By A. Abdul Aziz

55^th Annual Convention (Jalsa Salana) UK concludes with an inspirational address by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad

If governments and leaders do not understand their responsibilities, particularly with regards to warfare and conflicts, and if they do not fulfil the rights of others, I fear the onset of an unthinkable global war, the destruction of which will be beyond all comprehension.” – Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad

On 8^th August 2021, The World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Fifth Khalifa (Caliph), His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad concluded the 55^th Annual Convention (Jalsa Salana) of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

More than 8,800 people from across the UK attended the Convention, which took place at Hadeeqatul Mahdi in Alton, Hampshire.

Prior to last year’s global pandemic, over 35,000 people from all over the world attended the last full Convention, held in 2019. This year, only UK residents aged 18 to 65 who had been double vaccinated were permitted to enter the ballot to attend this gathering.

In addition to the thousands of Ahmadi Muslims who attended the site physically, provisions were also made in regional hubs across the country and worldwide for people to attend the Convention virtually. The entire event was also broadcast live on MTA International.

In his concluding address Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad enlightened the attendees on the rights owed to different groups within society including friends, the sick, orphans, those with whom covenants are made and those against whom war is fought, all in light of the teachings of Islam.

His Holiness stated that his address was a continuation of his concluding address of Convention (Jalsa Salana) 2019 in which he focussed on the rights of other groups in society including parents, children, spouses, widows, the elderly, non-Muslims, neighbours and others.

Speaking about the concept of gratitude and the fulfilment of one another’s rights, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

It is a matter of fact that the rights of the different groups within society cannot be truly established until and unless it is realised that we are all created by One Supreme Creator and that we must also fulfil His rights.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

Gratitude to Allah the Almighty who is All Powerful, The Provider and Sustainer of the whole world is essential. Further, the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has stated that if someone does good by you, and you do not show them gratitude, then you are also ungrateful to Allah the Almighty. So, Allah has told us at every instance that, ‘You must fulfil one another’s rights and that only then can you fulfil My (God’s) rights’. So, this is the beautiful teaching of Islam, and this is the God of Islam, Who admonishes us to fulfil the rights of one another.”  

His Holiness also shone light on the true significance of ‘friendship’ and explained the lofty standards required to fulfil the rights of those we call our friends.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

True friends can only be those whose hearts are pure and who are sincere. If one’s heart is not pure then what kind of friendship can it be? Once you make friends with those people whose hearts are pure, you must also fulfil the rights due to them.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

Fulfilling the rights of friendship should be for the sake of God and this alone can maintain true friendship. Friendships that are void of the love of Allah the Almighty are but temporary friendships.”

 His Holiness narrated a saying of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) who said:

Whichever Muslim prays for his brother in his absence, an angel says, ‘may it be so in your case as well.’”

His Holiness also reiterated the immense importance of fulfilling the rights of a friend, regardless of the situation that they may find themselves in.

Quoting the Promised Messiah (peace be upon him), Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

The Promised Messiah (peace be upon him) states, ‘Our principle is such that even if one of our friends has become intoxicated with alcohol and is lying on the ground in the marketplace and there is a crowd of people around him, we would go to his aid and bring him back without any fear of criticism or reproach…’ This is the standard required of real friendship, that once you have declared someone to be your friend then you must fulfil his rights and be loyal with them till the very end, through thick and through thin.”

During his address Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad also discussed the importance of visiting and caring for the sick, as well as the significance placed on fulfilling the rights of orphans in society.

His Holiness quoted Chapter 93, verse 10 of the Holy Quran, So the orphan, oppress not” and explained that protecting and safeguarding the vulnerable is a fundamental requirement for being a true believer.

His Holiness went on to speak about the conditions of warfare and the shining example in this regard set by the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the four Rightly Guided Caliphs who succeeded him.

Comparing their noble example with the hypocrisy of many modern-day leaders and governments, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

The state of the major governments of the world – who declare themselves to be the standard bearers of justice and fairness and whose existence is considered to be the guarantor of world peace – is such that they are perpetually (whether openly or covertly) threatening to destroy any nation that opposes them with nuclear weapons. In fact, in the last world war, nuclear bombs were dropped on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese men, women and children. Moreover, even in the present time so many wars and unjust attacks take place – for example the war in Iraq, the cruelties inflicted in Palestine, in Syria and the brutalities taking place currently in Yemen. Yet, these abhorrent cruelties are being extolled proudly as a grand achievement for the sake of world peace!”

Towards the end of the address, His Holiness reiterated the need for world leaders to fulfil the rights of others and warned that if this advice was not heeded, the world may very soon once again come to witness a catastrophic global conflict with unfathomable ramifications.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

It is through the fulfilment of these rights that I have spoken about that we can establish peace in society and the world. Otherwise, there can be no guarantee of world peace. If governments and leaders do not understand their responsibilities, particularly with regards to warfare and conflicts, and if they do not fulfil the rights of others, I fear the onset of an unthinkable global war, the destruction of which will be beyond all comprehension.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

Thus, we should all pray that may Allah the Almighty grant sense to these worldly people and governments so that they recognise the folly of their ways and satisfying their own egos and instead focus all their energies upon protecting and safeguarding humanity.”

