් හා රීති බිඳදමමින් චීනයේ දෙපතුල ලෙවකන රටක් බවට පත් කර ඇත. චීන අශුචි පොහොර කෙසේ හෝ ලංකාවට ගොඩබෑම දුෂිතයින්ගේ අරමුණයි.

මහාචාර්ය බුද්ධි මාරඹේ කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති සම්පාදක කමිටුවෙන් ඉවත් කිරීම සැබෑ බුද්ධිමතුන් කෘෂිකර්ම කේෂ්ත්‍රයේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති තීරණ ගැනීමේ ක්‍රියාවලියෙන් ඉවත් කිරීමකි. ඒ වෙනුවෙන්, අශුචි කාබනික පොහොර ගෙන්වීමේ නියෝජිතයා ලෙස කටයුතු කළ වත්මන් කෘෂිකර්ම ලේකම් මහාචාර්ය උදිත් ජයසිංහ සිය ජාවාරමට අවශ්‍ය ලේඛන සකස් කිරීම සඳහා තැරැව්කරුවන් කුලියට ගෙන ඇත.

කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍යාංශය, කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍යවරුන් සහ එහි ලේකම්වරුන් රටේ ලක්ෂ 24 ක් වන ගොවි ජනතාව ද, ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතාවය ද, රටේ ආර්ථිකය ද මකර කටට යවමින් සිදු කරන නාඩගම නැවැත්විය හැක්කේ කෘෂිකර්ම කේෂ්ත්‍ර යේ ප්‍රවීණයන්, වෘත්තිකයින් මෙයට සම්බන්ධ තාක්ෂණික කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන්වන සංවාදයට එක්වීමෙන් පමනී. උද්දච්ච, පණ්ඩිත සොර මුලක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය මකොල්ලකෑම වැලැක්වීමට එක්වන ලෙස කෘෂිකර්ම විශේඥයින්, වෘත්තිකයින්, ගොවිතැනට සම්බන්ධ සියලු සියළු පාර්ශවයන්ගෙන් මම අයැද සිටිමි.

රෝහිණී කවිරත්න
මාතලේ දිස්ත්‍රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීණී

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

රී ලංකාව ආසන්න මුහුදේ රඳවා සිටින චීන සමාගමක කාබනික පොහොර තොගයක් සහිත නෞකාවේ පොහොර සාම්පල නැවතත් දෙපාර්ශ්වයටම පිළිගත හැකි ආයතනයකට යොමු කර පරික්ෂා කිරීමට එකඟ වී තිබේ.

කෘෂිකර්ම රාජ්‍ය ඇමැති ශෂීන්ද්‍ර රාජපක්ෂ සඳහන් කළේ මෙරට පරීක්ෂණාගාර වල සිදුකර ඇති පරීක්ෂණ වාර්තා පිළිගත නොහැකි බව චීන සමාගම දන්වා ඇති බවයි.

අදාල පොහොර නිෂ්පාදන සමාගම ලොව පිළිගත් ප්‍රධාන රටවල් 16කට පොහොර නිෂ්පාදනය කරන ආයතනයක් බවත් එනිසා එහි ප්‍රමිතිය පිළිබඳව අවබෝධයක් ගන්නැයි චීනය ඉල්ලා සිටි බවද ඔහු පැවසීය.

ඒ අනුව එම පොහොර සාම්පල නැවත පරික්ෂා කිරීම සඳහා දෙපාර්ශවය එකඟ වන තුන්වන පාර්ශවය දී ඉන් පසු ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් තීරණයක් ගැනීමට යෝජනා වූ බවද අමාත්‍යවරයා පැවසීය.

ඔහු මේ බව කියා සිටියේ අද කොළඹ පැවති වැඩසටහනකින් අනතුරුව මාධ්‍යවේදීන් කළ ප්‍රශ්න කිරීමකට ප්‍රතිචාර දක්වමිනි.

මේ අතර කෘෂිකර්ම අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජෙනරාල්වරයා සඳහන් කරන්නේ මෙම පොහොර තොග තුන්වෙනි පාර්ශ්වයකින් යළි පරික්ෂා කරන ලෙස චීනය ඉල්ලීමක් කර ඇති බවයි.

චීන තානාපතිවරයා සහ පොහොර සමාගමේ නියෝජිතයන් කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍යාංශයෙන් මෙම ඉල්ලීම කර ඇති බවද ඔහු පැවසීය.

Courtesy Adaderana

The total number of people, who died of COVID-19 infection in Sri Lanka, moved up as 14 more fatalities were confirmed by the Director-General of Health Services on Monday (October 26).

The new development has pushed the official death toll from the virus outbreak in the country to 13,654.

The latest victims include 09 males and 05 females, the Department of Government Information said.

According to official data, 11 deaths were reported among elderly people aged above 60 years. In addition, 02 people aged between 30-59 years and one male below the age of 30 have also succumbed to the virus infection.

Courtesy Adaderana

The daily count of COVID-19 cases confirmed in Sri Lanka moved to 556 today (October 26) as 116 more people were tested positive for the virus, says the Epidemiology Unit.

Two returnees from overseas are also among the newly-confirmed cases.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 537,201.

As many as 504,003 recoveries and 13,654 deaths have been confirmed in Sri Lanka since the outbreak of the pandemic.

More than 19,500 active cases in total are currently under medical care, official figures showed.

Courtesy Adaderana

Amidst the row over an allegedly contaminated fertilizer consignment shipped to Sri Lanka, the China-based Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co., Ltd. today (October 26) issued a media statement urging that a top third-party testing organization should re-sampling whether the samples contain Erwinia.

The supplier strongly requests both parties to entrust the world’s most authoritative and the top third-party testing organization (Swiss SGS group) to re-sampling as soon as possible to test whether the samples are contaminated by Erwinia.”

In her statement, the Director of the Chinese firm, Song Hai Mei, went on the stress that both parties, the supplier and the buyer, should unconditionally accept the test results of the third party.

If Erwinia contamination is confirmed, the supplier shall unconditionally transport the goods back to China, if there is no Erwinia contamination, the buyer shall unconditionally accept the goods and arrange payment,” the statement noted.

The Seawin Biotech further stated that the supplier reserves the right to investigate the legal responsibility of relevant parties for the untrue” or even slander” reports and comments made by some media which caused damages to the image of the Chinese enterprise and the Chinese government

In its statement, the Chinese company clarified that the shipping arrangement was requested by Sri Lanka side. Following the awarding of the tender, the firm said it signed contracts with the buyers through local bidding agent in Sri Lanka and that it strictly fulfilled the contract. After the buyer issued Letter of Credit (L/C), Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group shipped the organic fertilizer which comply with the quality requirements on September 23rd according to the time schedule required by L/C (before September 25th).”

According to Seawin Biotech, the Ceylon Fertilizer Company (CFC), while the goods were on its way via sea routes, had informed them that the import permit had not been obtained and that the consignment would be rejected. However, according to international trade practices, it is the buyer’s obligation to obtain the import permit. The failure to obtain the import permit is caused by the buyer’s mistakes and negative inaction.”

