උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

මෙරටට LNG සැපයුම දීර්ඝ කාලීනව තනි ඇමරිකානු සමාගමක් සතු වෙනවා නම් ඒ ගැන සංවේදී බව අමාත්‍ය විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

ජනාධිපතිවරයා සමඟ ඒ ගැන සාකච්ඡා කරන බව ද අමාත්‍යවරයා කියා සිටියේය.

දැනට අත්සන් කර ඇති ගිවිසුමට අනුව යුගදනවි බලාගාරයේ මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරය සතු කොටස් වලින් හතළිහකට ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කර ඇති බවත් ඒ හරහා බලාගාරය පාලන බලය ඇමරිකාවට නතු නොවන බව විදුලිබල මණ්ඩල සභාපතිවරයා පැවසූ බවද ඇමැතිවරයා කීය.

කෙසේ වෙතත් ඉදිරි යුගදනවි බලාගාරය පාලන බලය අදාල සමාගමට අතට නොයන්නේ නම් එය සලකා බැලිය හැකි තත්ත්වයක් බවද අමාත්‍යවරයා තවදුරටත් කියා සිටියි.

දැනට ගිවිසුම් අත්සන් කර ඇත්තේ යුගදනවි බලාගාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් මිස LNG සැපයුම සම්බන්ධයෙන් නොවන බවද ඔහු කීය.

යුගදනවි ගිවිසුම සම්බන්ධයෙන් මාධ්‍යවේදීන් කළ විමසීමකදී ඔහු මෙම අදහස් පළ කරනු ලැබීය

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරයේ වැදගත්කම සහ එහි සමාජ, සංස්කෘතික, දේශපාලන හා ආර්ථික වටිනාකම් පිළිබඳව ජාත්‍යන්තර ප්‍රජාව දැනුවත් කිරීම සඳහා එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානයේ විශේෂිත ආයතනයක් වන ලෝක සංචාරක සංවිධානය (UNWTO) ප්‍රමුඛත්වය ඇතිව වාර්ෂිකව සමරනු ලබන ලෝක සංචාරක දිනය නිමිත්තෙන් සුබ පැතුම් එක්කරනුයේ ඉමහත් සතුටිනි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආර්ථිකය ශක්තිමත් කර ගැනීමේ දී සංචාරක කර්මාන්තයෙන් ඊට ලැබෙන දායකත්වය සුළුපටු නැත. මිලියන තුනකට ආසන්න මෙරට ජනතාවක් සෘජු හා වක්‍ර ලෙස සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරය හා සම්බන්ධ වී සිටිති. ඔවුන් ජීවනෝපාය ලෙස මෙන්ම ව්‍යාපාරික අරමුණෙන් ඉටු කරන මෙහෙවර රටට විදේශ විනිමය උපයාදීමේ ප්‍රධාන මාර්ගයක් බව කෘතවේදීව සිහිපත් කළ යුතුය.

යුද්ධය නිමාවීමෙන් පසු පැවති  සාමකාමී නිදහස් වාතාවරණය මෙරට සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරයේ සීග්‍ර දියුණුවට බලපෑ බව නොරහසකි. එහෙත් පසු කාලීනව රට තුළ ඇතිවූ අනාරක්ෂිත සිදුවීම් මෙන්ම තවමත් අවසානයක් නොපෙනෙන කොවිඩ් වසංගතය හේතුවෙන් සංචාරක කර්මාන්තයත් ඒ හා බැඳී සිටින ජනතාවත් දිගු කාලීනව පීඩාවට ලක් විය.

ජනතාව ආරක්ෂා කර ගනිමින් මෙම වසංගතයට මුහුණ දීමේ අභියෝගය භාරගත් රජය එන්නත්කරණය වේගවත් කිරීමට පියවර ගත්තෙමු.

එහි ප්‍රගතිය අනුව බිඳ වැටුණු එම ව්‍යාපාර ක්ෂේත්‍ර නොබෝදිනකින් යළි ගොඩනැගීමට අවශ්‍ය  වටපිටාව නිර්මාණය කිරීමට රජයට හැකිව තිබේ.

සංචාරක අමාත්‍යාංශය ඒ සඳහා අවශ්‍ය පියවර දැනටමත් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරමින් සිටින අතර ශ්‍රීලංකන් ගුවන් සේවය නව ගමනාන්ත සොයා යමින් සංචාරක ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ දියුණුව සඳහා ජාතික ගුවන් සේවයේ කාර්යය භාරය ඉටුකරමින් සිටියි.

ලෝක මට්ටමෙන් සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරයේ නව පරිච්ඡේදයක් ආරම්භ වී ඇත්තේ අභ්‍යාවකාශ සංචාරක යුගයකට මුල පිරීම හේතුවෙනි. ස්වභාව සෞන්දර්යෙන් අනූන සංස්කෘතික උරුමයන්ගෙන් පිරි අපගේ මාතෘභූමියට ද නව සංචාරක ආකර්ශනීය විෂය ක්ෂේත්‍ර හඳුන්වා දීමේ වගකීම අපි භාරගෙන ඇත්තෙමු.

වසංගත තත්ත්වය හමුවේ වුවද ඊට මුහුණ දෙමින් රටක් ලෙස ඉදිරියට යාමේ අභිප්‍රාය අප වෙතින් කිසි ලෙසකත් ගිලිහී නැත. ඒ නිසා ලොව තිරසර ඉලක්කයන්ට ද ගැලපෙන පරිදි පරිසර හා සංස්කෘතික හිතකාමී සංචාරක කර්මාන්තයක් ගොඩනැගීම රජයේ අරමුණයි.

 අන්තර්කරණීය වර්ධනයක් උදෙසා සංචාරක කර්මාන්තය” මැයෙන් වූ කාලීන තේමාවකට අනුව මෙවර සැමරෙන ලෝක සංචාරක දිනයට අප ඉතා උද්යෝගයෙන් යුතුව එක්වන අතර මෙරට සංචාරය සඳහා පැමිණෙන ආගන්තුක ඔබ සැම වෙනුවෙන් ආරක්ෂිත හා සුවදායී සංචාරක අත්දැකීමක් ලබාදීම ශ්‍රී ලාංකික අපගේ අපේක්ෂාව බව සිහිපත් කරමි.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ
ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM. Spokesperson, United Sri lanka Assn. Wellington NZ

To:Rt Hon Jacinda Arden,
Prime Minister of NZ.

Dear Prime Minister,

I write to you after much consideration , to record concerns  about NZ’s decision to grant  refugee status over a week ago, to a Sri Lankan couple, under surveillance of Sri Lankan security authorities, for having possible links to  Islamic terrorism.

This concern comes on the back of a granting of refugee status under similar circumstances to the one who then went on to commit the heinous crimes in the Auckland Super Market on the 5th of September . This was done, believing this man’s claim that he was under  unfair surveillance exercised by the SL authorities  for having links with Tamil Tiger  Terrorism. However subsequent events confirmed that this man’s claims were not truthful and any blame of SL authorities was unjustified. Subsequently when he was placed under surveillance of NZ Police. for Islamic radicalisation , it was found to be very difficult to do so leading to the heinous crimes of 5th of September ’21 referred to above.

These only go, among others to highlight the challenges the Sr Lankan authorities face to keep their people safe from  radicalisation by both of these groups and the untruthful nature of both of these groups.

Part of the reason for this letter is to highlight this to correct in NZ,  a commonly held misbelief,  that the Sri Lankan authorities unfairly treat those with alleged links to terrorism. In facts you may know that , SL has been under the censure of the UNHCR in Geneva for a number of years , based on such allegations, which many of us know to be  baseless. These experiences is further evidence of this.

The other reason for this letter to caution that the NZ authorities should not let their guard down in the exercises of appropriate surveillance of this couple for the appropriate length of time to spare NZ a repeat tragedy and spare the Sri Lankan community in NZ   the ignominy of a similar experience.

Thank you very much.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM
Spokesperson,
United Sri lanka Assn.
Wellington NZ

MD Pathik Hasan

Pakistan’s Gwadar port has brought a new dream for the region. This port is not only for Pakistan but also all regional states. Chinese Investment has accelerated the pace of aspirations in this regard. China’s multi billion dollars’ worth project CPEC’ is linked with Gwadar port. This port creates some sort of possibilities and potentials for whole South Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia, Western Asia, Eurasia, East Asia and Middle East.

Bangladesh is a rising South Asian economic miracle and star. The country under the leadership of its PM Sheikh Hasina Wajed is moving forward. There are many industries, companies in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a biggest exporter of Ready-Made Garments (RMG). Its apparel industry is booming. So, it needs cotton. But the production of cotton in Bangladesh is very low. Therefore, it used to import cotton from western China, Central Asia and Pakistan also. But Bangladesh has no direct connectivity, shipping lines with these states. Bangladesh is using Malacca strait now regarding import and export from China. Singapore port has been using. So, cotton import from Western China is very expensive for Bangladesh.

On the other hands, Bangladesh exports medicines, apparels, frozen foods, Halal foods, potatoes to different countries. Bangladesh export huge number of apparels, potatoes, mangoes to Russia, Central Asian states. On the other hands. It imports cotton, wheats from Russia and Central Asian states. Recently Bangladesh and Russia have agreed to boost up business ties. Bangladesh wants to export mangoes to Russia and import fertilizer from Russia. But the transportation cost by air amongst these states is very high.

Bangladesh can utilize the facilities of Gwadar port. Bangladesh can use Pakistan’s Gwadar port to boost up its trade with Central Asia, Western China and Pakistan. Pakistan’s Gwadar port is going to be regional trade hub in the region. Bangladesh can reach in Western China, Central Asia, Pakistan easily. Pakistan has some regional connectivity with Central Asian States through Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is now viable and politically stagnant. Taliban has formed a government. Regional states including China, Russia are interested to invest for the development of infrastructure and Connectivity of Afghanistan. Bangladesh can also play a role to take part in the development process in Afghanistan.

Therefore, Bangladesh should use Gwadar port to reach in these countries for ensuring its own business interest. There might have some Problems between Bangladesh and Pakistan. But both government of these two states should solve it for their own mutual interest. Pakistan should play an important role in this regard. It has some responsibilities to Bangladesh. It has to be understood and realized. But these problems must be solved diplomatically with bilateral efforts.

Pakistan’s Gwadar port has very strategic significance. China and Pakistan are working together to establish ‘Gwadar port’ a regional hub. Using Gwadar port, Bangladesh can easily access into the markets of Central Asian states, Western part of China, Pakistan, even Afghanistan and Western Asian states.

Bangladesh products can be exported to imported from those regions easily. The raw materials for apparel sector (cotton) can be imported easily from Pakistan and Central Asian states. Such a way, the business relations amongst Bangladesh and other Muslim countries will be strengthened. Bangladesh-Pakistan economic ties will be further bolstered.

There is no shipping line connection between Bangladesh and Pakistan. Bangladesh imports raw materials and products from western China and Central Asian Countries through either Singapore via Malacca strait or by air. So, the cost of transportation and wastage of time is huge for Bangladesh.

Bangladesh can easily overcome this utilizing the Pakistan’s Gwadar port. Bangladesh has already joined China run BRI project in 2017.  Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka all are the members of Chinese BRI project. If Bangladesh’s ports such as Chittagong (Chattogram), Payra, Mangla ports can be connected with Pakistan’s Gwadar port, Karachi port or Port Qassim via Sri Lankan Colombo or Hambantota port, both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka would benefit. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asian states would also benefit.