Reminding Ahmadi Muslims of their responsibility in this regard, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Today, it is the responsibility of every Ahmadi Muslim to pray that the world is safeguarded from chaos and destruction and comes to believe in the One True God and comes to understand and implement the teachings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). For this is the true salvation, the guarantor of salvation of mankind and indeed the guarantor of the salvation of the future generations.”

Over the course of the Convention, His Holiness delivered five addresses, including the Friday Sermon, an address at the Lajna (ladies) side of the Jalsa and an annual report of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

During the Friday Sermon on 6^th August, His Holiness spoke about the immense blessings of attending the Convention and explained that although many would not be able to physically attend due to COVID related restrictions, those participating virtually could still benefit from the blessings.

On Saturday 7th August His Holiness delivered an address to the Ladies side of the Jalsa Salana in which he expounded upon the honour and great status and high rank afforded to women in Islam. Throughout his address, His Holiness advocated, according to the teachings of Islam, women’s rights, including the right to education for all girls.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

If a woman attains good education for the purpose of safeguarding the future generations, then this in itself gives her glad tidings of entering heaven as it is also mentioned in the Hadith, ‘heaven lies beneath the feet of one’s mother’. So, the good upbringing of children and attaining a good education does not only serve as a means for the mothers to enter heaven but for the children too. How grand is this honour and station, which is reserved for women and not given to men!”

Speaking to the women of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community about their role and responsibilities in this regard Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Every Ahmadi Muslim woman and girl should recognise and understand her status and should beautify her life by adhering to the teachings of Allah the Almighty and as shown by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) as opposed to blindly following worldly people under their hollow claims of ‘freedom’ and ‘rights’.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

Today it is the responsibility of every Ahmadi Muslim woman and girl to tell the world about the true status, honour and rank of women. Each and every individual should endeavour for this purpose without any sense of inferiority complex. May Allah the Almighty enable us all to do so.”

On Saturday afternoon Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad presented the annual progress report of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

A few key points from the report of His Holiness are as follows:

§  The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community over the past year has been established in 403 new locations.

§  Despite the pandemic which restricted outreach activities, with the Grace of God, 125,221 new converts from across the world entered the Community. This is an increase of over 13,000 from the previous year.

§  In total, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has acquired and built 211 mosques this year, with Ghana (31) leading the way.

§  Raqeem Press in Farnham, UK has printed more than 315,000 books and pamphlets.

§  MTA International is now running 8 channels – 24/7.

§  A total of 27 Ahmadiyya Muslim Radio stations around the world have been established, with the most in Mali (17) and a new internet radio in the Turkish language.

§  The various international language desks are continuing to translate the Holy Qur’an and the books of the Promised Messiah (peace be upon him).

§  Through the Nusrat Jahan Scheme, 37 hospitals and clinics of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community are running in 12 countries. In these facilities, 49 Markazi (Central) and 14 local doctors are serving. 593 school are being run with 21 Markazi teachers serving along with local teachers.

§  Majlis Ansarullah (Ahmadiyya Elders’ Association)  UK have built an eye clinic in Burkina Faso – the Masroor International Eye Clinic – which will be ready soon to treat patients.

After presenting the report, His Holiness quoted the Promised Messiah (peace be upon him) who said:

Day by day, you [the opponents of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community] are diminishing. Do you not see that your numbers are reducing and yet we are ever increasing?”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

May Allah the Almighty grant sense to the opponents [of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community] and enable the people of the world to recognise and understand the message of the Promised Messiah (peace be upon him) and the true message of Islam.” 

The Annual Convention UK 2021 concluded with a silent prayer led by His Holiness.

(The word ‘Promised Messiah’ refers to Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad – Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam.)

Source: www.alislam.org

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Beijing, August 12 (Xinhua):  China on Thursday released a White Paper titled Moderate Prosperity in All Respects: Another Milestone Achieved in China’s Human Rights” in which it had a chapter on how it coped with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The White Paper said: The Covid-19 pandemic is the most serious global health emergency in a century. Facing this crisis, China has put the people’s interests first – nothing is more precious than people’s lives. It has adopted thorough, rigorous and effective prevention and control measures, regardless of huge economic and social costs. It has turned the tide in the battle against the virus and safeguarded people’s lives and health.”

In the early days of the epidemic, China mobilized the whole nation and carried out a campaign to save lives on an unprecedented scale. It pooled the best doctors, the most advanced equipment, and critical supplies from across the country to aid Hubei Province, especially its capital city of Wuhan.”

From January 24 to March 8, 2020, it rallied 346 national medical teams, consisting of 42,600 medical workers and more than 900 public health professionals to the immediate aid of Hubei; it mobilized 40,000 construction workers and a huge array of machinery and equipment to build the 1,000-bed Huoshenshan Hospital in 10 days, the 1,600-bed Leishenshan Hospital in 12 days, and 16 temporary treatment centers providing more than 14,000 beds in just over 10 days. Across Hubei, more than 3,000 patients over the age of 80, including seven centenarians, were cured, with many of them brought back to life from the verge of death. This fully demonstrated that the state respects and protects each and every life.”

China did everything possible to treat all patients. The government promptly adopted policies to subsidize medical expenses for Covid-19 to ensure that patients could receive timely treatment and that medical institutions could proceed smoothly with admission and treatment. They proved to be very effective in raising the cure rate and lowering the fatality rate.”

China has combined ongoing targeted control and local emergency response, and consolidated the gains in its fight against Covid-19. It is making every effort to vaccinate its people and moving faster to form nationwide immunity.