Courtesy Hiru News

Representatives of 41 farmers’ organizations in the Bakamuna area in Polonnaruwa have commenced a continuous fast for the third consecutive day today (26) demanding fertilizer.

Meanwhile, water was released from Maduruoya and Pimburaththewa reservoirs to the Mahaweli B zone for the Maha season this year.

However, there is strong opposition from farmers in the Mahaweli B zone regarding the release of water.

Meanwhile, 33-year-old M.M. Subasinghe, a resident of Galaha Udadelthota area has successfully started producing organic fertilizer.

Speaking to Hiru News team he stated that he is currently producing about 1000 kilograms of organic fertilizer per month and there is a good demand for it from the farmers in the area.

Courtesy Hiru News

A discussion was held this afternoon between the government’s partners and the Ports, Oil, and Electricity Trade Union Alliance against the sale of local resources regarding the agreement to hand over a part of the Yugadanavi power plant to an American company.

The discussion was held at the Communist Party headquarters in Sri Lanka.

Wimal Weerawansa, Leader of the Jathika Nidahas Peramuna, Udaya Gammanpila, Leader of the Pivithuru Hella Urumaya, Dayasiri Jayasekara, State Minister and Secretary-General of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Prof. Tissa Vitarana, Secretary of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and Member of Parliament Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera were also present at the discussion.

Meanwhile, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) also filed a writ petition in the Court of Appeal today seeking the issuance of a writ order nullifying the agreement which is said to have been signed a 40 percent stake in the Kerawalapitiya Yugadanavi power plant to an American company.

The Cabinet of Ministers has named 43 parties including the Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission as respondents in the petition.

Children_Learning_Reading

Their reading system is called Children Learning Reading, and it is nothing like the infomercials you see on TV, showing babies appearing to read, but who have only learned to memorize a few word shapes. This is a program that will teach your child to effectively decode and read phonetically. It will give your child a big head start, and allow you to teach your child to read and help your child develop reading skills years ahead of similar aged children.

This is not a quick fix solution where you put your child in front of the TV or computer for hours and hope that your child learns to “read”… somehow…

This is a reading program that requires you, the parent, to be involved. But the results are absolutely amazing. Thousands of parents have used the Children Learning Reading program to successfully teach their children to read.

All it takes is 10 to 15 minutes a day.

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Reading is one of the most important skills one must master to succeed in life. It helps your child succeed in school, helps them build self-confidence, and helps to motivate your child. Being able to read will help your child learn more about the world, understand directions on signs and warnings on labels, allow them to discover reading as an entertainment, and help them gather information.

Learning to read is very different from learning to speak, and it does not happen all at once. There is a steady progression in the development of reading ability over time. The best time for children to start learning to read is at a young age – even before they enter pre-school. Once a child is able to speak, they can begin developing basic reading skills. Very young children have a natural curiosity to learn about everything. They are naturally intrigued by the printed texts they see, and are eager to learn about the sounds made by those letters. You will likely notice that your young child likes to look at books and thoroughly enjoys being read to. They will even pretend to behave like a reader by holding books and pretend to read them.

At what age can you start teaching a child to read? When they’re babies? At 2 years old, 3, 4, or 5 years old, or wait until they’re in school?

If you delay your child’s reading skill development until he or she enters school, you are putting your child at risk…

Did you know that 67% of all Grade 4 students cannot read at a proficient level! According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, of those 67%, 33% read at just the BASIC level, and 34% CANNOT even achieve reading abilities of the lowest basic level!

There is a super simple and extremely effective system that will even teach 2 and 3 year old children to read.

This is a unique reading program developed by two amazing parents and reading teachers, Jim and Elena, who successfully taught their four children to read before turning 3 years old. The reading system they developed is so effective that by the time their daughter was just 4 years 2 months old, she was already reading at a grade 3 level. They have videos to prove it.

>> Click here to watch the videos and learn more.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Revised 25.10.21

Tamil Separatist Movement got a new lease of life under Yahapalana rule of 2015 – 2018. Tamil Youth Organization and Canadian Tamil Congress hoisted Eelam flag and homage to Prabhakaran on internet in 2015.

 ‘Tamils for Obama’ and ‘American Tamil Forum’, asked Washington to arrest Gotabaya Rajapaksa who is visiting the USA.  They say he was responsible for large scale killing of Tamils and rape of Tamil women. He is a war criminal.  They allege that around 70,000 Tamils were killed in the six months of 2009. This could amount to Genocide.

In 2016 a delegation of Sri Lanka’s Yahapalana ministers met the UK Tamil Diaspora in a public forum and responded to their concerns. The meeting was organized by the Nonresident Tamils of Sri Lanka. Harsha de Silva and Rosie Senanayake participated.  Rosie made a public apology for the 1983 riots.

After Yahapalana took power, the Northern Provincial Council became bold.  It passed a resolution demanding the UN Human Rights Council to establish a special court in Sri Lanka to probe allegations of war crimes and human right violations in the North at the last stage of war.

In April 2016 Northern Provincial Council unanimously adopted a resolution for setting up two states in the island merging North and East in one state. . The resolution also proposed a separate state parliament for the north and east  as well as an autonomous state for the estate Tamils. Muslim majority districts would be considered as autonomous provinces within the state. There was a petition in Supreme Court against this resolution.

Yahapalana puppet government cleared 267 persons of terrorism charges. In 2016 the media reported that Yahapalana government had cleared more than 400 people with links to LTTE. Yahapalana released 32 terrorists held under the PTA, a further 32 will also be released reported the media in 2015. Top sea Tigress, Pakeerathy   was discharged. She had fled to France in 2000.

Critics complained that Yahapalana was pardoning and releasing hardcore LTTE cadres. Dangerous LTTE cadres who were deemed by the previous government to be impossible to rehabilitate, were released without trial by the present government, observed Chandraprema.

Yahapalana  government removed the proscriptions on 8 banned pro LTTE  organizations,  British Tamil Forum, Canadian Tamil Congress,  Australian Tamil congress, Global Tamil forum, National council of Eelam Tamils, Tamil National council, Tamil Youth Organization , and World Tamil Coordinating committee. The National War Heroes Front in Sri Lanka strongly criticized the lifting of the ban.

Yahapalana period  saw the creation of several new separatist  organizations in Jaffna namely  Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), Tamil Civil society Forum (TCSF) and Tamil Peoples Council . The members are largely from Jaffna urban professional class of lawyers, doctors, Christian clergy, university lecturers and journalists.  Not rural Jaffna and Vanni district.  They have one foot in the Tamil Diaspora and their children consider emigration, said Ahilan Kadirgamar.

There were open expressions of support for Eelam during Yahapalana time. In 2015 university of Jaffna had black flags and posters deifying Prabhakaran and a calling for Eelam. Hartals and hunger strikes were organized in the north. The NPC ordered schools to be closed.  In 2016 The Tamil undergrads of University of Jaffna celebrated the dead LTTE before an Eelam map at the University.