Whole South East Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and West Asia would benefit. ASEAN and SAARC free trade zones could be created. Bangladesh could benefit ultimately. The dependence of Bangladesh on India will be decreased. A greater regional interest could be confirmed.

Why Bangladesh should utilize Pakistan’s Gwadar port?

1. For ensuring its own business interest.
2. To strengthen the economic and trade ties with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asian States, West Asian countries and Even Russia and China.
3. To decrease its huge dependence on India,
4. For creating the ASEAN and SAARC free trade of zones.
5. This connectivity could unite the ASEAN and SAARC free trade zones.
6. The all states in those regions would benefit mutually in the sector of trade, Counter-terrorism approach from multilateral ties.
7. Enhancing bilateral relations could contribute to the growth of trade and investment relations with ASEAN and BIMSTEC countries. This will create an opportunity to serve grater regional interest.
8. Re-establishing the Himalayan-South Asian connectivity can occur if political and diplomatic solutions of Bangladesh-Pakistan strained ties can be found.
9. Usage of Gwadar port by Bangladesh would ensure the maximum benefit of the people.

So, Bangladesh should use Pakistan’s Gwadar port. There is no alternative for each and every state in the world without be connected with others. There are huge potentials for Bangladesh in this regard. Now it’s time for Bangladesh to utilize this.

තිසර සමල් – එප්පාවල

මිහින්තලය ප්‍රාදේශීය සම්බන්ධීකරණ කමිටු රැස්වීම ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ ජාතික සංවිධායක, සූර්ය බල, සුළං හා ජල විදුලි ජනන සංර්ධන රාජ්‍යය අමාත්‍යය දුමින්ද දිසානායක මහතාගේ සභාපතීත්වයෙන් මිහින්තලය ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාල ශ්‍රවණාගාරයේදී පැවැත්විණි.එහිදී ප්‍රදේශයේ සිදු කෙරෙන සංවර්ධන කටයුතු සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙන්ම ප්‍රදේශයේ ජනතාවට පවතින පොදු ප්‍රශ්න සම්බන්ධයෙන් රාජ්‍යය නිළධාරීන් හා දේශපාලන අධිකාරිය අතර සාකච්ජා සිදු කර විසදුම් ලබා දීම සිදු විය.මෙම කමිටු රැස්වීමේදී කොරෝනා වසංගත පාලනය, කාබනික පොහොර සඳහා ගොවීන් යොමු වීම මෙන්ම වාරී පද්ධති නවීකරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් දීර්ඝ වශයෙන් සාකච්ජා කෙරිණි.

පවතින පොහොර ගැටලුව සම්බන්ධයෙන් අදහස් දැක්වූ රාජ්‍යය අමාත්‍යය දුමින්ද දිසානායක මහතා, 

රසායනික පොහොර ආයේ ලැබෙන්නේ නෑ,  අපි දැන් කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට කියන්නේ ගොවිජන සේවා එකත් එක්ක කථා කරලා, දැන් රජයෙන් ගේන කාබනික  නයිට්‍රජන් දියර පොහොර ටික තියෙනවානේ, ඒ ටික හරියට අනුරාධපුරයට ගෙන්න ගන්න දැන්ම හරියට සැලසුම් කරන්න, අවශ්‍ය ප්‍රමාණය ඉල්ලුම් කරන්න.ඔය කියන විදිහට කාබනික පොහොර දාලා බඩඉරඟු හදන්න බෑ, දැනට හදලා තියෙන කාබනික පොහොර වල නයිට්‍රජන් ප්‍රථිශතය 1%- 2% ක්වත් නෑ, කාබනික පොහොර දැම්මයි කියන එක උත්තරයක් වෙන්නේ නෑ වගාවට.අමතර භෝග වලට අවශය දියර කාබනික නයිට්‍රජන් ගෙන්වන්නේ පුද්ගලික අංශයෙන්, ඒ නිසා අමතර භෝග වගා කරන පිරිසට දැන්ම ඉඳන්ම  ගෙන්වා ගන්න සැලැසුම් නොකලොත් ඔක්තොම්බර් 15 වැනිදායින් පස්සේ අපි අමාරුවේ වැටෙනවා යැයි පැවසීය.

සම්බන්ධීකරණ කමිටු රැස්වීමේදී අදහස් දක්වමින් මිහින්තලය ප්‍රාදේශීය සභා මන්ත්‍රී චමින්ද සම්පත් මහතා කියා සිටියේ,

මහකිරින්දේගම එල්ලංගා පද්ධතිය සකස් කිරීම යටතේ වැව් 05ක් සංවර්ධනය කිරීමේ කටයුතු සිදු වෙමින් පවතිනවා.මෙම එල්ලංගා පද්ධතිය සංවර්ධනයේදී යම් යම් ගැටලු තිබෙනවා.මහ කිරින්දේගම වැව අසලම පිහිටි  කඳුපාගම වැව සංවර්ධනය නොකර එල්ලංගා පද්ධතියේ කෙලවරේම වැව් කීපයක් මේ වන විට සංවර්ධනය කිරීම  සිදු වෙනවා.මෙම වැව් පද්ධති සිදු කිරීමේ ගැටලු පවතින බවද පැවසීය.

අනතුරුව අදහස් දැක්වූ වාරී මාර්ග ඉංජිනේරුතුමන් වැව් තෝරා ගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් පවතින නිර්නායක කමිටුව හමුවේ පැහැදිලි කර දුන්හ.

අනතුරුව අදහස් දැක්වූ ගොවි මහතෙකු කියා සිටියේ,

ඔය වැව වටේම තිබුනේ කැලෑව, කැලෑව කොටලා වැව් බන්ට් එකට එනකල් දැන් අස්වද්දලා, පුරාවිද්‍යාවෙන් දාපු ගල් දැන් නෑ, සේරම ගල් පෙරලලා, ඩෝසර් කරලා කුඹුරු අස්වද්දලා.අනාගතේ මේවාට මුහුණ දෙන්නේ අපේ දරුවෝ. අපි ඉල්ලන්නෙත් නැතිව මේ වැව හදන්න පටන් ගත්තා, අලුත්වැව /කුඹහා වැව යටක් අක්කර 80ක් විතර පැස්සුවා.නමුත් කන්න අවසන් වෙද්දී වතුර හිඟයක් එනවා,වතුර මෝටර් තියෙන අය වතුර ගහ ගත්තා, නැති අයට කරන්න දෙයක් තිබුණේ නෑ. ඒ නිසා තමයි අපි වානක් හදලා දෙන්න කියලා ඉල්ලීමක් කරලා වානක් ඉදි කරන්නේ යැයි පැවසීය.

ඒ අවස්ථාවේදී නැගී සිටි තවත්  ගොවි මහතෙකු සභාව තුළ නොසන්සුන්ව හැසිරෙමින් කෑකෝ ගසමින් කියා සිටියේ වැවේ වාන වෙනස් කිරීමෙන් තම කුඹුරු යට වන බවයි.තවත් ගොවි මහතෙකුද නැගී සිටිමින් අදහහස් දැක්වීමේදී සභාවේ යම් උණුසුම්කාරී තත්වයක් ඇති විය.ඔහු කියා සිටියේ කඳුපාගම වැව කියන වැව යටතේ ඉඩම් බෙදා ගත්තේ එකම පවුලේ 05 දනෙක් යැයි කියමින් චෝදනා කළ අතර, ඒ අවස්ථාවේ ගොවින් අතර උණුසුම් වචන හුවමාරුවක් සිදු විය.

එහිදී අදහස් දැක්වූ රාජ්‍යය අමාත්‍යය දුමින්ද දිසානායක මහතා කියා සිටියේ,

ඔක්කොමලා නිශ්ශබ්ද වෙන්න, මම කියන දේ අහගන්න කැමති අය ඉඳලා, අනෙක් අය යන්න එළියට, අනුරාධ ජයරත්න ඇමතිතුමා එනවා අනුරාධපුරයේ එල්ලංගා පද්ධති නිරීක්ෂණයට එතුමාටත් මම කථා කරන්නම්.එතනදී ප්‍රායෝගිකව කරන්න පුලුවන් දේ කරන්න කථා කරන්නම්.මෙතනදී කාටද වාසී වෙන්නේ, කාටද අවාසි වෙන්නේ කියලා නෙමෙයි, මේ ව්‍යාපෘති හරහා පොදුවේ තියෙන වටිනාකම ගැන තමයි අපි බලන්න අවශ්‍යතාව  තියෙන්නේ.බැරි වෙලා හරි කාට හරි අසාධාරණයක් වෙනවා නම් අලුතින් ඉඩම් අස්වද්දනකෙට ඒ අයට ප්‍රමුඛතාවය දෙන්නත් අවශ්‍යයි.මෙච්චර කාලයක් ක්‍රමවේදයක් නැති නිසා වැව් ටික ඇල්ලුවා, ඉවරු ඇල්ලුවා, ආණ්ඩුවේ ඉඩම් ඇල්ලුවා.දැන් අතිගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමන්ගේ හා ආණ්ඩුවේ යම්කිසි ක්‍රමවේදයක්, වැඩපිළිවෙලක් එන කොට අර කලින් කරපු වැරදි සියල්ලම අපිට නිවැරදි කරන්න පුලුවන්කමක් නෑ,යම් පිරීසකට අසාධාරණයක් සිද්ධ වෙයි.හැබැයි අසාධාරණයක් වෙන අයටත් යම්කිසි සාධාරණයක් කරලා දෙන්න පුලුවන්කම තියෙනවා.ඒ නිසා හැමෝටම සාධාරණයක් වෙන විදිහට, අවම අසාධාරණයක් වෙන විදිහට මේ ප්‍රශ්නය අපි විසඳලා මේ ව්‍යාපෘති අපි ක්‍රියාත්මක කරමු.