Equitable and Accessible Health Services

Prosperity for all is impossible without health for all. China gives top priority to improving its people’s health. It is carrying out the Healthy China initiative and has worked out action plans to ensure that basic public health services are inclusive and efficient, and to make health and medical services more equitable, accessible, convenient and affordable.”

A basic public health services system is in place. The number of medical and health institutions in China, including hospitals, grassroots medical institutions and specialized public health institutions, increased from 170,000 in 1978 to over 1 million in 2020. A public health services system consisting of various specialized institutions has taken shape, providing disease prevention and control, health education, maternal and child health care, mental health care, emergency response, blood collection and supply, health inspection, and other services.”

The range of public health services is expanding. Free basic public health services increased from nine categories in 2010 to 12 categories in 2020, spanning the entire life cycle. The state promotes many preventive services, such as screening for stroke and cardiovascular disease risk, comprehensive oral disease prevention and intervention, and early screening and treatment of cancer. China’s capacity to prevent and control chronic illnesses has improved remarkably. Major infectious diseases have been effectively contained. By raising the vaccination rates under the national immunization program, China eradicated polio in 2000 and neonatal tetanus in 2012. It eliminated malaria in 2020 and was awarded a malaria-free certification from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2021. The spread of HIV remains at a low level, and the cure rate of tuberculosis is maintained at over 90 percent.”

China’s medical services system has been improving. The country is committed to building an integrated medical services system of high quality and efficiency and improving the availability and accessibility of medical resources. As a result, public satisfaction with medical services is rising notably.”

In 2020, the number of beds in medical institutions across the country reached 9.1 million, including 7.1 million beds in hospitals and 1.4 million in township-level health centers. There were 10.7 million health professionals, including 4.1 million licensed doctors and assistant doctors and 4.7 million registered nurses. That year recorded 7.8 billion medical visits. The rate of prenatal care was 96.8 percent, and the rate of hospital deliveries reached 99.9 percent.”

China provides a reasonable distribution of medical resources. It is building a tiered treatment system featuring primary treatment at the community level, flexible inter-hospital patient transfer, differentiated treatment for acute and chronic illnesses, and coordination across different levels. It has put an end to the practice of hospitals subsidizing their medical services with drug sales and established a system of essential medicines. All government-funded medical institutions across the country are supplied with essential medicines, which are guaranteed to meet priority health care needs and sold with zero markup.”

Public health indicators are steadily improving. The core health indicators of the Chinese have generally surpassed the average level of middle- and high-income countries. The average life expectancy in China rose from 67.8 years in 1981 to 77.3 years in 2019. Infant mortality declined from 37.6 per 1,000 in the early days of reform and opening up to 5.4 per 1,000 in 2020; and maternal mortality dropped from 43.2 per 100,000 in 2002 to 16.9 per 100,000 in 2020. In recognition of its achievements, China has been hailed by the WHO as a role model for developing countries and a fast-track country in improving maternal and child health.

The Law on the Promotion of Basic Medical and Health Care has been adopted and implemented, providing a legal guarantee for comprehensive health care for the full life cycle and for the Healthy China initiative. With steady social and economic improvement, the state devotes itself to helping citizens develop healthy lifestyles. A social atmosphere has taken shape where both urban and rural residents do regular exercise in their spare time and pay attention to a healthy diet.”

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, August 12 (Xinhua): A tusker, escorted by the Special Task Force is on a 10-day journey to participate in the Kandy Esala Perahera, which is scheduled to be held from Aug. 14 to 24 in Kandy.

The festival is one of the grandest Buddhist festivals in Sri Lanka, with an elephant parade being one of the biggest attractions.

Courtesy Japan Today

TOKYO

The family of a Sri Lankan woman who died in March following mistreatment at a Japanese immigration center said she was “treated like a dog” after the government disclosed Thursday security camera footage of her final days.

Two weeks’ worth of video footage showing Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali, 33, before her death was edited to around two hours, but her family members, shocked by the content, could only get through around half of it after saying they felt unwell.

“Our sister was murdered. Anyone could see that her condition was deteriorating. She was not treated like a human being. We want to see the whole video, not just a part of it,” Wishma’s younger sister Wayomi, 28, told reporters as she wept loudly.

Wishma’s other younger sister Poornima, 27, said at a press conference that officials had treated Wishma “like a dog,” adding that “she could have been cured if they had hospitalized her temporarily.”

According to Shoichi Ibusuki, a lawyer for the family, both Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Shoko Sasaki, head of the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, had met with the family and apologized earlier in the day.

“I pray her soul will rest in peace. I am sorry she was not able to return home to her mother,” Sasaki was quoted as saying.

The agency said Sasaki also explained an investigative report released Tuesday to the family, who had protested that officials at the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau in Aichi Prefecture, where Wishma was detained, had gotten off too lightly with only reprimands.

Selected parts of the security camera footage of Wishma’s last days were then disclosed to the family, including scenes of her talking with other detainees and being mocked by immigration officers.

Ibusuki had requested that the agency release the whole video, but the agency responded it would be “logistically difficult” to show two weeks’ footage, adding it would consider requests to view specific parts.

The agency had at first refused to disclose the footage to the family citing security but later changed its policy for humanitarian reasons out of consideration for the family.© KYODO

Kris Thomas & Pallavi Pundir Courtesy VICE.com

Sri Lanka’s court says the politician’s family is powerful enough to influence the investigation.