 ‘Maaveerar Naal’ celebrations in the north continued. The north annually celebrated Mahaviru Day on November 27, at decorated tombs where LTTE cadres had been buried.  In 2017 at least 40 events were held across the province.

Most of those who took part in the celebrations in 2017 were very young people from 18 to 25, who were too young to remember the war and terrorism and the atrocities that were perpetrated. Now martyrdom, terrorism and suicide bombers are being glorified and the state has allowed that, observed Arun Tambimuttu.

There were a lot of protest marches in Jaffna in Yahapalana time. In October 2016, the Tamil People’s Council (TPC) staged a protest march and rally called the Eluga Thamil. ‘Eluga Tamil’ means ‘Rise Up Tamil’. They wanted a federal constitution, and the merger of North and East into one large Tamil controlled province. This was a very successful   protest march and rally. The rally is estimated to have drawn the largest crowd after the war. An estimated 10,000 to 15000 had attended. The rally was supported by the university of Jaffna and the civil society groups.

This rally demand that the occupying forces immediately leave the north and east and a civilian administration be provided for north and east. The land remained militarized and the security forces continue to intervene in the day to day civilian administration of the north and east. The social fabric of the Tamil nation is eroded by heavy militarization and deep surveillance of the north and east, the rally said.

After viewing the videos of the speeches of major players, I believe that the campaign had dual objectives of raising the socio-political issues the Tamil people face in the Northern Province and kindling Tamil nationalism, said an analyst. (I think it is Keethaponcalan)

the direction of the Tamil politics under Wigneswaran is clear. It is taking a solid turn towards radical politics, which could, in the long run, turn to violent politics of the past. the analyst continued. Speakers of the rally called for Tamil people to get on the streets and protest, because, according to them, sending representatives to legislative bodies has no meaning and it will not win Tamil rights. Wigneswaran also to a certain extent reflected this sentiment. If and when these events turn violent, Vigneswaran and his lieutenants will not be able to   control them, he concluded.

Tamil Makkal Peravai Organisation held a hartal in 2017, demanding the merger of the North and East, dismantling of security forces camps in the area and the right to information about their missing persons. The event was organized by Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran. Districts observed a shutdown. Offices, businesses, schools and public transport came to a halt. There was a mass rally in Jaffna. Stones were thrown at a Vavuniya bound bus carrying army personnel.

In 2018 students of Jaffna University observed Independence Day on February 4 2018 as a Black Day.  Black day was also observed in 2019.  The media reported that led by the Students Union of Jaffna University, large numbers of men and women in several major towns wore black armbands or headscarves and demonstrated in public places demanding the release of lands occupied by the Sri Lankan army, information about the whereabouts of their missing kin, and justice to Tamils who were subjected to war crimes” by the Security Forces during the last phase of the war. Posters called upon the army to leave the Tamil lands.

Jaffna University students also had a major protest on March 2019, to coincide with UNHRC session in Geneva.  They demanded a hybrid court to investigate war crimes allegations against Sri Lanka. Several vehicles carrying the replicas of ‘war memorial’ built at the Jaffna University in memory of LTTE cadres paraded the streets.

Tamil Separatist Movement succeeded in getting the support of foreign agencies too. Pasumai Thaayagam is an Indian NGO that promotes nature conservation. It has special consultative status with the United Nations. In 2017 Pasumai Thaayagam strongly recommended that the UNHRC must immediately refer Sri Lanka to the General Assembly and the International Criminal Court (ICC). It is high time the UNHRC and the International Community respects the right of the Tamils to exercise the right to self determination and find a lasting solution through a referendum, it said.  

Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran was very active on behalf of Eelam during Yahapalana rule. He said that when water from Moragahakanda is diverted to the Northern Province, some form of ownership of the project should be granted to the NPC.

In February 2018,  Wigneswaran called for an “international legal framework” for the Tamil Question, at a seminar in Jaffna and pledged to have this raised at the upcoming March session of the UNHRC in Geneva .

Wigneswaran wanted to see greater collaboration between the Government of India and his administration in development projects in the province. We would like to be brought in as an active stakeholder, in projects being carried out in the Northern Province. At present, they are mostly done unilaterally by the Colombo government.

He met Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Taranjit Singh Sandhu and discussed possible development of the Palaly airport into a regional airport, and the revival of ferry services between Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar.

Wigneswaran, when visiting Canada, wanted to sign a sister city” agreement between Vavuniya and the City of Brampton in Ontario. However, the members of the Brampton Council were opposed to the move.  Wigneswaran was also scheduled to sign another Friendship Agreement” between the city of Markham, Ontario and Mullaitivu. Wigneswaran said these agreements are not for any economic assistance or regional co-operation but to coordinate the Tamil identity globally.” The city of Markham is home for 30,000 Tamils of Sri Lankan origin while the Brampton’s Tamil community numbers around 20,000.

In 2019 five Tamil political parties from the north put forward 13 demands. These demands mark a watershed in northern Tamil politics.

The five political parties involved in the process were the Ilangei Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), Peoples Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) ), the Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) faction led by Suresh Premachandran and the Thamil Makkal Koottani led by C.V.Vigneswaran. A sixth political party, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) led by Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam participated in the process but did not sign the final document.

These political parties represent the majority of the Tamil voters of the north and east and this list of demands can be said to mark a turning point in the Tamil politics of the north.

With the hope and expectation that a final solution to the continuing problems faced by the Tamils consequent to the effects of the concluded war and yet continuing effects of such war, could be found, we the members of Political Parties that represent the Tamil People do hereby submit hereunder to the Presidential Candidates representing major Political Parties and to their respective Party Leadership the following requests:

1. A solution to the Sri Lankan Tamil issue must be found by setting up a new federal constitution rejecting the heretofore unitary constitution accepting the nationhood of the Sri Lankan Tamils and recognizing its sovereignty and also accepting that Tamils under the provisions of International Law are entitled to the right of self determination.

2. Full fledged independent impartial International mechanisms through the International Criminal Court /International Arbitration Tribunal must be set up to inquire into the War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity and Genocide committed during the final stages of the war.

3. The Prevention of Terrorism Act must be withdrawn.

4. (Consequently) All Tamil Political Prisoners must be freed unconditionally.

5. Justice must be found for those affected by the enforced disappearance of persons through appropriate International mechanisms.

6. The Governmental Forces occupying private and state lands / buildings in the Northern and Eastern Province which were occupied by Tamils before the war must be withdrawn, the lands released and resettlement process must be immediately set in motion.

7. Sinhalisation, Buddhistization and Sinhala Colonization taking place in the Northern and Eastern Provinces presently with State assistance must be stopped immediately.

8. Since the Mahaweli Development Authority is engaged in planned Sinhala Colonization in the Northern Province under the pretext of redirecting the Mahaweli River to the North, the jurisdiction of the said Authority in the Northern Province must forthwith be terminated. Also the planned Sinhala Colonization taking place in the Eastern Province under the Mahaweli Development Scheme must also be terminated.

9. The Moragaskande Irrigation Scheme recently introduced is indulging in planned Sinhala Colonization in the Vanni Region. All such Sinhala Colonisation must forthwith be terminated.