අද බැනගත්තා නොයෙකුත් දේවල් සිද්ධ වුණා, ඒවා වෙන එකත් හොඳයි, සමහර වෙලාවට තමන්ට ප්‍රශ්නයක්, පීඩාවක් තියෙන කොට දරා ගන්න බැරි වෙන කොට ඒ වගේ දේවලුත් වෙනවා.හැබැයි අපි මේක පුරුද්දක් කර ගන්න හොඳ නෑ, නමුත් අපි සියලු දෙනාම මේකෙන් තේරුම් ගන්න අවශ්‍යය කාරණය තමයි අපි කොච්චර හරි දේ කළත්,  හොඳ දේ කළත් පීඩනයට පත් වෙන බොහෝ පිරිසක් ඉන්නවා.ඒ අය වෙනුවෙනුත් යම් කිසි සාධාරණයක් කරන්නේ කොහොමද කියලා අපි තේරුම් ගන්න අවශ්‍යයි.අපි අපේ පැත්තෙන් හරිම දේ කළා වෙන්න පුලුවන්, අපි හරිම වෙන්න පුලුවන්,  හැබැයි ප්‍රායෝගිකව පීඩාවට පත් වෙන පිරිසක් ඉන්නවා නම් ඒ අය වෙනුවෙනුත් යම්කිසි සාධාරණයක් කළ යුතුයි. මම විශ්වාස කරනවා මේ රජයේ නිළධාරීන් තමන්ගේ රාජකාරිය කරන ගමන්ම මනුෂයන් ලෙස මේ ප්‍රදේශයේ ජනතාවගේ අවශ්‍යතා, ප්‍රශ්න ගැනත් යම් වැටහීමක් තියෙනවා.හැබැයි ඔබතුමන්ලාට ඒ ප්‍රශ්න ගැන වැටහීමක් තිබුණත් රටේ තියෙන නීතී රීති එක්ක කරන්න දේකුත් නෑ, හැබැයි ඒ වගේ අවස්ථා වලදී දේශපාලන අධිකාරිය විදිහට අපිට පුළුවන්කම තියෙනවා මැදිහත් වෙලා යම් සාධාරණයක් කරන්න, දෙගොල්ලගේම තියෙන ප්‍රශ්න එක තැනකට ගෙනල්ලා විසදන්න අපිට පුළුවන්කම තියෙනවා. අද මේ කථා කර ගත්ත ඒවා, කෑ ගහගත්ත ඒවා මහා ලොකු දේවල් නෙමෙයි, ඒකෙන් කාගේ හිත් රිද්දවාගන්න අවශ්‍ය නෑ, කවුරුත් අධෛර්යමත් වෙන්න අවශ්‍යත් නෑ, මේ වගේ සාකච්ජා, අදහස් හුවමාරු කර ගැනීම් තුළ තමයි අපිට වගේම ඒ අයටත්  නිවැරදි වෙන්න පුළුවන්කම තියෙන්නේ, මේක වැරදි ආදර්ශයක් නෙමෙයි, හොඳ පූර්වාදර්ශයක් විදිහට අරගෙන කොහොමද අපි අපේ සේවය ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් හරියට, හොඳට කරන්නේ කියන පණිවිඩය ගමු.ඒක තමයි අනාගතයේදී අපිට වටින්නේ, ඒ නිසා අපි සියලුම රජයේ නිළධාරීන්ට ස්තූතිවන්ත වෙනවා, දේශපාලන අධිකාරිය විදිහට මේකත් පැහැදිලි කරන්න අවශ්‍යයි, නිළධාරීන් ලෙස ඔබතුමන්ලාව ආරක්ෂා කරන්න අපි මැදිහත් වෙලා  ඉන්නවා.මේ සියලු නීතී රීතී සම්පාදනය කරලා තියෙන්නේ දේශපාලන අධිකාරිය විදිහට අපි, ඒ නිසා රජයේ නිළධාරීන්ට ඒ නීතී-රීතී මත ඉඳන් තමයි තීන්දු තීරණ ගන්න වෙලා තියෙන්නේ, දේශපාලන අධිකාරිය විදිහට අපි ජනතාව ගැන බලනවා වගේම නිළධාරීන්ව රාජකාරී මට්ටමින් ආරක්ෂා කරන්නත් අපි බැඳිලා ඉන්නවා, අපි ඒ දේ කරනවා යැයි පැවසීය.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට මිහින්තලය ප්‍රාදේශීය සම්බන්ධීකරණ කමිටුවේ උපසභාපති හිටපු ප්‍රධාන අමාත්‍යය එස්.එම් රංජිත් මහතා ඇතුළු ප්‍රාදේශීය දේශපාලඥයින්, මිහින්තලය ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් සිරිමෙවන් ධර්මසේන මහතා ඇතුළු රාජ්‍යය නිළධාරීන් සහභාගී වූහ. 

රජිත් කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් දකුණ හා මධ්‍ය පළාත් හිටපු ආණ්ඩුකාර

ලංකාවේ කරන්නේ ඩොලර් වෙනුවට රත්තරං වලින් ගෙවලා, හොරට ගෙන්නලා, හොරට බෙදන, හොරට විකුණන, හොර කාබනික වගාවක්‘

දිවයින පුරා හොරට විකුණන පළිබෝධක නාශක 30 කට ආසන්න ප්‍රමාණයක් අතුරින් 9 ක් පමණක් අල්ලා නඩු පැවරීමට ක්‍රියාකාර න ලෙස පළිබෝධනාශක රෙජිස්ට්‍රාර් නියෝග කර ඇත.  දිගු කලක් ඇස් කන් වසාගෙන සිටි රජය 2021 සැප්. 23 මා විසින් සිදු කළ හෙළිදරව් කිරීමෙන් පසුව සැප්. 24 මෙම නියෝගය කර ඇත.   පළිබෝධනාශක පනත යටතේ නීති විරෝධී කෘෂි රසායන අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම හා නඩු පැවරීම ඇරඹීම සතුටට කරුණක් නමුත් නීති විරෝධී පළිබෝධකනාශක 9 ක් පමණක් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමෙන් උග්‍ර විශ සහිත රසායන නිදහසේ විකීණිම සඳහා ආණ්ඩුව පරිසරය නිර්මාණ්‍ය කර ඇත.   

කලකට පෙර ලංකාවේ තහනම් කළ අධි විෂ සහිත මොනක්‍රොටපස්, මැලතියන් හා කාබෝෆියුරාන් පවා අසිමිත ලෙස රටට ගෙන්වීම මේ වන විට සිදුවේ. ඒවා විවිධ නම්වලින් ඇසුරුම් කර මේ වන විට අලෙවි කෙරේ.  රටට-ලෝකයට කාබනික කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය පෙන්වමින් බෝට්ටු කෘෂි රසායන මගින් මහ කන්නයේ වගාව සිදු කිරීම රජයේ සැලසුම වී ඇත.

රජයේ නිල ඩොලර් ගිණුමට බරක් නැති, රත්තරං වෙනුවට කෘෂි රසායන හොරෙන් ගෙන්වන ව්‍යාපෘතිය කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍යාංශයට ආශිර්වාදයක් ලෙස සලකමින් කෘෂිකර්ම ලේකම් උදය ජයසිංහ, මහාචාර්ය ප්‍රියන්ත යාපා, තේ මණ්ඩලයේ සභාපති ජයම්පති මොල්ලිගොඩ ඇතුළු පිරිස කටයුතු කරති.

රේගුවට හොරෙන් බෝට්ටුවෙන් ගෙන්වා, හොරට රට පුරා බෙදා, හොරට අලෙවි කරන කෘෂි රසායන යොදා ගනිමින් නමට පමණක් කාබනික ගොවිතැනක් දැන් රටේ නිර්මාණය වී තිබේ. කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍යාංශයේ අමන-තකතීරු ප්‍රතිපත්තිය මෙරට කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම කළු කඩය මත යැපෙන තැනකට තල්ලු කර ඇත. මේ කළු කඩ ප්‍රතිප්තිය රු. 6000 ට තිබූ  කෘෂි රසායන දැන් රු. 12,000 දක්වා මිල ඉහල නැංවීමට හේතු වී ඇත.  

පළිබෝධක නාශක රෙජිස්ට්‍රාර් 1980 අංක 33 දරණ පිළිබෝධනාශක පාලනය කිරීමේ පනත යටතේ සියළුම බලයලත් නලධාරීවරුන්, සියලුම නඩු පැවරීමේ නිලධාරි හා නඩු කටයුතු මෙහෙයවීමේ නිලධාරීන් ට  නියෝග කර ඇත්තේ කෘෂි රසායන 9 ක් පමණක් සොයා මෙහෙයුම් කර නඩු පවරණ ලෙසය.  (එම නිවේදනය මේ සමඟ අමුණා ඇත)  එමගින්, අනෙකුත් සියලු නීති විරෝධී කෘෂි රසායන අලෙවියට විවෘත නිල නොවන බලපත්‍රයක් ලැබී ඇත.

වහා ක්‍රියාත්මක වන පරිදි මෙරට අලෙවි වන සියළුම නීති විරෝධී කෘෂි රසායන අල්ලා ගැනීමට මෙහෙයුම් දියත් කරන ලෙසත්, ජාවාරම්කරුවන්ට නඩු පවරණ ලෙසත් හිටපු ආණ්ඩුකාර රජිත් කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් සිය නිවේදනයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටී.

හිරු පුවත්

ජාත්‍යන්තර ප්‍රමිතියෙන් හැඩ වූ, අසමසම, නිර්මාණශීලි, දඟකාර පුංචි නැට්ටුවන් පිරිවරාගත් ප්‍රාසාංගික නර්තනයේ රියැලිටි ටෙලිවිෂන් සන්නාමය වන “හිරු SUPER DANCER” සීසන් 03 අවසන් මහා තරඟය (Grand Finale) Hiru Life Studio මැදිරි සංකීර්ණයේදී අද (25) පැවැත්වුණා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

චීන සමාගමක් වෙතින් ලැබී ඇති කාබනික පොහොර සාම්පල විෂ සහිත බව සනථ වී තිබියදී එම පොහොර තොගය ආනයනය කිරීමට රජයට ඇති උනන්දුව ප‍්‍රශ්න සහගත බවට ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා කෘෂි ව්‍යවසායකයන්ගේ සංසදය පවසයි.

චීනයෙන් ගෙන්වන ලද මෙම පොහොර සාම්පලවල විෂයෙහි අක‍්‍රමිකතා සිදුව ඇති බවට තමන්ට නිරීක්‍ෂණය වී ඇති බව ද එම සංසදය සඳහන් කරයි.

ජාතික පොහොර ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේ නිර්දේශ කිසිවක් මෙම නියැදි ආනයනය විෂයයෙහි අනුගමනය කර නොමැත. කෘෂිකර්මාන්ත අමාත්‍යාංශයේ රීතීන් අනුව ගෙන්වනු ලබන පොහොර සාම්පල රස පරීක්‍ෂා යහපත් වුවද ඒ අනුව දිවයිනට ගෙන්වීමට අනුමැතිය දෙනු ලබන වාණිජ පරිමාණ පොහොරද විටින් විට අහඹු ලෙසින් පරීක්‍ෂාවට ලක් කරනු ලැබේ. එවන් අහඹු පරීක්‍ෂා නොකරනු ලබන්නේ නම් ආගන්තුක හා හානිකර බැක්ටීරියා නිසා පෙර සඳහන් කළ පරිදි මිනිසුන්ට හා බෝගවලට මෙන්ම අපගේ දේශීය ජල මූලාශ‍්‍රවලටද ස්වභාවික පරිසර පද්ධතියටද ආපසු හැරවිය නොහැකි දරුණු හානි ඇති විය හැකිය. මෙය විශේෂයෙන් අපගේ වගා ක්‍ෂේත‍්‍රයට දැවැන්ත ව්‍යසනයක් ඇති කරන්නටද ඉඩ ඇත.

ලාබ ලැබීම මූලික අරමුණ විය හැකි ආනයනකරුවන් විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කරනු ලබන මෙවන් දූෂමාණ රසායන වාර්තා පිළිගැනීමේ හා පසුව එම සාම්පල දූෂිත යයි නිල වශයෙන් පිළිගෙන එයින් පසුවද එම පොහොර වර්ගය විශාල වාණිජ ප‍්‍රමාණයකින් එනම් ටොන් 96000 ක් ගෙන්වන්නට අවසර දෙන ලද අදාළ බලධාරීන්ගේ ආකල්පය අපට සැබැවින්ම ප‍්‍රශ්න සහගතය. මේසා දැවැන්ත ප‍්‍රමාණයක් ගෙන්වන්නට අවසර දී ඇත්තේ කිලෝ කීපයක් පමණක් පරීක්‍ෂා කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුවය හා එහි අපවිත‍්‍රතා තිබෙන බව සනාථ වී තිබියදීය. එනිසා ඝන කාබනික ද්‍රව්‍ය පරිපාලනය වන ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ප‍්‍රමිති ආයතනයේ අංක 1704 සම්මතයට අනුව උක්ත පොහොර වර්ගයෙහි කිසිදු බැක්ටීරියා හෝ වෙනත් ජීවමය විශේෂයක් නොමැති බව තහවුරු වනතෙක් මෙම ආනයනය සඳහා අනුමැතිය ලබාදීම කිසිසේත් සංවේදී හෝ දේශ හිතෛෂී කටයුත්තක් නොවනු ඇත.