SRI LANKAN PARLIAMENTARIAN WAS NOT AT HOME WHEN THE 16-YEAR-OLD DOMESTIC AIDE AT HIS HOME SUFFERED FROM BURN INJURIES IN JULY 2021. PHOTO BY LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/ AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Before she burned to death last month, Jude Kumar Ishalini spent her days in a small, dingy room outside the palatial private residence of Rishad Bathiudeen. Ishalini, 16, was a domestic aide at the house of the parliamentarian and member of a major opposition alliance in the island nation of Sri Lanka.

It was a dark room, with no power and electricity,” recalled Suren Perera, the lawyer for Ishalini’s family. She didn’t have a mobile phone with her either. She wasn’t allowed to use phones or communicate with her family regularly.”

She spent her time after work alone in the room where it is now believed she was abused by the perpetrators,” Perera told VICE World News.  

The death of a domestic worker drawing so much public outrage is rare and has lifted the lid on Sri Lanka’s ambiguous child labour laws and the scale of child abuse that thrives under them. The National Child Protection Authority of Sri Lanka recorded 12,165 child abuse complaints in the last 18 months. However, cases of abuse involving marginalised children from tea plantations like Ishalini usually go undocumented. ADVERTISEMENT

On July 3, Ishalini was hospitalised for burn injuries. Despite 16 CCTV cameras watching over Bathiudeen’s house, the police claimed they didn’t find any footage to suggest who set her on fire.

Ishalini succumbed to her burn injuries on July 15. In the following weeks, amid protests, gory details emerged about long-term sexual abuse of the girl in Bathiudeen’s house. 

The death of a domestic worker drawing so much public outrage is rare and has lifted the lid on Sri Lanka’s ambiguous child labour laws and the scale of child abuse that thrives under them.

Employment brokers brought Ishalini to work in Bathiudeen’s property in November 2020. Her mother is a plantation worker – among the most marginalised labourers in Sri Lanka – while her father is unemployed. Perera said Ishalini told her parents about being assaulted by a male co-worker. 

Police interrogated at least 11 women who used to work at Bathiudeen’s estate. One of them alleged sexual abuse by Bathiudeen’s brother-in-law, prompting the police to suspect a pattern of abuse. ADVERTISEMENT

Ishalini also said it was difficult to work at the parliamentarian’s house,” said Perera.

Ishalini’s death has triggered a national scandal over the last month. As it is, Bathiudeen is a controversial politician. He was not at his house at the time of her attack, because he’s been in jail since April, as police investigate his involvement in the 2019 Easter bombings, which led to 250 deaths. Bathiudeen has not been formerly charged for the bombings, he denies any involvement and claims the allegations are politically motivated. Bathiudeen is a Muslim minister in a Buddhist-majority country. News of Ishalini’s death on social media has been rife with anti-Muslim sentiments.

Sri Lanka police’s special investigation team promptly arrested Bathiudeen’s wife, brother-in-law and father-in-law. They also arrested the broker for what they suspected to be child trafficking in the plantation estate. News

In his statement to the court, Anil Silva, Bathiudeen’s wife’s lawyer, said the family did their best to get Ishalini medical help when they found her on fire. Last week, Bathiudeen appealed for an independent investigation and denied the allegations of mistreatment lodged by Ishalini’s family.

At the court proceeding on August 9, VICE World News learned that a police chief inspector is also being investigated for allegedly destroying and concealing evidence in connection with Ishalini’s death. Perera, the lawyer, said the police officer told Ishalini’s older brother who visited the house not to pursue the matter.

In his court statement, Anil Silva, Bathiudeen’s wife’s lawyer, said the family did their best to get Ishalini medical help when they found her on fire. Last week, Bathiudeen asked for an independent investigation while denying allegations of abuse.

The investigation has put Ishalini’s family under immense public pressure amid what they said was the politicisation” of her death. 

“Last month, the family found out that certain groups claimed that the daughter killed herself because she couldn’t pay back her loans,” said Perera. “All they want right now is justice, and simply to understand what happened to their daughter. That is all.”ADVERTISEMENT

Ishalini was from Sri Lanka’s central province of Nuwara Eliye, a district known as tea country” where large tea plantation estates contribute massively to the economy. 

CENTRAL PROVINCE IN SRI LANKA IS FAMOUS FOR ITS TEA PLANTATION ESTATES. THE INDUSTRY THAT IS ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S MAIN SOURCES OF FOREIGN EXCHANGE ALSO HAS A HISTORY OF BEING ECONOMICALLY AND SOCIALLY BACKWARD. PHOTO: THIERRY FALISE/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES

Most of the plantation workers are Tamils who were brought to Sri Lanka from southern India in the 19th century to provide cheap labour in the Sinhalese-majority country. Sri Lanka is the world’s fourth-largest tea exporter, but its landless workers are the most economically and socially depressed in the country, with a history of exploitation. 

At the other end of the class divide are Sri Lanka’s rich. One estimate found that Sri Lanka will have 13,000 millionaires by 2026. 

Early this week, Colombo’s magistrate court denied bail to Bathiudeen’s family, and ordered their detention until August 23. Bathiudeen is ordered detained until August 18. 