10. The expropriation of lands and areas of religious worship by Government Departments including Archaeology Department, Wild Life Department, Forests’ Department must forthwith be stopped. Those lands and places of worship already expropriated through these Departments must be freed from the effect of the Gazette Notifications which so expropriated them.

11.Those affected in the Northern and Eastern Provinces by the War, wanting to economically improve themselves or youth wanting to enhance their job opportunities receiving direct investments from our Diaspora and elsewhere must have all legal obstacles faced removed so that handling lands and finances here would be easy and quick.

12. Priority must be given to those belonging to the Northern and Eastern Provinces in Governmental and Private Sector job opportunities in the said two Provinces.

13. An independent mechanism must be set up under the supervision of Elected Representatives of the people of the Northern and Eastern Provinces to handle all finances for Development in the said two Provinces, after proclaiming the Northern and Eastern Provinces as areas affected by the War.

the Maha Sangha commented on the 13 points of the Tamil Separatist Movement. Panamure Tilakawansa of Arsirimale aranya spoke. This must be rejected in toto he said. At Palaly they didn’t play the national anthem in Sinhala said Ven. Munhene Mettananda, chief priest Seruwila Raja Maha vihara.

In 2020 the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils of the House of Commons, UK has requested the government to designate former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, Army Commander Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva  and some others in terms of the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulation, 2020.

All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils wrote to Dominic Raab MP Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.  We welcome the introduction of the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020 which reiterates the United Kingdom’s commitment to the rule of law. We are writing to you to kindly request you to consider applying the new regime in respect of Sri Lanka, they said.

As a first step to doing this, we would urge you to designate former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva and Staff Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake under the new Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime for their role in perpetrating atrocity crimes that violate the right to life.

 Kumaratunga served as president of Sri Lanka and Commander-in-Chief of the military forces from 1994 to 2005. A period marked by human rights abuses and mass bombings, including the bombing of Navaly Church that resulted in 140 civilian deaths and Nagarkovil School that resulted in 71 civilian deaths including 25 school children. Despite the atrocity crimes she committed whilst in power, Kumaratunga regularly visits the United Kingdom. For many torture victims of her regime who sought asylum and currently reside in the United Kingdom, her visits instill fear and acts as reminder of the impunity Sri Lankan war criminals enjoy at home and abroad.

Fonseka was the commander of the Sri Lankan Army from 2005 until the end of the armed conflict in May 2009. Sri Lankan forces under his command have been implicated in numerous instances of unlawful shelling of civilians and hospitals, rape and other sexual violence, and the summary execution of prisoners.

Shavendra Silva was head of the 58th Division of the Sri Lankan army during the last phase of the war, which is named in the OISL report as having committed the most egregious crimes. Instead of holding Silva accountable, the Sri Lankan government promoted Silva to Head of the Army in August 2019, demonstrating their unwillingness to hold those accused of even the most heinous atrocity crimes accountable.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa is also mentioned. During Rajapaksa’s tenure as Secretary of Defence, both during and after the armed conflict, he is alleged to have overseen the abduction, torture and disappearance of several primarily Tamil journalists and human rights defenders.

Kumaratunga, Fonseka, Silva and Ratnayake are only four of a long list of individuals from the Sri Lankan military against whom there is credible evidence of grave human rights violations,  but their designation will have the symbolic effect of sending a strong message to the Sri Lankan government that the UK will not let go of the need for accountability for war crimes and thereby contribute towards preventing further atrocity crimes. Accordingly, we ask respectfully that you consider our request to designate Kumaratunga, Fonseka, Silva and Ratnayake under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulation 2020.  (continued)

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

ධම්මපදයේ සුඛ වග්ගයේ එන ආරෝග්‍යා පරමා ලාභා” යනාදි වශයෙන් වන ගාථාව අපි සැවොම දනිමු. මෙය පසේනදී කොසොල් රජතුමා අරභයා අප මහ බුදුරජාණන්වහන්සේ විසින් කළ දේශනාවකි. මිනිසුන්ට වැළැඳිය හැකි රෝග වර්ග දෙකක් ගැන අංගුත්තර නිකායේ චතුක්ක නිපාතයේ ඇති රෝග සූත්‍රයෙහි සඳහන් වෙයි. ඒ, කායික රෝග සහ චෛතසික රෝග යනුවෙනි.

අප විසින් අනුභවකරනු ලබන ආහාර ද කායික සහ මානසික නිරෝගීභාවය උදෙසා තීරණාත්මක කාර්යයක් ඉටුකරයි. බටහිර වෛද්‍ය ශාස්ත්‍රයෙහි පියා වශයෙන් සළකනු ලබන හිපොක්‍රටීස් ද මෙම කරුණ අවධාරණය තිබේ. ආහාරය ම ඖෂධ වේ” යන්න ඔහුගේ අදහස විය. පමණ දැන, සිහිකල්පනාවෙන් යුතුව ආහාර අනුභව කළ යුතු බැව් ද බුදුරජාණන්වහන්සේ විසින් දේශනා කර තිබේ.

ආහාර පිළියෙළකිරීමේ දී අවධානය යොමුකළ යුත්තේ රසය සහ වර්ණය කෙරෙහි පමණක් නොවේ. විෂ සහ විෂබීජවලින් තොර ගුණවත් බවින් ඉහළ ආහාර පිළියෙල කරගැනීමට ද අපි සැළකිළිමත් විය යුතු වෙමු. ආහාර පිළියෙළකිරීමට සහ අනුභවකිරීමට ගන්නා භාජන ආදිය ද පිරිසිදුව තබාගත යුතු වෙයි. ඉතා සරල කරුණු ලෙසින් පෙනුන ද ජීවිත පුරුදුවලට ඇතුළත් කර නොගතහොත් එදිනෙදා භාවිතයේ දී මේවා මගහැරී යා හැකි ය.

ආහාරයේ ස්වභාවය සහ ප්‍රමාණය තීරණයකිරීමේ දී වයස, වෘත්තිය වැනි කරුණු ද සළකා බැලිය යුත්තේ ය. ඇඟ වෙහෙසා වැඩ කරන කෙනකු සහ එසේ නො කරන කෙනකු අනුභව කළ යුතු ආහාරයේ ස්වභාවය සහ ප්‍රමාණය සමාන නොවේ. මෙහි දී වේල් ගණන ගැන පවා සළකා බැලිය යුත්තේ ය. මජ්ඣිම නිකායේ භික්ඛු වර්ගයේ එන කීටාගිරි සූත්‍රයේ බුදුරජාණන්වහන්සේ මෙ සේ දේශනා කර ඇත්තේ ය.