එම නිසා අවශ්‍ය කරුණු කාරණා තහවුරු කර ගන්නා තෙක් උක්ත පොහොර තොගය ආනයනය කිරීමට අවසර නොදිය යුතුය යැයි රජය වෙතින් අප සංසදය තරයේ ඉල්ලා සිටී. විෂය භාර අමාත්‍යවරයා විසින් නිකුත් කරනු ලබන ඇස් බැන්දුම් මාධ්‍ය නිවේදන පමණක් මේ සඳහා ප‍්‍රමාණවත් වන්නේ නැති බව ද එම සංසදය සඳහන් කරයි.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

An investigation has been launched after the Western Province Intelligence Division had received an information in connection to a WhatsApp group suspected to be connected to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), operating in Sri Lanka.

Senior DIG in charge of Western Province and all divisions senior officers in the province have been informed to be vigilant over the information.

It was reported that a WhatsApp group called ‘Interschool’ is related to the ISIS and if someone was invited to join, they could not leave the group after joining.
 
The Director of the Western Province Intelligence Division has instructed the Senior DIG Western Province that it would be appropriate for the relevant section to conduct a speedy investigation into the information received them on this WhatsApp group.

Meanwhile, Police Spokesman SSP Nihal Thalduwa told DailyMirror that police are monitoring all suspicious groups on social media which could be a threat to national security.

Accordingly the intelligence units identified a similar Whatsapp group that could be suspected to be involved an extremism group and therefore the relevant authorities have taken action to investigate it immediately.(Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya)

Courtesy Adaderana

The locally mutated Delta variant of COVID-19 is now assigned to a new Delta sub-lineage, called Delta AY.28.COV-lineage.

This Delta variant which displayed A701S, A222V and A1078S spike protein mutations is now identified as B.1.617.2.28 and belongs to the Sri Lankan lineage.

Dr. Chandima Jeewandara, the Director of Allergy Immunology and Cell Biology Unit at Sri Jayewardenepura University, made this information public via his twitter account today (Sep. 26).

As of yesterday, 382 sequences in the AY.28.COV-lineage have been detected since the lineage was identified.

From this worldwide total, 228 have been detected from Sri Lanka.

The variant was also detected in Turkey, India, the United States and Russia.

Courtesy Adaderana

The total number of people who fell victim to COVID-19 infection in Sri Lanka moved up as 71 more fatalities were confirmed by the Director-General of Health Services on Saturday (September 25).

The new development has pushed the official death toll from the virus outbreak in Sri Lanka to 12,680.

According to the data released by the Department of Government Information, the latest victims include 32 males and 39 females.

As many as 56 deaths were reported among elderly people who are aged above 60 years.

In addition, 14 individuals aged between 30-59 years and 01 below 30 years have also succumbed to the virus infection.

Courtesy Adaderana

The daily total of new COVID-19 cases moved to 1,078 today (Se. 26) as 331 more people were tested positive for the virus, the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry said.

Among the new cases are 04 returnees from foreign countries and 1,074 others who were associated with the New Year Cluster.

This brings the tally of coronavirus infections confirmed in the country to 513,609.

According to Epidemiology Unit data, 46,397 active cases are currently under medical care at hospitals, treatment centres and homes.

Total recoveries from the virus infection reached 454,532 earlier today as 843 more patients were discharged from medical care upon returning to health.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka registered 71 new COVID-related fatalities confirmed by the Director-General of Health Services on Sep. 25. The new development pushed the official death toll to 12,680.

Shenali D Waduge

An unforgettable crime took place on Easter Sunday 21^stApril 2019. Close to 300 people will killed in a mass murder by 8 Islamic terrorist suicide bombers profaning to be members of ISIS. That they pledged support for ISIS prior to committing their heinous crime, requires Sri Lanka to view this incident as the first but not the last. Sri Lanka suffered 30 years of LTTE terrorism because it ignored the need to wipe out extremist separatist ideology. Sri Lanka cannot commit the same mistake by taking the case lightly simply because the 8 suicide bombers are dead. These suicide bombers were promoted to commit mass murder because of an ideology that was being promoted underground secretly by people camouflaged and wearing different hats in society to cover their gameplan. The People want truth & justice, more importantly the people are watching the AG’s department & CID to catch all those linked to the ideology that draws people to commit murder.Whether the culprits are lawyers and whether fellow lawyers & the UN bellows 24×7 – AG’s dept & CID must get to the bottom of this crime & punish all involved in planning the crime with severe indictments.

Attorney General’s Dept functions as prosecutors while CID & associated entities are engaged in investigations.  

There are 2 parts to the Easter Sunday debacle targeting 3 churches & 3 hotels by 8 suicide bombers.

Part 1should be to bring to book every person who played a role in planning, executing or assisting the mass murderthat took place on Easter Sunday. Ignoring this means the likelihood of many more future attacks!

Part 2should be to bring to book every person who was aware of the intel warnings sent but did nothing to prevent the crime when they had the authority & capacity to do so irrespective of their position. Authorities must also investigate politicians/lawyers/others who are trying to mislead & divertattentionaway from the facts.

According to media, the AG’s department has forwarded indictments to the Puttalam High Court against Hejaaz Hezbullah & Principal of Save the Pearls madrassa school Mohamed Shakeel. Based on this media report all that the arrested lawyer is going to be charged with is inciting racist animosity between different ethnic groups. To charge the Principal under same clause what acts of racism has he committed while doing a paid job?

Is the charge of inciting ethnic hatred going to be the only charge against the arrested lawyer by the AG’s dept?

We hope the below facts are also being investigated & looked into by both the AGs dept & the CID & more serious charges will be filed at a future date.

Sri Lanka & ISIS 

It was on 29 June 2014 that Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared a so-called Islamic State. 34 Sri Lankans went to Syria to join ISIS. All the 8 suicide bombers were seen pledging allegiance to ISIS (and we all know the real brains/countries behind these terrorists!)

The argument that arrested lawyer was only providing legal consultation to justify links with the Easter Sunday suicide bombers & their families is a shoddy argument. We hope the AG’s department realizes this, if not, we would like to pose the following questions to the AG’s dept & the CID

3 suicide bombers & their families had direct links with the arrested lawyer & these were not for legal consultations!– has the AG’s dept looked into these links & ties?

1. Ilham Ahmed Mohamed Ibrahimthe Shangrila Hotel suicide bomberwas the Treasurer of Save the Pearlscreated by the arrested lawyer in early 2015. Who appointed Ilham as Treasurer?
2. The arrested lawyer & brother of the Dehiwela suicide bomberwere having discussions in his Dematagoda house to set up Save the Pearls.

Abdul Latheef Mohamed Jameelblew himself up at the New Tropical Inn Hotel,Dehiwela on Easter Sunday – he was educated in Australia & UK

• Inshaff Ahmed Mohamed Ibrahim (Cinnamon Grand suicide bomber)elder brother of Ilham the Shangri-la suicide bomber donated to Save the Pearls Trust – how much and what was this money used for by the arrested lawyer?

All 3 links with the 3 suicide bombers & their families have nothing to do with legal consultations.We hope the AG’s dept & CID have established this because the general public has!

The arrested lawyer however did give legal advice to the Dehiwela suicide bomber Jameel when he was summoned to CID in 2018 – WHY was he summoned? Note this link with a suicide bomber was before Easter Sunday bombing in April 2019.

Why did the arrested lawyer decide not to register Save the Pearls? 

As a lawyer he should know to register all lawfully functioningentities! As an unregistered ‘charity’ how much money has Save the Pearl/Trust received from overseas & locally & by whom and what has this money being used for? Has a proper audit been done by the AG’s dept & CID! 

What is the response of the AG’s dept to the arrested lawyer being an ADMIN of the Save the Pearls social media& exactly what was his role?

Is it a coincidence that the same time Jamaat-e-Millt Ibrahim (JMI) & Pearls of Wisdom was also formed in 2015immediately after the 2015 regime change took place assisted by US & Allies?

Did the AG’s dept & CID investigate if these Pearls” ended up being amalgamated as JMIto spread extremist fundamentalist ideology which resulted in creating 8 suicide bombers?

Has the AG’s dept looked into the sources of funding to Save the Pearls? 

What does the AG’s dept have to say about Save the Pearls receiving from Qater Charity banned by countries for funding terrorists!How much did this Charity send to Save the Pearls & what was the money used for?

Why is an internationally banned terrorist ‘charity’ sending money to an unregistered ‘charity’ teaching children?

Given that a banned terrorist organization has been linked to a local charity, what legal action is the AG’s dept taking against Save the Pearls?

Has the AG’s dept looked into who financed millions of rupees for the 2016 Best Mosque Competition event held at PM’s officeunder initiative Advocacy Reconciliation Council”. What was the purpose of this event & were members of this network linked to the Easter Sunday?

Is it a coincidence that the deported Sri Lankan linked to a suicide bombing in Syriahas as his lawyer – the arrested lawyer Hejaaz!

Is this arrested lawyer famed for arguing on behalf of terrorists!

What a coincidence, he even represented the suspects who damaged Buddha statues in Mawanellaarea through his junior lawyers!

Has the AG’s dept located which country the arrested lawyer was in at the time of the Easter Sunday attack& the duration of his stay?

Can the AG’s dept tell the public how many mobile phones this arrested lawyer operated & have all these SIM cardsbeen located& what do they reveal?

Close to 300 people perished and charging people on a lame ‘inciting ethnic disharmony’ is not the justice that the people are expecting to be delivered by the AG’s department.

The general public are no lawyers but they are not stupid either. They have followed every news report, every debate, every press/media release and in their eyes this arrested lawyer has been providing far more than professional legal consultations.

The arrested lawyer has had direct links to 3 suicide bombers prior to the Easter Sunday bombing with one of the 2 suicide-brothers functioning as his Treasurer and the other donating massive funds to his charity, while he has been seeking help from the 3^rdsuicide bombers brother to set up his charity & providing legal advice to the 3^rdsuicide bomber after he was summoned by CID in 2018. These links cannot be ignored and are all part & parcel of the greater ISIS fundamentalist ideology drawing people to commit murder in the name of religion. 

Thus, the public would like to ask if the Attorney General’s department & CID are going to further investigate the following areas the public think, are more important and should have taken priority in framing charges against the lawyer. He cannot be released with a lame charge!

If the UNHRC/fellow lawyers who are petitioning 24×7 on behalf of this arrested lawyer are doing so even after knowing above, it is a very sad state of affairs for Sri Lanka to have people side with terrorist-instigators and not the real victims of terror. We should not be surprised – LTTE lasted 30 years because the supposed same rights-activists always wanted GoSL to have tea with terrorists while happy to issue a feeble unemotional statement after every heinous terrorist act by LTTE.

Close to300 persons perished on Easter Sunday. It’s over 2 years and everyone is waiting for and demanding justice. However, some quarters locally & internationally have seen fit to hijack the status quo of ‘victim’ and plug it to people arrested for links to Easter Sunday. This is unforgiveable. Everyone is seeking the truth. Truth maybe bitter for some but they will have to accept it. Using the power of their positions, they cannot erase or dilute the truth. Truth & Justice must go hand in hand and we all want every person linked to the Easter Sunday crime to be punished. 