There is no public record of Bathiudeen’s assets or net worth, but in 2019, a Sri Lankan parliamentarian demanded a probe into his assets after allegations emerged that Bathiudeen owns an island valued at 240 million Sri Lankan Rupees ($1.2 million).

In rejecting the bail plea, the Additional Magistrate stated that the Bathiudeens were individuals with power in the society and therefore can exert influence on the investigations and witnesses.”

Bathiudeen’s arrest of over 100 days under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which allows authorities to arrest and detain suspects without a formal charge, is triggering unrest. There is no public record of Bathiudeen’s assets or net worth, but in 2019, another Sri Lankan parliamentarian had demanded an investigation into his assets after allegations emerged that Bathiudeen owns an island valued at 240 million Sri Lankan Rupees ($1.2 million). Bathiudeen denied those claims. Tech

Lawyer and rights activist Nimalka Fernando told VICE World News that it’s very common for children from plantation communities to move to cities in the hopes of escaping severe poverty and the lack of job opportunities, only to face abuse at their new workplaces. 

General indicators of development such as health and education in Sri Lanka are high, but these areas are the most underdeveloped,” said Fernando. The adult literacy rate (15 years and above) in Sri Lanka is over 95 percent, but Fernando says 90 percent of children of plantation workers are illiterate. Finding work outside plantation estates is often the last resort for many families. 

“All they want right now is justice, and simply to understand what happened to their daughter. That is all,” said Suren Perera, the lawyer for Ishalini’s family.

This case is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Fernando, adding that there is no data on children from the plantation sector. 

To hide the reality, the state hides the numbers,” she said. 

Last week, the country’s media division put out a statement saying a majority of children employed as labourers are from the estate sector, although no data was released. 

ST Ganeshalingam, the convenor of the Movement for Plantation People’s Land Rights (MPPLR), told VICE World News that many times, children themselves don’t report what happens in their workplaces. This is also because the plantation communities are isolated and it’s difficult for them to use government services,” he said, noting a wide disconnect between existing child protection laws and their implementation. 

Ishalini’s case triggered protests across the country, as well as calls to ban domestic child labour. Sri Lankan law identifies 51 jobs that are unsuitable for children, but it excludes domestic labour. The Labour Ministry and the Ministry of Women and Child Development are currently drafting labour law reforms, which include a longer list of 76 hazardous jobs for children, and a ban on domestic work for children under 18 years. 

Ishalini’s first salary was paid to a broker named Shankar, who is currently in police custody on charges of trafficking child labour. As the middleman, it was Shankar who sent Ishalini’s salary to her family. 

It often takes decades for survivors of sexual assault to get justice. It’s in the hands of the police and judiciary to lead the community and give justice in a fair manner,” said Lawyer and rights activist Nimalka Fernando.

“It was revealed in court that the parliamentarian’s family had paid a large sum at first to continue to get work out of her. Until the day of the incident, she had been paid LKR 200,000 ($1,005), a figure well over her salary,” Perera revealed. 

T Roshani, a women’s rights activist with MPPLR, told VICE World News that brokers having control over bodies of young children is a dangerous trend in an already broken system. There have been instances where the brokers have sold children without the parents even knowing,” she said. Tech

Late last month, in response to Ishalini’s case, Sri Lankan police media spokesperson Senior Deputy Inspector General Ajith Rohana announced a pilot project to track children under the age of 16 employed as domestic workers, and to punish those employing them. 

But activists say justice is often slow for the families of victims and survivors. Recent official data recorded 78 incidents of rape and 34 child abuse cases just in the first 15 days of 2020. Sri Lanka is one of the signatories to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and has pledged to eliminate child labour by 2022. 

Fernando, the rights lawyer, said the Sri Lankan government prides itself in being progressive on many fronts, but issues of violence and hidden exploitation are rarely discussed openly. 

I’m worried about accountability in the country,” she said. It often takes decades for survivors of sexual assault to get justice, and such cases are often projected as isolated incidents. It’s in the hands of the police and judiciary to lead the community and give justice in a fair manner.”

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

How did we get here?

Sri Lanka is in crisis. Since April 2021, Sri Lanka saw a sharp increase of Covid-19 positive cases and deaths. Despite health authorities warning the public to limit celebrations and shopping sprees during the traditional new year festival, large gatherings and cross border travels resulted in a deadly spike of Covid-19 cases. However the dominant disease variant at the time was the Covid-19 variant also known as the UK variant. It must be noted that this variant was also considered a highly contagious variant before the Delta variant began to wreak havoc in India, where it was first detected.  

“The WHO last week urged nations worldwide to halt programmes to give third booster shots to their already vaccinated citizens”

On June 17, 2021 Director of Operations and Clinical Services at Allergy Immunology and Cell Biology Unit, University of Sri Jayewardenepura Dr. Chandima Jeewandara tweeted Worst we could have imagined. B.1.617.2 was detected in Colombo. Remember it’s 50% faster than B116; more severe and evades one dose vaccine.” True to Dr. Jeewandara’s warnings by August, hospitals across the island are incapacitated with Covid-19 patients with the rapid spread of the Delta variant across the country. 

Why is Delta deadly?

According to an internal document of the United States Centre for Disease Control (CDC) the Delta variant is much more contagious and more likely to break through the protections given by the vaccines. It also said that Delta may cause more severe diseases than all the other known variants of the virus. 