මහණෙනි, මම් වූ කලි රාත්‍රි භෝජනය හැරපියා මැ වළඳමි. මහණෙනි, රාත්‍රි භෝජනය හැරපියා වළඳන මම නීරෝග බව ද ශරීරයාගේ සැහැල්ලු පැවැත්ම ද කාය බලය ද සුඛ විහරණය ද දනිමි. එව, තෙපිදු මහණෙනි, රාත්‍රි භෝජනය හැරපියා මැ වළදවු. මහණෙනි, තෙපිදු රාත්‍රි භෝජනය හැරපියා වළඳන්නහු නීරෝග බව ද නිදුක් බව ද සැහැල්ලු පැවැත්ම ද කාය බලය ද සුඛ විහරණය ද දැනගන්නවු යැ.”

ආහාරයෙන් ශරීර සෞඛ්‍යය සලසාගත හැකි බව මේ සියලු කරුණුවලින් පැහැදිළි වෙයි. මෙම කරුණු සියල්ල ම අපි සැවොම දනිමු. එනමුදු ඒවා භාවිතයට ගැනීම අප අතින් සිදුවන්නේ ඉතා කලාතුරකිනි. අදාළ දැනුම හුදු දේශන ආකාරයෙන් සන්නිවේදනයකිරීම මෙම ගැටලුවට හේතුවයි. පාසල් අධ්‍යාපනය තුළ ඉගැන්වෙන ආහාර පිළිබඳ පාඩම් පොත්වලට සීමා වී තිබේ. ආහාර පිළිබඳ මෙම පාඩම්වලට අදාළ පරීක්‍ෂාව විය යුත්තේ නිරෝගීකම රැකගැනීමට කරනු ලබන කටයුතු ඇගැයීම විනා ලිඛිත විභාගයක දී ඉහළ ලකුණු ලබාගැනීම නොවේ.

දරුවන්ට අවශ්‍ය පෝෂණීය ආහාර ලබාදීම ද හැකියාව තිබිය දී දරුවන් විසින් එවැනි ආහාර අනුභවකරන්නේ ද යන්න විමර්ශනය ද අධ්‍යාපන කාර්යය භාර සැමගේ වගකීමකි. දිළිඳු දරුවන්ට පෝෂණීය ආහාර ලබාදීම ජනරජයේ වගකීමකි. ඒ අරභයා අදාළ සම්පත් යෙදවීමේ වගකීම බිම් මට්ටම (ගම් සභා සහ නාගරික සභා), ප්‍රාදේශීය මට්ටම (කෝරළ සභා) සහ ජාතික මට්ටම යන සෑම අංශයකට ම පැවැරිය යුතුවෙයි.

ආහාර සහ සෞඛ්‍ය පුරුදු අනුව දරුවන් ඇගැයීමේ ක්‍රමයක් ද හඳුන්වාදිය හැකි ය. හැකියාව තිබිය දී පෝෂණීය ආහාර නිසි පමණ අනුභව නො කර ඒ වෙනුවට කෙටිකෑම” වැනි දෑ අනුභවයට යම් දරුවකු යොමුවන්නේ නම් ඔහුට හෝ ඇයට ලබාදිය යුත්තේ අඩු ලකුණු ප්‍රමාණයකි. දිළිඳු දරුවන් හට නිසි පෝෂණය සැපැයීමේ වගකීම අදාළ ආයතන විසින් ඉටුකරන බැව් සහතිකකිරීම සඳහා ඒවාට අදාළ ඇගැයීම් ක්‍රමයක් ද හඳුන්වාදිය හැක්කේ ය.

වැරැදි ආහාර පුරුදු වැළැක්වීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළක් ද ජනරජය විසින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුත්තේ ය. ඒ සඳහා අවශ්‍ය විධිමත් සහ අවිධිමත් අධ්‍යාපනික වැඩපිළිවෙළ, දැනුම්වත්කිරීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළ සම්පාදනයේ සහ ක්‍රියාත්මකකිරීමේ වගකීම අදාළ ආයතන වෙත පැවැරිය යුත්තේ ය. මෙම කාර්යයට බාධාකරන ආහාර පාන වර්ග වෙළෙඳපොළෙන් ඉවත්කිරීම ද කළ හැක්කේ ය. ඒ සඳහා අවශ්‍ය නීති සම්පාදනය ජනරජයේ වගකීමකි.

මෙයට පෙර ලිපියෙන් අවධාරණය කළ පරිදි දියුණු රස ශාස්ත්‍රයක් වර්ධනය කරගැනීම ද මෙම කාර්යයට අදාළ වෙයි. අදාළ සම්පත් නාස්තිවන්නේ සහ වැරැදි ආහාර අනුභවයට මිනිසුන් පෙළැඹෙනුයේ ප්‍රමාණවත් අයුරින් වර්ධනය කළ රස ශාස්ත්‍රයක් නොමැති විට ය. ජනරජයේ සමාජ සංවර්ධනයට අදාළ සෞඛ්‍යය දර්ශක විසින් ප්‍රකාශකළ යුත්තේ ළමා මරණ අනුපාත, මාතෘ මරණ, ආයු අපේක්‍ෂාව වැනි කරුණු පමණක් නොවේ. දියවැඩියාව වැනි බෝ නොවන රෝග පාලනයට අදාළ කරුණු ද, මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය භාවිතයට අදාළ කරුණු ද ඒ තුළින් ප්‍රකටව ප්‍රකාශවිය යුත්තේ ය.

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

තිසර සමල් – එප්පාවල

කොම්පෝස්ට් කියන්නේ දැන් ජනප්‍රිය වචනයක් විතරයි.වගාවට උත්තරයක් නෙමෙයි.අනුරාධපුර දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ බඩඉරඟු අක්කර එක් ලක්ෂ විසි පන් දහසක් විතර වගා කරනවා, හැබැයි මේ පාර අක්කර විසි පන්දහසක්වත් වගා කරයි කියලා මම හිතන්නේ නෑ, පොහොර පිළිබඳව තියෙන අවිනිශ්චිතතාවය නිසා මිනිස්සු වගා කරන්නේ නෑ යැයි රාජ්‍යය අමාත්‍යය දුමින්ද දිසානායක මහතා පැවසීය.

ඒ මහතා මේ බව ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටියේ, ඉපලෝගම ප්‍රාදේශීය සම්බන්ධීකරණ කමිටුවේදීය.ඉපලෝගම ප්‍රාදේශීය සම්බන්ධීකරණ කමිටු රැස්වීම ඉපලෝගම ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාල ශ්‍රවණාගාරයේදී පැවැත්වුණේ එහි සභාපති සූර්ය බල, සුලං හා ජල විදුලි ජනන සංවර්ධන රාජ්‍යය අමාත්‍යය දුමින්ද දිසානායක මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙනි.ඒ සඳහා සමගි ජන බලවේගය නියෝජනය කරන පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී රෝහණ බංඩාර, ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදු ජන පෙරමුණ නියෝජනය කරමින් හිටපු උතුරු මැද පළාත් ප්‍රධාන අමාත්‍යය එස්.එම් රංජිත් සමරකෝන් හා ඉපලෝගම ප්‍රාදේශීය සභා සභාපති නිහාල් තිලකවර්ධන යන මහත්වරුන් ඇතුළු පක්ෂ විපක්ෂ ප්‍රාදේශීය දේශපාලඥයින් හා ඉපලෝගම ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම්තුමන් ඇතුළු රාජ්‍යය නිළධාරීන් සහභාගී වී සිටියහ.