Let us remind all that the victims are not those arrested for links to Easter Sunday mass murder but those that perished inside 3 churches and 3 hotels and those that remain injured for life. If human rights organizations (both international & local) see fit to campaign for the release of a lawyer completely ignoring justice for these victims – we don’t need any court to determine their motives.

That the suicide bombers pledged allegiance to an entity that carries out murders on orders requires Sri Lanka’s law enforcement to eliminate the ideology & prosecute those involved in spreading it. The ideology has to be clipped to prevent future 21/4

Which is why, we expect, the AG’s dept and the CID to serve justice to the victims not to anyone linked to the attack projecting themselves as ‘victim’.

Shenali D Waduge

Dr. Chula Rajapakse. MNZM FRCP/FRACP Wellington,NZ

Dear Editor,

  I just viewed a  a video received via social media showing seemingly a challenge of a lady in Jaffna by the police and the sudden appearance of a lawyer, clearly positioned in advance to be handy,  confronting the police with an allegation of extra judicial action .The camera’s were also handy to make a recording of it  , showing enough to make the police appear in poor light . This was my response to it.

  I have fully anticipated such video’s .

This appears to be  an Engineered confrontations with the police , videoed partially to show Police in poor light, wIthout explaining the circumstances that led to the police action, leaving it to the viewers imagination to discern. This is not difficult to predict., (This was practiced widely in the making of the UK Channel for Sri Lanka Killing Fields” film) . These will be repeated and the Sri Lankan’s will see to it that these will go viral  and blame the police of HR violations.

All this is  in particularly  targeting,  the visit by an  EU delegation on Monday 27/9/21, to assess SL’s suitability for continuation  of GSP +  preferential import duty for exports to EU accounting for 30% , over 5 billion pa, of SL’s forex earnings.

This is the response of the combined opposition of NGO, Tiger Diaspora

and JVP/SJB to thwart any economic recovery that may follow COVID control following the highly successful vaccination program which they failed to under mine.

The Faint light at the end of the economic challenge tunnel that had just started to flicker would then be switched off plunging SL back into  another economic and social abyss.  The gullible SL population will happily orchestrate the blame for the govt for this result.

To repeat, the strategy is for apparently normal citizen to confront

law and order, create a challenge from the police, make it a confrontation, have a lawyer and camera handy to make a clever recording to show law enforcement in poor light, as violating HR  and release it to social media and Sri Lankans  will do the rest.

Let me remind you that this is a part of the misinformation based undermining / destabilization campaign  that commenced in Dec 2019 one month after the Presidential election in Nov/19 with the alleged kidnapping of the Swiss embassy employee raising the spectre of  a re appearance of the “white van culture”. This was exposed  as a staged fraud.However, only a few SL’s remember it and even fewer would connect it with todays :” incident”

Unless the SL population is super vigilant and stop the spread of videos of this nature  on their tracks, the Sri Lankan’s will be the ones who will suffer most.

Shenali D Waduge

The following photos are alarming and raises more questions than answers. Who can explain the connection?

There were many Church-based NGOs operating in the North and East throughout the conflict. Many of them had their offices virtually next door to LTTE offices.

Audit the monies sent to these organizations throughout 30 years and evaluate against what they had done against what their websites and reports claimed they did. What were they really upto in the North and East when LTTE was running a defacto state using LTTE police, LTTE judiciary, LTTE courts, LTTE schools, LTTE teachers, LTTE curency…? Who can answer?

Father Emmanuel of GTF – whats the flag at the podium? LTTE flag

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, September 25 (newsin.asia): 65 countries, including Sri Lanka and Pakistan made a joint statement at the UN Human Rights Council on Friday against interference in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of advocating human rights, a newsletter issued by the Chinese embassy in Colombo said.

The Global Times said that the joint statement by the 65 countries was delivered by Pakistan. The statement stressed that respect for sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states and non-interference in internal affairs of sovereign states represent basic norms governing international relations.

Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet related issues are China’s internal affairs that brook no interference by any external forces. The joint statement reiterates support for China’s implementation of one country, two systems” in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.”

All parties should abide by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity, respect the right of the people of each state to choose independently the path for human rights development in accordance with their national conditions, and treat all human rights with the same emphasis, said the joint statement.

It also called upon all states to uphold multilateralism, solidarity and collaboration, and to promote and protect human rights through constructive dialogue and cooperation.

The joint statement emphasized that the 65 countries oppose politicization of human rights and double standards. They also oppose unfounded allegations against China out of political motivation and based on disinformation, and interference in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of human rights.

GCC Joins Chorus

In addition, six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) issued a joint letter supporting China’s position. More than 20 countries expressed their support to China in their national statements.

Altogether, nearly 100 countries expressed their understanding and support for China’s legitimate position, Global Times said in its report.

END   

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, September 25 (newsin.asia): Sri Lanka is encouraging entrepreneurs, small businesses, and community organizations to invest in 7,000 small scale solar projects throughout the country, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the UN High-Level Dialogue on Energy in New York.

He also said that the country’s largest wind power farm was recently inaugurated.

The High-Level Dialogue on Energy commenced in New York yesterday (24) in parallel to the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly under the theme Ensuring everyone has access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy.

President Gotabaya said that Sri Lanka would welcome large scale investments in renewable energy, particularly in solar, wind and biomass, over the coming decades.

Sustainable energy development continues to be a high priority for Sri Lanka. The President said the target is for 70% of the country’s energy requirements to be obtained through renewable sources by 2030 and that the government has made plans to transition away from fossil fuels, promote de-carbonization, and make Sri Lanka a carbon neutral country by 2050.

The President said Sri Lanka’s commitment not to construct any new coal power plants is reflected in its Nationally Determined Contributions to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and also said Sri Lanka is happy to be a co-lead” of the Energy Compact for No New Coal Power.”

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

තේ් වගාවට යෙදිම සදහා රසායනික පොහොර නොමැති කම හේතුවෙන් තේ වගාවෙන් නෙලා ගත හැකි අමු තේ දළු අස්වැන්න අඩු විි ඇති බවට බලන්ගොඩ ප්‍රදේශයේ කුඩා තේ වතු හිමියන් දිගින් දිගටම මැසිවිලි නගති.

දැනට මාස කිහිපයක සිට තේ වගාව සදහා යෙදිමට අවශ්‍ය රසායනික පොහොර නොමැති බවත් ඒ හේතුවෙන් තේ අක්කරයකින් නෙලා ගත හැකි අමු තේ දළු අස්වැන්න හරි අඩකින් පමණ අඩු වි ඇති බව ඔවුහු කියති.

රසායනික පොහොර යොදා තේ අක්කරයකින් මසකට අමු තේ දළු කිලෝ 600- 800 ක් අතර ප්‍රමාණයක් මිට පෙර නෙලා ගත් බවත් රසායනික පොහොර වෙනුවට කාබනික පොරහොර හදුන්වා දිමත් සමග තේ අක්කරයකින් මසකට අමු තේ දළු කිලෝ 500 ක් වත් නෙලා ගැනිමට නොහැකි විම හේතුවෙන් තමන් ආර්ථික ගැටලු රැසකට මුහුණ පා සිටින බව ප්‍රදේශයේ තේ ගොවින් පෙන්වා දෙති.

ප්‍රදේශයේ තේ වතු වල තේ දළු අස්වැන්න අඩු විමත් සමග දෛනික වැටුපට හෝ කිලෝ ගණනට තේ වතු වල සේවය කරන ජනතාවට වැටුපට ප්‍රමානවත් දළු කිලෝ ප්‍රමානය නෙලා ගැනිමට නොහැකි විම හේතුවෙන් තමන්ද අසරණතාවයට පත්ව සිටින බව ඔවුන් කියති.

මෙිි සමිබන්දයෙන් ප්‍රදේශයේ තේ කර්මාන්තශාලා හිමියන්ගෙන් කල විමසිමකදි පැවැසුවෙි – තේ කර්මාන්තශාලා වලට මෙිි දිනවල ලැබෙන අමු තේ දළු කිලෝ ප්‍රමානය විශාල ලෙස අඩු වි ඇති බවයි.

මෙි අතර අමු තේ දළුවල ප්‍රමිතියද පහත වැටි ඇති බවත් ඒ හේතුවෙන් මිලද පහත වැටිමත් ඇති බව එම නිළධාරින් වැඩිදුරටත් පැවැසුහ.

– බලන්ගොඩ සමිපත් ප්‍රියනන්දන

By Kalani Kumarasinghe Courtesy The Diplomat

For weeks headlines have hit news platforms around the world that Sri Lanka is experiencing food shortages. Reports of essentials such as food and medicine being in short supply have created a very grim picture of the island nation and its citizens. 

The Sri Lankan government has been busy denying these reports, calling them blatant falsehoods, citing inaccuracies in such reports. Sights of long queues at the state-owned retailer Sathosa however, paint a different picture, which has since been used by critics and supporters alike to discuss a moot point.

Pandemic or not, Sri Lankans tend to throng at places where food is sold at the lowest price, i.e the state retailer Sathosa. The retailer, with an islandwide network, is the only one of its kind. It sells staple food items like rice, lentils and sugar at subsidized prices, attracting consumers by the dozens, even before the pandemic. The problem therefore has not been the availability of food items or essential goods, but skyrocketing prices of essentials due to stockpiling.

The fact remains that Sri Lanka is still in the throes of the deadliest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the Delta variant raged on, lockdowns were extended as labor forces were threatened with a deadly disease spreading at an alarming rate. Concerns have mounted over food shortages, but attributing the mounting worries to a government food emergency declaration is unwise. 

Food Shortage Fears Brewing Since 2020

Sri Lanka depends on considerable volumes of food imports every year. In August 2020 Sri Lanka’s import volumes for food including cereals, dairy, vegetables, and sugar stood at $228.6 million, a sharp decrease from the $332.1 million in 2019.

During the first wave of the pandemic in March 2020, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced extensive import restrictions in a bid to save foreign currency outflows and to strengthen domestic industries, with a sharp focus on local agriculture. By September 2020 then-State Minister of Money and Capital Market and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal claimed that the restrictions were a temporary measure to prevent a foreign exchange crisis. Since then hoarders of food items that are mainstays of a Sri Lankan kitchen, such as turmeric and coconuts, were brought to book by various state agencies, while worries of an imminent food shortage grew. 

Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific.

Adding to these worries was the chemical fertilizer ban approved by the government on April 27, 2021. The ambitious goal was to ban the import of chemical fertilizers and other agrochemicals, with a view to make Sri Lanka the first country in the world to adopt a completely organic approach to agriculture. While proponents of this view, including environmental activist Dr. Vandana Shiva along with many domestic bodies, endorsed the move, critics pointed out that an overnight shift toward organic farming could threaten many local industries, including the country’s valued tea plantations, a major foreign exchange earner. Import volumes of fertilizer decreased from $32.2 million in 2019 to $8.2 million in 2020. 

Despite some drastic efforts by the state, a foreign exchange crisis did unfold, with the Central Bank introducing a fresh round of regulations to control foreign currency leakages,” naming over 600 items as non-essentials in August 2021. These non-essential items include telecommunication devices like mobile phones, clothing, household appliances, and even fruits. 