While much of the world had an idea of how dangerous this variant is, the CDC document gave a clear idea about how transmissible this virus is. According to the CDC, the Delta variant is more transmissible than the viruses which cause MERS, SARS, Ebola and the smallpox. Frighteningly the report also compared its transmissibility to chickenpox, which is as easily contagious as the Delta variant of Covid-19. 

What’s worrisome however is that the CDC, according to a Washington Post article said that ‘the war has changed”. It indicated the struggle of a wealthy nation such as the United States and its depicted its top public health agency’s struggles to stay with the Covid-19 prevention measures and to encourage vaccination. Several months earlier this year, the US health agencies relaxed it’s advice on mask-wearing as numbers began to decline with accelerated vaccines. However with the emergence of the Delta variant, the CDC document reveals the urgency to renew its response to a virus strain which acts almost as a novel virus.  It also reveals how wealthy nations struggle with this variant and that countries such as India or Sri Lanka are not alone in the battle against Delta. 

Meanwhile Dr. Chandima Jeewandara citing recent CDC guidance noted how the response to Covid-19 Delta variant has changed. Recent CDC guidance: If you are a close contact: you should get tested 3-5 days after exposure. Previous recommendations for close contacts was to test 5-7 days after exposure. If symptomatic – Rapid tests should suit in Sri Lanka and if asymptomatic PCR would be more sensitive” Dr. Jeewandara said taking to twitter. He also highlighted that this was his personal opinion — not the Sri Lankan official guideline. Dr. Jeewandara added that many undergo testing for Covid-19 soon after exposure and get a false sense of reassurance. 

Head of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura Prof. Neelika Malavige also taking to twitter said that given the highly transmissible nature of the virus indoor gatherings must be stopped immediately. Fine aerosols produced by talking and singing contains more SARS-CoV-2 copies than coarse aerosols and may play a significant role in SARS-CoV-2 transmission,” Prof. Malavige said. This is precisely why large indoor gatherings should be stopped right now, until a large proportion of the adult population are fully vaccinated (2 weeks after the second dose),” she added.

“The Delta variant is more transmissible than the viruses which cause MERS, SARS, Ebola and smallpox. The report also said the variant is as contagious as chickenpox”

Do lockdowns work?

Sri Lanka responded early to the initial wave of the pandemic early in 2020, with islandwide lockdowns which had varied impacts on different segments of society. As the curfews were lifted various strains began to emerge and gradually spread across the country since then.  

While several medical and healthcare professionals urge an immediate and temporary lockdown or travel restrictions to be imposed, certain professionals disagree that it would aid the current situation in any way. It is almost certain that yet another lockdown will bring economic activities in Sri Lanka to a halt, will it really help curb the rapid spread of the virus? Senior Professor Sudantha Liyanage believes otherwise. Professor Liyanage is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, which has contributed immensely in the country’s battle against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. The university was tasked with carrying out the most vital research and studies on SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. 

“Local data have already shown that decades of hard work and capital accumulation have been lost for some”

What will keep the pandemic at bay?

Several months ago, harsh measures were warranted by the government to abate the virus spread. However, after the restrictions were eased, the number of Coronavirus-positive cases and deaths skyrocketed. Despite this backdrop, Prof. Liyanage stressed that what works in the battle against this pandemic is nothing but vaccines.We tried lockdowns. We tried travel restrictions, but the numbers did not change that much. What Sri Lankans need right now is increased vaccination rates to keep this fatal pandemic at bay,” Prof. Liyanage opined.

As the World Health Organization specifies, herd immunity, also known as ‘population immunity’, is the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through the previous infection. The WHO supports achieving ‘herd immunity’ through vaccination, but not by allowing the disease to spread uncontrolled through any segment of the population, as this would result in unnecessary deaths. Prof. Liyanage stressed that herd immunity against COVID-19 should be achieved by protecting people through vaccination, not by exposing them to the virus or keeping them indoors for prolonged periods of time. Achieving herd immunity with safe and effective vaccines makes the diseases rarer and saves lives.”

In the Sri Lankan context, according to Army Commander General Shavendra Silva who leads the state’s COVID-19 task force, preparations were being made for a third dose booster following a discussion with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on August 06. However, only about 50 percent of the population have been vaccinated but with one dose. About 13.8 percent with two doses by August 08, 2021, have received a vaccine. Meanwhile the WHO last week urged nations worldwide to halt programmes to give third booster shots to their vaccinated citizens. 

The WHO’s Chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that as the gap between vaccinations in wealthy and poor countries widen, wealthy nations need to support lower income countries in securing the vaccines needed for their citizens. 
“I understand the concern of all governments to protect their people from the Delta variant. But we cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it,” Tedros said in the strongest statement the WHO has offered in support of vaccine equity. 

“While several medical professionals urge an immediate lockdown to be imposed, certain professionals disagree that it would aid the current situation in any way”

On the brink of bankruptcy?

Due to the negative impact caused by the pandemic-related restrictions on the Sri Lankan economy and especially small businesses, questions have arisen about the viability of many sectors. Will the workers remain with the previous firms as lockdowns persist or will they move on to other jobs? Will the firms themselves survive? Will there be a string of bankruptcies? Local data have already shown that decades of hard work and capital accumulation have been lost for some.