එහිදී ප්‍රදේශයේ සංවර්ධන කටයුතු හා සිදු කරන ව්‍යාපෘතීන්හී ප්‍රගතිය මෙන්ම ඉදිරි කටයුතු සම්බන්ධයෙන් සාකච්ජා කෙරිණි.විශේෂ කරුණක් ලෙස පවතින පොහොර ගැටලුව සම්බන්ධයෙන්ද සාකච්ජා කෙරිණි.

එහිදී අදහස් දැක්වූ රාජ්‍යය අමාත්‍යය දුමින්ද දිසානායක මහතා,

ඉදිරි වර්ෂයේ සංවර්ධන කටයුතු වෙනුවෙන් හිටපු පළාත් සභා මන්ත්‍රීවරයකු සඳහා රුපියල් මිලියන 20 කුත්, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරයකු සඳහා රුපියල් මිලිනය 100 බැගින් සංවර්ධන යෝජනා ලබා ගෙන ග්‍රාමීය ජනතාවගේ ආර්ථිකය නගා සිටුවීමත්, ජනතාවට අවශ්‍යය පහසුකම් නගා සිටුවීමත් යන පදනමෙන් සංවර්ධන යෝජනා ලබා ගනිමින් යනවා.එහිදී ග්‍රාමීය කමිටුව කැඳවලා පවතින නිර්නායක යටතේ සංවර්ධන යෝජනා ලබා ගත යුතු වෙනවා.එතනදී ගමේ යම්කිසි දෙයක් කරනවා නම් ග්‍රාමීය කමිටුවේ නිර්දේශ මත සිදු විය යුතුයි. බඩු බෙදද්දී වෙන්න පුලුවන්, ප්‍රථිලාභීන් තෝරා ගැනීමේදී වෙන්න පුලුවන්, සංවර්ධන යෝජනාවක් ලබා ගැනීමේදී හැමදාම කියන්න ඕනකමක් නෑ ග්‍රාමීය කමිටුවේ අනුමතැයි ගන්න කියලා.ග්‍රාමීය කමිටුව කියන එක දැන් මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ ක්‍රමවේදය.මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ සියලුම වැඩසටහන් වලදී, බොහෝම විවෘතව කරන දෙයක්නේ,දේශපාලන අධිකාරියේ ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂයේ සියලුම අය ඉන්නවා,රජයේ නිළධාරීන් ඉන්නවා, ඒ නිසා බොහෝම විනිවිද භාවයක් ඇතිව මේ ටික කරන්න පුලුවන්කම තියෙනවා.ගම්මාන වලට ගිහින් දේශපාලන අධිකාරියේ නායකත්වයත්, රාජ්‍යය නිළධාරීන්ගේ සහභාගීත්වයත්, ග්‍රාමීය කමිටුව නියෝජනය කරන ස්වෙච්ඡා සංවිධාන හා ගමේ ප්‍රභූන් මේ සියලු දෙනා එක්ක සාකච්ජා කරලා අපි පවතින නිර්නායකයන් යටතේ යෝජනා ටික ලබා ගෙන ලබන වර්ෂයේ සිට මෙම යෝජනාවන් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරලා, ජනතාවගේ ජන ජීවිතය ශක්තිත් කරමින් ප්‍රාදේශීය සංවර්ධන කටයුතු සිදු කරමු.

අනුරාධපුර දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ බඩඉරඟු අක්කර එක් ලක්ෂ විසි පන් දහසක් විතර වගා කරනවා, හැබැයි මේ පාර අක්කර විසි පන්දහසක්වත් වගා කරයි කියලා මම හිතන්නේ නෑ, පොහොර පිළිබඳව තියෙන අවිනිශ්චිතතාවය නිසා මිනිස්සු වගා කරන්නේ නෑ, හැබැයි කොළඹ කාර්යාල වල තියෙන ලිපි ලේඛණ වල තියෙන්නේ නිළධාරීන් කියන සංඛ්‍යාලේඛන ටික.ඔයගොල්ල කියනවා අමතර භෝග මෙච්චරක් වගා කරනවා කියලා.හැබැයි ඇත්තම කථාව ගොවි බිම් වල ජනතාව මේකට සූදානම් නෑ,ඒ නිසා මම නිළධාරීන්ට යෝජනා කරන්නේ, කොළඹට මේ තොරතුරු දෙන ගමන්ම අපි වගා කරන ගොවි මහත්වරුන්ගේ වගා බිම් ප්‍රමාණය හරියට බලලා, ආණ්ඩුව කාබනික පොහොර ප්‍රචලිත කරනවා වගේම ,අවශයය කාබනික පොහොර ටිකත් අනුරාධපුරයට ගේනවා නේ, ඒවා වැඩි ප්‍රමාණයක් අනුරාධපුරයට ගෙනාවොත් තමයි අපේ ගොවීන්ගේ ප්‍රශ්නයට උත්තරයක් වෙන්නේ, එහෙම නැතිව අපි ගණන් හදාගෙන පොහොර ගෙන්වා ගත්තේ නැත්නම් අපි අමාරුවේ වැටෙනවා.මේ දවස් වල කාබනික පොහොර බොහෝම ජනප්‍රියව හදාගෙන යනවා.මේ හදන ප්‍රමාණය අපිටවත් මදිනේ,මේක හැදුවා කියලා කිව්වට අවශ්‍යය ප්‍රමාණය නැත්නම් ඒක බලපාන්නේ අස්වැන්නටනේ, ඒ නිසා නිළධාරීන් මේ තොරතුරු අනුරාධපුර කාර්යාලයට, කොළඹට දෙනකොට හරියටම ඒ තොරතුරු ටික දෙන්න, එදා ඉඳන් එන සංඛ්‍යා ලේඛණ ටික නැතිව,තිරප්පනේදීත් කිව්වේ නිළධාරීන් බඩ ඉරඟු වලට ඉඩම් ටික සුද්ධ කරනවා කියලා.හැබැයි ඇත්ත කථාව ඒක නෙමෙයි ඒක බොරුවක්නේ.සමහරු සුද්ධ කරනවා ඇති හැබැයි සමස්ථය මේකට බැහැලා නෑ.ඒ ගැන නිළධාරීන්ට විතරක් තීන්දු තීරණ ගන්න බෑ, දේශපාලන අධිකාරිය හා ආණ්ඩුව මැදිහත් වෙලා කරන්න ඕන දෙයක්.හැබැයි ඒ සඳහා මේ තොරතුරු ටික හරියටම දෙන්න ඕන.