In addition to shortages in turmeric and coconut, Sri Lanka in recent times also faced an acute shortage of sugar and milk powder, a staple of the average Sri Lankan consumer diet. The milk powder industry continues to operate at certain losses, unable to keep up with rising production costs. Although the government provided concessions, industry stakeholders say it is simply not enough with the rising exchange rates and a depreciating Sri Lankan rupee. Meanwhile warehouses hoarding tonnes of sugar were raided and their goods handed over to Sathosa for distribution islandwide.

The operation is handled by Major General M. D. S. P. Niwunhella, appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the designated commissioner general to take necessary steps to provide food at concessionary rates and to ensure availability of essentials. The appointment came soon after the Sri Lankan parliament passed emergency laws promulgated by Rajapaksa, in a move widely acknowledged as a continued demonstration of the president’s faith in the military corps as opposed to traditionally appointed members of the country’s administrative services. 

Not Just a Forex Problem

Many Sri Lankans drew parallels to similar measures introduced in the 1970s during Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike’s rule, whose experiences have been passed down to younger generations, and actively took to social media to voice their concerns in fear of history repeating itself. The memory of those troubled times, when food shortages were aggravated by drought-ridden harvesting seasons, still remain fresh in the minds of the elderly population of Sri Lanka. 

But some economic stakeholders like Rohan Fernando, chair of Sri Lanka Telecom, the national telecommunications services provider, believe otherwise. Fernando, in fact, is optimistic and views the troubling economic news of the past weeks as a mindset problem. He believes that Sri Lanka’s economic resilience over the years can be relied upon this time too. Sri Lanka is a small economy…  I think we have got carried away with the pandemic. We have had pandemics, viruses. Forget the Spanish flu, in our lifetime we have seen Polio, Hepatitis, (and) Japanese encephalitis,” Fernando said during a local television talkshow on economic recovery, in which he was a panelist. 

Fernando also added that when the global West is affected by troubling events, other countries follow suit in collective panic.  

When these (diseases) were concentrated to our part, the West didn’t take it seriously. But this time, the West got affected and as a result the whole world got affected. They say when the Western countries get a cold, we get pneumonia, that is the way we behave,” Fernando said, stating his belief that the economic crisis can be managed.

Meanwhile, many others see it as a crisis decades in the making. It’s not something that happened overnight. This historically has been going on for 20 to 25 years. It is stemming from the way our economy is; we are an import dependent economy,” Kasthuri Chellarajah Wilson, group CEO of Hemas Holdings, a leading public conglomerate in Sri Lanka, a panelist of the same talkshow, said. 

Sri Lanka needs numerous reforms if the country is to reset its economic development, Wilson said. We need to do corrections. As a country we have been shying away from reforms and resorting to populist measures, which are like small repairs. In the absence of dollars, there were shortages of certain foods. That was a short-term thing, purely because people could not import it. In the medium term, we will have to answer that and there will definitely be a social impact to the underprivileged.”ADVERTISEMENT

I think we have a crisis, we can’t run away from it,” she added. 

Is Emergency Rule Even Needed?

Meanwhile MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a staunch critic of both leading political factions in Sri Lanka, observes that economic policies in place for years have led to the current shortages in the country. The MP, echoing mounting criticism of the sudden promulgation of the state of emergency said that, for decades, parliamentarians have united across the aisle to stand against emergency rule, owing to its widespread implications, especially its role in civic rights violations. 

There are also racketeers working within this system, which worsens the crisis,” the MP said, addressing parliament. Criticizing the emergency rule brought through the concentration of power vested with the executive presidency, Dissanayake questioned if the emergency rule was even necessary to set price controls on essential goods. On the same day the emergency rule was declared, 12 types of essential goods were announced. But this was not done through emergency regulations,” he said, questioning members of the government as to why the state of emergency was declared.

The traders who are accused by the government as hoarders stockpiling essential foods are the same close associates of the government who were seen dining together at luxury hotels during the presidential election. The government keeps telling us that there are racketeers involved. On some days, if you visit the presidential secretariat, you will be able to see these racketeers sitting at the same table,” Dissanayake charged. 

Courtesy Teheran Times

Making the remarks in a meeting with Sri Lanka’s energy minister in Tehran on Saturday Akbar Komeijani said: The expansion of trade and banking relations between Iran and Sri Lanka is possible based on the financing of exports and imports between the two countries and the provision of direct and indirect payment mechanisms.”

Welcoming the expansion of trade between the two countries and referring to the history of trade relations between Iran and Sri Lanka, the official said: “Sri Lanka is expected to support Iran’s interests in international arenas as an independent country.”

Emphasizing the Central Bank’s support for trade between the two countries, Komeijani added: “Expanding trade relations and mutual exports and imports, as well as resolving financial issues between the two countries based on understandings and negotiations are on the agenda, and this meeting can be the first step for the development of trade and banking relations between the two countries.”

The CBI governor suggested that a working group comprised of Sri Lankan and CBI experts, businessmen, and other economic actors be set up to provide ways to expand cooperation between the two countries and to resolve debt settlement issues.

The Sri Lankan official for his part expressed his country’s willingness for the expansion of cooperation with Iran despite the U.S. sanctions.

Despite the limitations, we are interested in expanding mutual trade and using all available capacities to advance the interests of both parties; Sri Lanka welcomes all proposals and operational solutions in this regard,” he said.

The Sri Lankan official also welcomed the central bank’s proposals to increase trade cooperation and noted that Sri Lanka will be by Iran’s side in difficult international situations and will support its interests.

Courtesy The Daily Star

Bangladesh recently decided to lend $250 million dollars to Sri Lanka from its foreign currency reserve. This loan will be provided through a currency swap mechanism.

This episode of Star Explains discusses the reason behind this lending and the conditions under which the process will be conducted.

Courtesy Adaderana

The total number people who fell victim to COVID-19 infection in Sri Lanka moved up as 79 more fatalities were confirmed by the Director-General of Health Services on Friday (Sep. 24).

The new development has pushed the official death toll from the virus outbreak in Sri Lanka to 12,609.

According to the data released by the Department of Government Information, the latest victims include 41 males and 38 females.

As many as 57 deaths were reported among the elderly people aged above 60 years. In addition, 22 individuals aged between 30-59 years have also fallen victim to the virus infection.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry reports that another 364 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, moving the daily total of new cases to 1,146.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 512,531.

As many as 453,689 recoveries and 12,609 deaths have been confirmed in Sri Lanka since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The Epidemiology Unit’s data showed that 46,233 active cases are currently under medical care.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Sri Lanka has a critical debate about the number of representatives that should be in the parliament and the debate has focused on various matters concerning many matters of representatives such as minimum education qualifications, the limits of functional authority. The public has disappointed the value of services and the productivity generated by representatives based on experiences published in media, many of these experiences published may not be true as they were/are, after few days people either ignore or forget such information. However, the point that couldn’t ignore is behavior and the real value of the service.  The expenses incurred for the representatives compared to many other services in the country appear to be higher than the real value of the services provided by representatives.

The role of parliament representatives considers as a part of the government service and the role of representatives adds a process of law-making in addition to the public service. In terms of law, lawmaking is not an executive role, but they have become executives in the general administrative role that means in the provincial administrative roles, parliament representatives attempt to show the will of them are the law.   

In any country, law-making would be an expensive and responsible service despite people in Sri Lanka has habitual attempts to undermine the obliged status of the service of law-making. Originally, the representation of parliament was done by so-called respectable individuals who gained good education, skills, and experience.   

A variety of criteria are used to elect representatives by the election law and the cost associated with these representatives seem to be higher and it also seems that Sri Lankans are a much-governed nation with the parliament and governing councils. The net worth of these many representations has been eroded by people, what were the reasons for such dig out is a complicated subject.  The cost associated with the representatives of the parliament in absolute terms may be higher, and it has become a popular gossip of people and is subject to terrible criticism. After the election in 1970, the role of representatives has become a part of hatred party politics, and on many occasions have recorded those representatives of the parliament have been taking revenge from opposition individuals in dealing with many roles. Sometimes, it was beyond humanity. In this way, the representatives of the parliament encompass a broad criticism against them.

As Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna promised before the election, a Constitutional Committee has been appointed by the government that is being prepared a new constitution, and the draft of the new constitution has not been yet come to express the opinion of people. In this process, the vital aspect would be limiting the number of representatives to 100 is a requirement, and this means the total number of representatives appointing and election for various purposes should not be gone above 100. This is a general feeling and is a reasonable representation of the country.  

At end of the British colonial period, the number of representatives in the parliament was limited to a reasonable volume, but later the limit has been changed by demarcation and increased volume of representatives disregarding many factors such as land area of the country, size of the population, issues of the country that should be looking after by representatives, etc. In many large countries, representatives of the Central Government have limited, and why Sri Lanka has gone breaking the rules of other countries? It seems that it has been resulted by party politics in Sri Lanka because party leaders wanted to give opportunities to party men as a bribe and entertain family relationships. The role of delimitation focussing to limit for 100 representatives in the new constitution would be appreciated by people and certain roles should have refrained from the role of providing service by the new constitution.

It seems that the determination of the volume of representatives should not be associated with party politics and the power of feudalist politics. There is nothing wrong with giving reasonable consideration to ethnic groups, however, caste dictions, religions, and feudalism should not be a factor allowing representation in parliament. If it considers the current parliament there are many family members of the Rajapaksa family represent the parliament and the public has strong criticism about this. 

Therefore, the writers of the new constitution must limit the total number of members of the Parliament to 100 and the cost would be saved from this exercise and could be reduced by criticizing parliament representatives. 

MD Pathik Hasan

Present day, Bangladesh is one of the developing economies of the world. In 2015, Bangladesh graduated from LDC status and became a low middle-income country. Many Asian and European including American economists hope that soon Bangladesh will become one of the middle-income countries in the world. Today, Bangladesh is moving forward at a relentless pace in various indicators of the economy. Today, Bangladesh is rapidly advancing in the areas of national growth, per capita national income, export income, foreign exchange reserves, electricity, communication, economic and social infrastructure, essential for development, etc. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan specially Afghanistan can follow the ‘Bangladesh Economic Rise Model’ in this regard.

Despite the global epidemic of corona, the per capita national income of Bangladesh is positive. According to various local and international media outlets, in the fiscal year 2019-2020, the per capita income of Bangladesh was 2064 US dollars. And in the fiscal year 2020-2021, this income has increased to 2228 US dollars. In the fiscal year 2018-2019, the GDP growth of Bangladesh was 8.15 percent. And in the fiscal year 2019-2020, this growth has been 5.24 percent. According to ADB report, in the 2020-2021 and 2021-22 fiscal year, this growth is expected to be 6.8 percent and 7.2 percent respectively even in this Covid-19 pandemic. can utilize the approach of Bangladesh to stabilize their GDP growth. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan even Afghanistan

Under the able and dynamic leadership of development friendly Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh is on the highway of development today with the touch of her outstanding prudence and efforts. Today, Bangladesh’s development-oriented galloping horse is moving towards fulfilling the desired goal at a fast pace, surpassing various countries in South Asia. So today Bangladesh is a role model of development in the world. The leaders of South East Asian countries includingcan India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan even Afghanistan follow the economic model of Prime Minister of Bangladesh how she deals with it.  

In the meantime, Bangladesh has fulfilled the various conditions of the United Nations and in accordance with the criteria set by them, they have passed their examinations twice in a row in 2016 and 2021 and have qualified to enter into the list as a developing country. According to the 2020 survey, Bangladesh is the 41st largest economy in the world. Bangladesh is one of the 11 countries in the world today that are considered as emerging agars for future development.