Let’s be honest about the lockdowns and curfews. With the crushing social and economic costs that lockdowns bring, we now know just how catastrophic lockdowns are. Small businesses didn’t survive at all. It only adds up to economic misery and affects the livelihoods of many who barely survive with wages,” Prof. Liyanage explained. He is of the view that if another lockdown comes, the citizens will have to pay a heavy price both in terms of life and livelihood.

Shedding light on the economic downfall, Prof. Liyanage said lockdowns are perceived as temporary solutions for a national crisis like COVID-19. We can tell people to stay home and mask-up, but government demands don’t necessarily result in compliance. If new lockdowns were to be ordered, compliance would largely depend on the people. We know how our people violate travel restrictions and health guidelines. We should remember it was the countries and localities with high vaccination rates that have shown low numbers of hospitalization and death.

The global picture speaks a thousand words

The global picture supports Prof. Liyanage’s opinion. The countries with wider vaccination coverage are reporting slower infections and fewer deaths, paving the way for their faster return to normalcy. A recent McKinsey report has said that the success in the vaccination drive boosted the confidence in developed countries, where fewer executives now see Covid-19 as the number one threat for economic growth.
Bangladesh media and their experts have also linked the country’s recovery until mid-March to business and consumer confidence boosted by the launching of vaccination. Countries see success in taming infections and deaths by pacing up vaccination.

Our closest neighbor India has vaccinated 4.1% of its population, which helped the country to bring down daily infections to 45,699 and deaths to 816 just in a month from their May peaks of over 4 lakh and 4,896.
The USA, though tops the global chart of infections and deaths, now sees a steady fall in both counts as the country heightened its vaccination drive, inoculating more than 46% of its population. Daily infections dropped to 11,427 on 29 June from a peak of 3 lakh on 8 January this year. Daily deaths came down abruptly to 294 on June 29 from a whopping 4,463 on 12 January.

In contrast, Vietnam, which was so far able to keep Covid deaths as low as 80 by non-pharmaceutical measures, now sees a rise in infection due to its lower rate of vaccination, just 0.2% coverage. 

Health authorities strongly advise the public to strictly adhere to the instructions given below

• First of all, get vaccinated against coronavirus. Most of the infected people worldwide survived due to vaccination.
• Do not leave home unless it is essential.
• Do not participate in weddings, funerals, and other similar events where people gather in large numbers.
• Remember to wear a face mask when visiting public places.
• Do not stay in closed spaces such as rooms, halls, elevators, vehicles, etc. when crowded.
• Wash your hands using soap from time to time.
• Stay away from others keeping a distance of more than two metres.
• If you have a chronic illness, do not leave home except for work.
• Do not entrust your and your family’s safety to others and take that responsibility into your hands.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

About 263 Community Vaccination Centres manned by tri-forces and health authorities will be operational countrywide today.

Accordingly, vaccination centres are operational in 22 locations in the Colombo district, 17 in the Gampaha district, 33 in the Kalutara district while remaining vaccination centres operational in the Kurunegala, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Matale, Badulla,MOneragala, Galle, Matara,Hambantora, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Anuradhapura, Jaffna,Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara Districts.

https://www.scribd.com/document/519844015/Vaccination-Centers-on-12-08-2021#from_embed

Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Another crucial meeting will held this morning between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Presidential Task Force on Prevention of COVID-19 to decide if travel restrictions will be imposed over the weekend to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Army Commander General Shavendra Silva told Daily Mirror that the meeting will be held with the participation of ministers, Director General of Health Services and several other experts to discuss the current developments and further decisions to be taken related to the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

The meeting will take place after the country recorded it’s highest ever daily COVID-19 deaths on August 11. Also the daily COVID-19 cases surpassed the 3,000 mark on Thursday after a few weeks.

Following the surge in cases and exceeded capacity in the hospitals, health experts, several organizations and the opposition has urged the government to impose an immediate lock down for at least 14 days to contain the rapid spread of the virus.

Earlier, Professor of Community Medicine, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka Suneth Agampodi claimed that an immediate imposition of curfew will prevent at least 1,200 additional deaths within the next 20 days.

The Army Commander said though experts had made statements to media over a lockdown, not a single formal request had been made to the COVID-19 Task Force. However, the matter is likely to be noted at the meeting today.

The previous meeting held with the President and the Covid-19 Task Force had taken several decisions to prevent the spread of the virus.

Courtesy Hiru News

Another 156 Covid-19 related deaths for 11 August have been confirmed by Director General of Health Services.

This has increased the total number of deaths in Sri Lanka to 5,620.

956 deaths were reported in the first 10 days of this month.

Therefore, with the deaths reported today, the total number of deaths reported this month has increased to 1,112.

Accordingly, this is the highest number of deaths reported in a day so far.

Courtesy Hiru News

Another 619 persons tested positive for COVID-19.

With 2,420 cases reported earlier today, the daily total of COVID cases increased to 3,039.

Accordingly, the total number of COVID patients in the country increased to 345,118

By Chandre Dharmawardana.
National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa and Department of Physics and Astronomy Université de Montreal.

The largest drain on Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange earnings is in purchasing  fossil fuels for power and transport,  and in feeding  the 22 million people who depend on a mere million hectares of arable land, as compared to 44 million hectares  in Canada with a population of just 37 million. Much of agricultural land  in the dry zone”  depends on irrigation water. This  is provided by a network of reservoirs that tap the heavy rains of the hill country to deliver the water to the agricultural regions via rivers and irrigation canals.  