මොකද දැන් හදන කොම්පෝස්ට් වලත්, දැන් කොම්පෝස්ට් එකේ තියෙන්නේ 1% ක් විතර තමයි නයිට්‍රජන් තියෙන්නේ, සමහර තැන් වල 1% ක්වත් නෑ, කොම්පෝස්ට් කියන්නේ දැන් ජනප්‍රිය වචනයක් විතරයි.වගාවට උත්තරයක් නෙමෙයි.හැබැයි අපි මේක කොහොම හරි ගොඩ දාන්නත් එපැයි.මේක ගොඩ දාන්න නම් මේ තියන ප්‍රශ්න මැද්දේම යන්න වෙනවා.දැන් ආපහු හැරෙන්න බෑ.ඒ නිසා අපි බඩඉරඟු අක්කර ලක්ෂයකට ලෑස්ති වෙනවා නම් පොහොර තියෙන්න ඕන, නයිට්‍රජන් ඕන, ඒ නිසා අපි දැන් ලෑස්ති වෙන්න ඕන අමතර භෝග වලට අවශ්‍යය පළමුවැනි පොහොර මුරයට ගහන්න නයිට්‍රජන් ටික ගෙන්වා ගන්න, ඒක කොච්චර ප්‍රමාණයක්ද කියලා තීරණය කරන්න ඕන, නිළධාරීන් ප්‍රමිතියක් දන්නේ නැතිව ප්‍රමාණයක් හදා ගන්න දන්නෙත් නෑනේ.රටින් ගෙන්වන එවායේ ප්‍රමිතිය, ප්‍රථිශතය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප්‍රශ්න තියෙනවා.ඒ ප්‍රථිශත නොදැන නිර්නායක දෙන්න බෑ, හැබැයි මේ හැම දේම කරන්න තියෙන්නේ මේ කෙටි කාළය විතරයි.මේ කාළයේ නිළධාරීන්ගේ පැත්තෙන් මේ දත්ත ටික, ගම්වල තියෙන ප්‍රශ්න ටික ගොවිජනතාව මේවා අවිශ්වාස කරලා වගාව අතාරියි, ඒකට මොකද අපි කරන්නේ කියලා ඉහලට විස්තර දෙන්න.

අපේ පැත්තෙන් අපේ සාකච්ජාවේදී මේ විස්තර කිව්වම .නිලධාරීන් එවපු තොරතුරු විදිහට ඇමතිවරුන්ගේ ෆයිල් වල තියෙන්නේ හැමදාම යවන තොරතුරු ටික තියෙන්නේ.යථාර්තය නෙමෙයි.නිළධාරීන් පහළ ඉඳන් ඉහළට යවන අංක ටික තමයි තියෙන්නේ, අක්කර මෙච්චරක් හදනවා, අච්චරක් හදනවා.බෝංචි මෙච්චරයි, වට්ටක්කා මෙච්චරයි කිව්වට එක ගොවියෙක්වත් ඒ වැඩේ නෑනේ.

ඉදිරියටත් අපිට මේ අභියෝගාත්මක ගමන යන්න සියලු දෙනාගේම සහය දෙන්න, ඒ වගේම මම සතුටු වෙනවා මෙම කමිටුව සඳහා පක්ෂ විපක්ෂ මන්ත්‍රීවරු සියලු දෙනාම සහභාගී වී සිටිම සම්බන්ධයෙන්.දේශපාලන පක්ෂ 03-04 හිම අය මේ වගේ එකතු වෙලා, රට මේ වගේ ව්‍යසනයකට මුහුණ දෙන වෙලාවේ පක්ෂ විපක්ෂ සියලු දෙනාම එකම මේසයක වාඩි වෙලා, එකට එකතු වෙලා තීන්දු තීරණ ගන්න පුලුවන් නම් ඒක තමයි රටේ ජයග්‍රහණය, ඒක දේශපාලන පක්ෂ වල ජයග්‍රහණයක් නෙමෙයි, රටේ ජයග්‍රහණයක් මේක හොඳ ආදර්ශයක්.අපි හැමෝම මේ වගේ එකතු වෙලා වැඩ කරමු.ලොක්කෝ ලොක්කෝ හැමදාම යාලුයි පල්ලෙහා තමයි බෙදිලා ඉන්නේ, ඒ නිසා අපිත් හැමෝම එකතු වෙලා මේ ගමන යන්න පුලුවන් නම්, මේ රට තියෙන තැනින් බේරා ගන්න අපිට පුලුවන් වෙයි.ඒ නිසා මම හිතන්නේ ඉදිරියටත් අපි හැමෝම එකතු වෙලා, අපේ ජනතාවගේ ප්‍රශ්න හා ප්‍රදේශයේ සංවර්ධනය වෙනුවෙන් අපි එකට වැඩ කරමු යැයි පැවසීය.

සංවර්ධන නිළධාරීන්ගේ සංගමය.

ගරු. ෂෙහාන් සේමසිංහ අමාත්‍යතුමා,
රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය.
සමෘද්ධි, ගෘහ ආර්ථික,ක්ෂද්‍ර මූල්‍ය, ස්වයං රැකියා රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය.

#Covid -19 රෝගය වැලදුන නිවෙස් නිරෝධායනය කරන ලද සමෘද්ධි සහනාධාරලාභීන් හට සමෘද්ධි සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ ප්‍රතිලාභ ගෙවීමේදී සිදුව ඇති අසාධාරණය සම්බන්දව.

#Covid -19 වැලදුන සමෘද්ධිලාභී පවුල් වෙත සමෘද්ධි සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ අරමුදල මගීන් දිනකට රු.350/ බැගින් වර්ෂයකට උපරිම දින 30 යටත්ව එක් ප්‍රතිලාභී පවුලක් වෙත රු.10500/ උපරිම මුදලක් ගෙවීමට ප්‍රමාදවීමෙන් පසුව වුවද ගන්නා ලද තීරණය සමස්ත සමෘද්ධිලාභීන් වෙනුවෙන්ම අප අගය කර සිටින්නෙමු.

එහෙත් සමෘද්ධි සංවර්ධන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් විසින් දිවයිනේ සියලුම ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම්වරුන් වෙත එවන ලද 2021.08.25 දිනැති DSD/HO/5/14/16/01 යන සමෘද්ධි සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ වැඩසටහන ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම යන ලිපියට අනුව 2021.08.25 දිනෙන් පසුව #Covid -19 රෝගය වැලදුන සමෘද්ධිලාභීන් හට පමණක් ඉහත හිමිකම් ගෙවීමට ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම්වරු කටයුතු කිරීමේදී ඊට ප්‍රථම රෝගය වැලදුන සමෘද්ධිලාභී ජනතාව හට බලවත් අසාධාරණ මතුව ඇති බව අප මෙයින් පෙන්නා දෙන්නෙමු.

02. #Covid -19 රෝගය වැලදුන සමෘද්ධි සංවර්ධන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට අනුයුක්ත සේවකයින් හට රු.10000/ භාණ්ඩ මල්ලක් ලබා දීමේදී අනුගමනය කරන ලද ක්‍රියාපටිපාටිය කෙරෙහි ඔබගේ අවධානය අප මෙයින් යොමු කරවන අතර මාසිකව සිය සමෘද්ධි සහනාධාරයෙන් රු.100/ මුදලක දායකත්වය ලබා දෙමින් රු.176,292,200/ කින් සමෘද්ධි සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ අරමුදල පෝෂණය කරන සමෘද්ධිලාභීන් හටද ඒ ආකාරයෙන්ම කටයුතු කරන මෙන් අප සංගමය මෙයින් ඉල්ලා සිටින්නෙමු.