According to the Center for Economic and Business Research (CIBR), a British economic research institute, Bangladesh will be the 34th largest economy by 2025, 26th by 2030 and 25th by 2035 if the current economy continues to grow and develop.

While the global economy is in the grip of the Corona epidemic, where the global economy is stagnant, where the world’s GDP and GDP and per capita income are stable or negative, Bangladesh’s economy is moving forward, albeit at a relatively slow pace. And one of the strengths or factors behind this move is the growth of its overall export earnings, the growing inflow of remittances and the positive flow of per capita national income. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan even Afghanistan can follow the Bangladesh model how to overcome from economic stagflation during the Covid-19 period.

According to a survey by the World Bank’s Multi Donor Trust Fund the Global Knowledge Partnership and Development, Bangladesh ranks 8th among the top ten countries in the world in terms of remittance flows by 2020. At present, Bangladesh’s remittance reserves are over 45 billion US dollars and Bangladesh ranks 45th in the world in terms of remittances. According to an EPP statistic, in the first ten months of the 2020-2021 fiscal year, Bangladesh’s export earnings were 32.07 billion dollars, an increase of 8.75 percent over the same period last year.

This rise and progress of Bangladesh’s economy is now a surprise to the whole world. People all over the world are now amazed at this progress of Bangladesh. State thinkers, economists and big newspapers of different countries are now praising Bangladesh. They are monitoring our economic development strategy. Some countries are also considering whether this development strategy can be followed or implemented in their countries. The above-mentioned states can think widely in this regard.

According to a reliable source, Nicholas Christoph, a well-known columnist for the New York Times, recently advised US President Jo Biden to learn from Bangladesh on ways to alleviate poverty. It is understood that the development strategy of Bangladesh has aroused response among the policy makers and thinkers of the United States.

Another US daily, the Wal-Mart Journal, recently wrote that Bangladesh’s economy is now the most ‘fast horse’ in South Asia. Mike Hard, a commentator for the Washington Post, writes that at one time South Korea was cited as an example of development. Now Bangladesh has occupied that place.

The remarkable success that has been achieved in the field of economy of Bangladesh in recent years has been beautifully and brilliantly reflected in various reports published in various news outlets in the country and abroad. Before presenting their 2021-2022 budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of Bangladesh’s neighboring country, India, said in February that there was a lot to learn from Bangladesh on how to increase export earnings in certain sectors. The Economic Survey presented by him commented, ‘Bangladesh has emerged as an important exporter in the international arena. Between 2011 and 2019, the country’s compound annual growth rate was 7.8 percent, 0.9% higher than India and 0.4% higher than the rest of the world.

India has also been attracted to the growing per capita national income of the people of Bangladesh. By the end of 2020, the IMF had forecast that Bangladesh would surpass India in terms of per capita national income. Towards the end of 2020, the IMF predicted that Bangladesh would surpass India in terms of per capita national income. And that has really happened. On June 1, Blumberg headlined, “South Asia now needs to look at the region’s stars.” Needless to say, this star is Bangladesh. ‘

According to a report in The Print on May 26, Bangladesh has built up deep ties with its neighbors, from sending India’s Covid-19 epidemic relief supplies to Sri Lanka’s economic crisis through loan assistance. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan even Afghanistan also can apply the ‘Bangladesh Economic Rise Model’ to revive their economy.

Note that Bangladesh recently agreed to exchange 200 million US dollars with Sri Lanka. This money will go a long way in strengthening the Sri Lankan economy. The currency exchange process will also help Colombo overcome the huge debt crisis. Through this initiative, it is clear to the outside world that Bangladesh is currently on a strong economic footing.

Moreover, Bangladesh is one of the 40 countries that sent relief twice in the second wave of coronavirus to India. On May 8, Bangladesh sent 10,000 medicines to India. Later on, May 16, Bangladesh also sent 2,072 boxes of antiviral drugs and covid protection materials to India.

The rise and development of Bangladesh’s economy has also attracted the attention of Pakistani intellectuals. According to a source in the daily, Abid Hassan, a former adviser to the World Bank’s Pakistan program, compared the situation in Pakistan with Bangladesh’s economic rise in an article in a leading Pakistani daily. He said even 20 years ago, it was unthinkable that by 2020, Bangladesh’s per capita GDP would be higher than Pakistan’s. According to him, if Pakistan maintains its disappointing performance, it may have to seek Pakistan’s cooperation from Bangladesh by 2030. If Bangladesh can pay 20 million US dollars to Sri Lanka, waive the IMF’s Bangladeshi share of money from Somalia and Sudan, help Indonesia with Covid-19 medical equipment, shelter a large number of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, but also financially in Pakistan. Can help. This requires a change in Pakistan’s mentality. Bangladesh is a humanitarian state in South Asia.

The Canada-based International Forum for Rights and Security, a think tank, recently published a report on Bangladesh and Pakistan. It has been shown there that Bangladesh is ahead in all areas of the index. Many economists have called on all countries to follow the Bangladesh model in the development of South Asia.

So, it is expected and confirmed that if the Bangladesh government can handle the Covid-19 epidemic in the same way in the future as it has done in the past, then in 2035 Bangladesh will be the 25th largest economy in the world and in 2041 it will be Bangabandhu’s developed and prosperous golden Bangladesh.

South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan even Afghanistan are very closed to Bangladesh geographically. The nature and trends of socio-economic factors of Bangladesh and South Asian states in terms of territory was likely same. Although Bangladesh is on overpopulated country. There is also Rohingya burden on Bangladesh. Then, Bangladesh is going to be an ideal for South Asian states including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan even Afghanistan. Bangladesh is developing despite having many other problems such as Covid-19, climate change etc. The abovementioned states can take the lesson from Bangladesh in this regard to boost up its economy. The South Asian countries would be gainer if they follow the Bangladeshi approach and model of economic management and system. One day, they will also be Asian giant in terms of economic power using this approach. Everyone will praise and appreciate economic booming of these countries if they take Bangladesh as a model. Ultimately all South Asian nations would benefit to recover and revive their economy from Covid-19.

Writer: Pathik Hasan, Dhaka based NGO activist and Freelance Columnist (Particularly on current international issue)

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

වරාය තුළ සිරවී ඇති අත්‍යවශ්‍ය ආහාර ද්‍රව්‍ය තොග වහාම නිදහස් කරන්නැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අද (24) දින “සූම්” ඔස්සේ රැස්වූ ජීවන වියදම් පිළිබඳ අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල අනුකාරක සභා රැස්වීමේ දී නියෝග කළේය.

රටේ මහජනතාවගේ ජීවන වියදම් පිළිබඳව අවධානය යොමු කරමින් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා ආනයන අපනයන පාලක ජනරාල්වරියට සහ රේගු අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල්වරයාට අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ සිට මෙම නියෝගය ලබා දුන්නේය.

මෙහි දී අදහස් පළ කළ මුදල් අමාත්‍ය බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා, එසේ නිදහස්වන අත්‍යවශ්‍ය ආහාර ද්‍රව්‍ය කඩිනමින් සතොස සහ අත්‍යවශ්‍ය ආහාර ආනයනකරුවන් හරහා ජනතාවට බෙදාහැරීමට කටයුතු කරන්නැයි වෙළඳ අමාත්‍ය ආචාර්ය බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතාට දැනුම් දුන්නේය.

සහල් ඇතුළු අත්‍යවශ්‍ය ආහාර ද්‍රව්‍ය හිඟයකින් තොරව වෙළඳපොළට නිකුත්කිරීමේ වගකීම වෙළඳ අමාත්‍යාංශයේ සහ කෘෂිකර්ම නිලධාරින් විසින් දැරිය යුතු බවට ද මෙහි දී අවධාරණය කෙරිණි.

පාරිභෝගික කටයුතු පිළිබඳ අධිකාරියේ විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයා ඉල්ලා අස්වෙමින් කළ චෝදනා සම්බන්ධයෙන් පරීක්ෂණයක් පවත්වන ලෙස තමන් කර ඇති පැමිණිල්ල කඩිනමින් විභාග කරන්නැයි වෙළඳ අමාත්‍ය බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා මෙහි දී අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගෙන් ඉල්ලීමක් කළේය.

ඒ අනුව අදාළ පරීක්ෂණය කඩිනම් කරන්නැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා ඒ මොහොතේදීම පොලිස්පතිවරයාට දුරකථන ඔස්සේ දැනුම් දුන්නේය.

දේශීය බඩ ඉරිඟු ඵලදාව ලැබෙනතුරු දැනට පවතින ක්‍රමවේදයට විදේශීය වෙළඳ පොළෙන් තවදුරටත් බඩ ඉරිඟු ඇතුළු සත්ත්ව ආහාර අමුද්‍රව්‍ය ලබා ගැනීමට රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය ඩී.බී හේරත් මහතා කළ ඉල්ලීමට ද මෙහි දී අනුමැතිය හිමිවිය.

මෙම හමුවට අමාත්‍යවරුන්වන බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ, ඩග්ලස් දේවානන්දා, ආචාර්ය බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන,මහින්දානන්ද අලුත්ගමගේ,රමේෂ් පතිරණ, රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරුන්වන ලසන්ත අලගියවන්න,ජානක වක්කුඹුර, ඩී.බී හේරත්, මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම් එස්.ආර් ආටිගල, වෙළඳ අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් භද්‍රානි ජයවර්ධන, අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය අතිරේක ලේකම් නීතිඥ චමින්ද කුලරත්න, අත්‍යවශ්‍ය සේවා කොමසාරිස් ජනරාල් මේජර් ජෙනරාල් සෙනරත් නිවුන්හැල්ල, රේගු අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් මේජර් ජෙනරාල් විජිත රවිප්‍රිය, ආහාර කොමසාරිස් ජනරාල් ජේ. ක්‍රිෂ්ණ මූර්ති,ලංකා සතොස සභාපති මේජර් ජෙනරාල් ආනන්ද පීරිස් මහත්ම මහත්මීන් ඇතුළු අමාත්‍යංශ කිහිපයක ලේකම්වරුන්, අතිරේක ලේකම්වරුන්,දෙපාර්තමේන්තු සහ සමාගම් ප්‍රධානීන් හා අත්‍යවශ්‍ය ආහාර ආනයනකරුවන්ගේ සංගමයේ නියෝජිතයෝ කිහිප දෙනෙක් එක්ව සිටියහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

විශේෂ අවශ්‍යතා සහ නිදන්ගත රෝග සහිත දරුවන් වෙනුවෙන් කොවිඩ් ප්‍රතිශක්තීකරණ එන්නත් ලබාදීමේ දීප ව්‍යාප්ත වැඩසටහන කොළඹ රිජ්වේ ආර්යා ළමා රෝහලේ දී අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්යා ශිරන්ති රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මියගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අද (24) දින පෙරවරුවේ ආරම්භ විය.

විශේෂ අවශ්‍යතා සහිත දරුවන් සහ නිදන්ගත රෝග සහිත දරුවන්ට ප්‍රමුඛතාව ලබා දෙමින් කොවිඩ්-19 වැළදීමේ දී ඇතිවන සංකූලතා සහ මරණ අවම කර ගැනීමේ අරමුණ ඇතිව වයස අවුරුදු 12ත් 19ත් අතර ළමයින්ට ෆයිසර් එන්නත ලබාදීම සිදු වේ.

කොළඹ, කුරුණෑගල සහ අනුරාධපුර දිස්ත්‍රික්කවල විශේෂ අවශ්‍යතා සහිත දරුවන් සහ නිදන්ගත රෝග සහිත දරුවන් හට මෙම අවස්ථාවට  සමඟාමීව එන්නත්කරණ වැඩසටහන ආරම්භ විය. මෙය ලබන සතියේ සිට දීප ව්‍යාප්තව ක්‍රියාත්මක වනු ඇත.

විශේෂ අවශ්‍යතා සහ නිදන්ගත රෝග සහිත දරුවන්ට එන්නත් ලබා දීමේ දී ළමා රෝග විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍යවරයෙකුගේ අනුමැතිය සහ පූර්ණ අධීක්ෂණය සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය විසින් මේ වනවිටත් අනිවාර්ය කරනු ලැබ තිබේ.

සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය කෙහෙලිය රඹුක්වැල්ල මහතා මෙහි දී අදහස් පළ කරමින් මෙසේ කියා සිටියේය.

විශේෂයෙන් වයස 12ත් 19ත් අතර දරුවන්ට එන්නත් ලබා දීම අපි  අද දවසේ ආරම්භ කළා. වෛද්‍යවරුන් මෙන්ම සෞඛ්‍ය සහ අධ්‍යාපන ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ උපදෙස් අනුව විශේෂ අවශ්‍යතා සහිත දරුවන් සහ නිදන්ගත රෝග සහිත දරුවන් හට මෙසේ පළමුව එන්නත් ලබා දීම සිදුවෙනවා.

මෙවැනි දරුවන් වැඩි වශයෙන් වාර්තාවන කුරුණෑගල සහ අනුරාධපුර දිස්ත්‍රික්කවලින් මෙම එන්නත්කරණ වැඩසටහන ආරම්භ කරන්නැයි අතිගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමා මෙයට පෙර උපදෙස් ලබා දුන්නා.

ඒ අනුව දරුවන් වෙනුවෙන් වෙන් වූ රෝහලක්වන රිජ්වේ ආර්යා ළමා රෝහලේ දී අපි අද සංකේතාත්මකව එම දරුවන් සඳහා එන්නත්කරණය ආරම්භ කරනවා.

විශේෂ අවශ්‍යතා සහිත දරුවන් සහ නිදන්ගත රෝග සහිත දරුවන්ට ප්‍රමුඛතාව ලබා දෙමින් ඉදිරියේදී වයස අවුරුදු 12ට වැඩි සියලු දරුවන්ට ෆයිසර් එන්නත ලබා දීමට අපි රජයක් ලෙස කටයුතු කරනවා යැයි අමාත්‍ය කෙහෙලිය රඹුක්වැල්ල මහතා පැවසීය.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් මේජර් ජනරාල් විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය සංජය මුණසිංහ, සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් වෛද්‍ය අසේල ගුණවර්ධන, ළමා රෝග විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍යවරුන්ගේ විද්‍යායතනයේ සභාපති මහාචාර්ය ශාමන් රජීන්ද්‍රජිත්, ළමාරෝග විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍යවරුන්ගේ විද්‍යායතනයේ ලේකම් විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය චන්න ද සිල්වා මහත්වරු ඇතුළු පිරිසක් සහභාගී වූහ.

Courtesy Xinhua

COLOMBO, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) — Sri Lanka’s Hambantota International Port (HIP) has entered into a memorandum of understanding with bus manufacturer Xiamen King Long United Automotive Industry Co., Ltd. in China’s Fujian Province, HIP said in a statement here on Thursday.

The MOU was signed at the King Long Motor Group offices in Fujian last week and was attended by representatives from the Hambantota International Ports Group (HIPG) and Ambassador of Sri Lanka to China Palitha Kohona.

Ambassador Kohona said “Sri Lanka welcomes Chinese high-end manufacturing facilities setting up in Sri Lanka and commends King Long for choosing the Hambantota International Port Group’s Industrial Park to expand its regional footprint.”

HIPG CEO Johnson Liu said “We believe there is a great synergy to be achieved between China and Sri Lanka trade. The Hambantota Industrial Park is being promoted globally and it is our goal to have a vibrant international investor community operating within the zone.”

King Long Motor Group Vice President Zhang Bin said “With the Hambantota Port being so strategically located, we would be able to reach newer markets in South East Asia.” 

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

 Soft-rot in Potato and Onion caused by Erwina

The company has produced an independent laboratory testing report obtained from Schutter Global Inspection and Survey Company Ltd. indicating that the samples do not carry Salmonella

Senior Lecturer in Soil Science in the Faculty of Agriculture at the Univerity of Peradeniya Dr.(Ms) Warsui Dandeniuya questions as to who is fooling whom in the import of Fertilizer claimed to be from seaweed.

The authorities who are importing these fertilizers claim that they are prepared from seaweeds, but this claim is far from the truth; because seaweed cannot contain the claimed nitrogen levels of 10-15 percent. Dr.Dandeniya also says that the bacterial group Erwina” has not been reported in seawater.  

Dr.Dandeniya says the bacterial genus Erwinia is commonly found in soil environments and in contaminated freshwater. However, Erwinia has not been reported in seawater because this bacterium cannot tolerate high salt concentrations. Further, the imported organic fertilizers are said to have 10-15 % total nitrogen levels. Authorities claim that these fertilizers are purely prepared from seaweeds. However, the presence of Erwinia, coliforms and high nitrogen levels indicate that this claim is far from the truth. This is because a fertilizer purely based on seaweed cannot contain this much of nitrogen and cannot have organisms that are not found in seawater. So, should we keep blind-folds and choose to be fooled?

Dr.Dandeniya says rich biodiversity in Sri Lanka is a wealth of the nation. In order to protect this biodiversity and safeguard the sensitive ecosystems, a number of measures has been taken in policy and regulatory framework over the past few decades. We have enough experience of endangering eco-systems due to the spread of invasive plants and animals and disease-causing organisms introduced from other countries. Therefore, all imported materials that could serve as carriers of organisms are to be inspected by the National Plant Quarantine Service (NPQS), which is established under the Department of Agriculture.

With the recent decision of the Government to import organic fertilizers to the country Sri Lanka Standard Institute (SLSI) has prepared SLS 1704:2021 standards for the sterilized solid organic fertilizers. This Standard is subjected to the restrictions imposed under the Regulation of Fertilizer Act No. 69 of 1988, Fauna and Flora Protection Act No. 44 of 1964, Plant Protection Act No 35 of 1999, Food Act No. 26 of 1980, Animal Diseases Act, No. 59 of 1992, National Environmental Act No. 47 of 1980 and quarantine and prevention of diseases ordinance (chapter 222) and their amendments. According to the standards, the imported solid organic fertilizers should be free of any microorganisms. Therefore, when the National Fertilizer Secretariat (NFS) identifies foreign suppliers, they should request from NPQS to test the organic fertilizer samples imported from the identified suppliers for the presence of microorganisms before using the fertilizer in any subsequent field testing or releasing to the end-users in the country. These sterile organic fertilizers will become biologically active only after applying to the soil,” she said. 

The much-debated organic fertilizer samples imported from China have been tested by NPQS on request of NFS following the protocols. The test reports indicate that two bacterial genera, Erwinia and Bacillus, are present in some samples along with some Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, which has not been identified. Therefore, clearly, the samples do not match with the SLS 1704:2021 standards and should not be allowed to enter to the country,” said the adamant Don of the University.

She said that the company has produced an independent laboratory testing report obtained from Schutter Global Inspection and Survey Company Ltd. indicating that the samples do not carry Salmonella. The report indicates that the coliform bacteria are present in less than 10 colony forming units per gram. Some authorities misinterpret this report as the fertilizer samples are free of microorganisms. This is totally incorrect.

Dr. Dandeniya says this because the report from the internationally accredited laboratory did not analyze the samples for plant pathogens or the total bacteria, fungi or viruses in the samples. Therefore, the absence of one genus of bacteria (i.e. Salmonella) does not mean the sample is free of organisms. Further, the coliform counts in their test report is not zero. This category includes Escherichia coli (E.coil) like bacteria which usually indicate contamination of samples with fecal matter.

Erwinia is a well-known notorious plant pathogen that causes severe postharvest losses in crops such as carrot, potato, onions, lettuce, cabbage and many other horticultural crops. It is the main threat to the floriculture industry as well. They are the culprits of soft-rot we often see in vegetables purchased from the market. We should avoid the conditions that facilitate the spread of soft-rot disease, which include maintaining field sanitation, proper irrigation management and avoiding the use of organic fertilizers contaminated with Erwinia. In Sri Lanka, the postharvest loss of vegetable crops is already above 40%. In the present context, production is low due to complications with the present ban of fertilizers and COVID19 related restrictions. Under these circumstances, can we take the chance of increasing postharvest losses that would happen with the application of contaminated fertilizers? This risk assessment has not been done yet” she explained. 

A claim far from the truth 
The bacterial genus Erwinia is commonly found in soil environments and in contaminated fresh-water. However, Erwinia has not been reported in sea water because this bacterium cannot tolerate high salt concentrations. Further, the organic imported fertilizers are said to have 10-15 % total nitrogen levels. Authorities claim that these fertilizers are purely prepared from seaweeds. However, the presence of Erwinia, coliforms and high nitrogen levels indicate that this claim is far from the truth. Because a fertilizer purely based on seaweed cannot contain this much of nitrogen and cannot have organisms that are not found in sea water. So should we keep blindfolds and choose to be fooled?” she queried. 

Some groups are attempting to bring this fertilizer by trying to change the condition in the SLS 1704:2021 standards from free of any living organisms” to free of any harmful living organisms”. But how can we define what is ‘harmful’? Except for a few known pathogenic organisms that we can clearly define as harmful the large majority of the microorganisms are difficult to define as to whether they are harmful or beneficial. Because of these two traits the majority of microorganisms are very relative and determined by how they interact with other organisms in a given environment. Some microorganisms can show invasive characters threatening biodiversity when newly introduced to an environment. Some of them can become emerging pathogens. Further, the laboratory testing done using culture-based techniques (as used by both laboratories of concern here) only gives us information related to less than 10% of the total microbial populations in these organic fertilizer samples. Therefore, it should be re-iterated that because of not seeing the microorganisms we have been looking for in the sample and that does not mean the sample is free from any microorganism. There can be many potential pathogens. Moreover, no one looked for the presence of viruses. In addition to Erwinia, the bacterial genus Bacillus and some other unidentified Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria have been reported in these fertilizer samples tested by NPQS. Bacillus is a big genus with hundreds of species that include disease causing microorganisms to plants, animals and humans,” said Dr. Dandeniya. 

The region from where the seaweeds are cultivated to produce this fertilizer in China is known for heavy pollution of its ocean. There can be many disease-causing and potentially harmful organisms entering with these fertilizers. They escape the analysis simply because they were not targeted by the techniques used. The potential harmfulness of the organisms found is also difficult to define because it is a trait influenced by how these organisms interact with others upon release as mentioned earlier.

Should we pay millions of dollars and take this risk? Are we ready to accept the damage that would happen to our agricultural systems and environment at large? If we allow the import of contaminated fertilizers we should be ready to import chemicals to treat the diseases in plants, animal and humans and also to import food and feed to ensure food security in the future. Because the loss of productivity would be inevitable when the agro-ecosystem is damaged. May be we will have to pray China for many decades,” she said.