03. උක්ත අප විසින් පෙන්නා දෙන කරුණු කෙරෙහි ඔබගේ විශේෂ අවධානය යොමු කර #Covid -19 රෝගයට වැලදුන නිවෙස් නිරෝධායනයට ලක් කරන ලද සමස්ත සමෘද්ධිලාභීන් හටම මෙම සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ ප්‍රතිලාභ හිමිකම් ලබා දීමට කටයුතු කරන මෙන් මෙයින් ඉල්ලා සිටින අතර ඊට අදාල ලිඛිත දැනුවත් කිරීම ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම්වරු වෙත ලබා දෙන මෙන් මෙයින් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

ස්තූතියි.

මෙයට,
චාමර මද්දුමකලුගේ

ප්‍රධාන ලේකම්සමෘද්ධි සංවර්ධන නිළධාරීන්ගේ සංගමය.

Palitha Mapatuna

Watching recently a particular news channel, it seemed obvious that the reporting on the opening of schools was calculated to show the authorities in a bad light; the schools in which the attendance was low were focussed upon, whereas the others were almost entirely ignored.

It seems that this type of reporting is not only unethical but abusive of the rights of the public to be provided with an impartial view on matters of vital concern to them.   

However, it seems that, for some reason or other, partiality in reporting is not rare in the country.

R Hariharan Courtesy Firstpost

Sri Lanka dumps Chinese fertilizer and imports Nano Nitrogen liquid fertilizer from India,” screamed a Colombo media headline a few days back reflecting the growing exasperation with China’s increasingly high-handed conduct in the island nation.

The news item referred to the soured deal of organic fertilizer imported from China last August, from Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group which had signed a contract for the supply of 96,000 tonnes of organic fertilizer and 3,000 tonnes of powdered form of organic fertilizer. When the Department of Agriculture tested the imported cargo, it was found to contain several harmful bacterial species.

Another sample provided by the company was also found to be contaminated. Following this, the Department banned all imports of fertilizers from China, and the agriculture ministry suspended the $63 million contract awarded to the Chinese company.

As Sri Lanka was facing a severe shortage of fertilizers after the import of chemical fertilizers was banned, India stepped in to speed up the supply of nano fertilizer to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka went ahead with the import of 3.1 million litres of nano liquid fertilizer from India, which were tested and found to be free of contamination.

The whole episode has irritated China. The Chinese embassy in Colombo condemned the test carried out by Sri Lanka’s National Plant Quarantine Service, which found the presence of Erwinia and other harmful pathogens in the Chinese organic fertilizer samples. Sri Lanka state minister Dayasiri Jayasekara, said that as now we can’t import fertilizer from China, we resorted to getting it from India. China is questioning us as to why we are not purchasing the fertilizer from them,” he said.

The organic fertilizer episode lays bare the seamier side of Sri Lanka’s close relationship with China. Of course, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, addressing the Communist Party of China (CPC) and World Political Parties summit on 8 July 2021, complimented China for never trying to impose its own political views on the world” and never feeling the need to manipulate the affairs of other countries.”

But the real-world behaviour of China with smaller countries has been manipulative and intrusive. A recent Sri Lanka news report in this context headlined

Canadian Energy Enterprise Accuses China of Hijacking Major Project in Sri Lanka” gives the seamier story of China’s state owned firms’ conduct in compromising confidentiality agreements which forbade the use of the work products and proprietary information, to their advantage.

Close on the heels of India’s supply of nano nitrogen organic fertilizer to ward off fertilizer crisis, comes the report of Sri Lanka seeking a $500 million credit line from India to pay for its crude oil purchases. It comes in the midst of the severe foreign exchange crunch Sri Lanka is facing. The state-owned oil entity already owes $3 billion to two state-owned banks. In all likelihood, India will accommodate Sri Lanka’s request as oil shortage will have a crippling effect on Sri Lanka’s economy, already reeling under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, Sri Lanka is likely to finalise India’s long-standing offer to develop the oil tank farms for strategic energy reserves in Trincomalee. This issue came up when India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla called upon the President during his three-day visit to Colombo in the first week of October.

Both India and Sri Lanka seem to be keen to ratchet up their relations which had taken some beating in recent times. India’s real time help in the wake of the container ship X-Press Pearl, carrying 25 tons of nitric acid, catching fire off Colombo port on 19 May, must have come as a moment of truth to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on firming up friendly relations with India. He probably had a rethink on the way India was sidelined in his policy priorities. First came the course correction he applied to the forgettable episode of discarding trilateral agreement with India and Japan on joint development of the Colombo Eastern Container Terminal. India’s port infrastructure giant Adani Group has obtained 51 percent stake in a deal signed with Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings and Sri Lanka Port Authority to jointly develop the West Container Terminal at the Colombo Port.

Then came the Integrated Country Strategy paper of the newly appointed Sri Lanka High Commissioner to India which had the President’s blessing. It speaks of elevating bilateral relationships to a strategic level, bolstering foreign investments, boosting connectivity and expanding strategic cooperation in defence and Indian Ocean security.

Many of the points in the strategy paper resonate with what Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had discussed with the President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister during his Colombo visit. In his meetings, he had underscored the importance India attaches to expeditiously taking forward mutually beneficial projects, including proposals to enhance air and sea connectivity between India and Sri Lanka. He also reiterated India’s position on complete implementation of the provisions under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, including devolution of powers and holding of provincial elections at the earliest. His visit to Jaffna is a strong reminder of India’s continued interest in the welfare of the Tamil minority.

The Foreign Secretary’s visit was followed a week later by the visit of India’s Army Chief General MM Naravane. He met the top leadership to underscore the importance India attaches to expeditiously taking forward mutually beneficial projects. During his meeting with the President, General Naravane said that India highly expects” the stability of neighbouring countries for regional security. Already, over 1,000 Sri Lanka army officers are trained every year in India. According to the Presidential Media Division, a specially designed training course for 50 Army officers will be provided to Sri Lanka in the near future at the request of the Chief of Defence Staff and the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army. It is interesting to note India-Sri Lanka joint army training exercise Mitra Shakthi was being held during his visit.

In April 2020, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said the Quad meets India’s aspiration of becoming a stabilising power”. He called India’s present foreign policy as India Way” to bring the country’s capacities for global good to provide security and connectivity and firmly dealing with global challenges. India would be a decider or a shaper” than abstainer” on issues like climate change and connectivity. To be a stabilising power, India needs to upgrade its relations with Sri Lanka to the strategic level. The moot point is can India do it, in the face of aggressive promotion of Chinese interests, backed by economic and military muscle? India has to, because it has no other option.

Colonel R Hariharan, former MI specialist on South Asia and terrorism, served as the head of intelligence with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka 1987-90. Views expressed are personal.