In  previous articles (e.g., Island 7-Aug-2021, Island: https://island.lk/clean-energy-without-foreign-exchange/; Colombo Telegraph: https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/clean-practical-solutions-to-sri-lankas-energy-crisis/)  I had restated what I had stated in many articles extending back into two decades, namely, that just by CUTTING DOWN EVAPORATION  from our hydro-electric tanks, we can boost our clean energy production to such an extent that the targets of 70% production of clean energy become  completely  possible.

Here I point out the possibility of  boosting power production EVEN FURTHER by optimal partitioning of water between agriculture and hydro-power production, by shielding the water in the IRRIGATION tanks from EVAPORATION, and in NOT USING WATER to control weeds in paddy fields.

    
Figure 1.  Schematic of the main Mahaweli hydro-power and agricultural irrigation network.

In ancient times, small manually built tanks (weva”) supplied water to small hamlets (gama”) where people lived at a precarious subsistence level (see Prof. Siriweera’ study of ancient food security).  The  temple or Kovil was the only spiritual, cultural and educational resource. That ancient hydraulic system held pride of place in the ancient world. But it did not tap the heavy rainfall of the hill country.  The total population  sustained by the whole Land even at its best times was probably less than today’s population in  Colombo.

In contrast, today’s hydraulic system not only provides irrigation water, but also electric power that drives modern technologies, hospitals, electrified transport, and every aspect of daily life at levels of culture and leisure that were not available even to elites of the ancient world.

The attached figure (Figure 1, credits: Thushara de Silva et al., 2019, Vandebilt  University, USA) shows how hydro-power stations (red squares) of the Mahaweli system are also  associated with the various irrigation schemes (green hexagons)  denoted by  A, B, C, … H, MH etc.  The head water of the Mahaweli is diverted at Pollgolla towards the north” via Bowatenna mainly for agriculture, while another branch supplies the Minipe agricultural regions via Randenigala and Rantambe power stations.

However, if more water is sent to irrigated agriculture, there is less available for power production. Agriculture needs water in large amounts at specific times, while power production uses water far more steadily. The water that is used for hydro can be used in agriculture when stored downstream and released at the required time.

Figure 2.  Agricultural water requirements in various Mahaweli Systems in millions of metric tons per hectare.  [Credits: Thushara de Silva et al.,

                          Vanderbilt University, USA, 2019]

Figure 2 shows the monthly water use  in the two planting seasons. The upstream reservoirs have to provide enough water to the irrigation reservoirs at a time to be  ready to supply the irrigation water as soon as needed.  I find that it quite sufficient to model the water-requirement by a sum of just two Gaussians. Similar simplifications can be done, when analytic calculations can be carried out as the differential equations become quite tractable. Such analytic models enable one to establish more reliable asymptotic behaviour of these systems, and determine upper and lower bounds to the critical indices and carry out critical path anlayses and other evaluations far more conveniently than with purely numerical “brute-force” computer simulations popular with Engineers and those who write glossy “proposals”.

More importantly, exploring such analytic models mathematically  enables one to obtain an intuitive physical familiarity with the system.  We find that water requirement can be cut down by beyond a FATOR OF TWO implementing two simple provisions:

(A) the irrigation tanks are covered by floats to prevent evaporation. This also prevents algae and water weeds, and improves the aquatic environment. The floats may also carry solar cells and connected to the central grid using smart switching technologies that are now standard, even in small islands like Hawaii. So if the CEB claims that Sri Lanka’s power grid is “too small” to handle power fluctuations easily or introduce smart grid approaches, such a claim is simply not valid.

(B) WATER IS NOT USED for weed control in paddy planting.  

Instead, weeds should be controlled using safe herbicides like glyphosate.  There is of course socio-political resistance to “chemicals” entrenched in occult beliefs in revelations by God Natha”, or due to baseless propaganda against agro-chemicals”.  To meet that challenge, the  so-called System Rice Intensification” (SRI) methods  may be used.

SRI has been tested out in India and Madagascar.  It  is said to increase yields by over 30%, i,e.,  4-5  tonnes per hectare instead of at most three tonnes per hectare obtained with reduced use of chemical” fertilizers, while also using 40% LESS water than conventional methods. If chemical fertilizers and humus are used together, the yields become 8-10 tonnes per hectare, with even less soil erosion. However, a pilot project  to test a new idea is needed before extensive adoption.

The steps (A) and (B) or similar ideas are not included in the usual studies on optimizing water management in multipurpose reservoir  systems even though quite complex models like RIBASIM, WEAP (e.g., see,  Louckes and van Beek 2017) etc., have been used  by engineering researchers. Such models, though complex, are only as good as the ideas incorporated into them. Ideas can be tested more transparently using simpler analytic models of the sort used in theoretical physics. There are also losses in seepage that are not included in standard engineering models, or in my calculations, as no simple engineering approach is currently available to reduce seepage from the bottom of the reservoirs.

All this suggests  that if reservoir capacity permits, the water available for hydroelectricity can be easily doubled while providing more than adequate irrigation water to the agricultural schemes of  Lanka and providing ALL THE NEED POWER using only hydro power, for at least the next decade. If so  much water can be saved, it makes good sense to expand reservoir capacity or bring into service the abandoned small tanks that are found in many parts of the dry zone – but they too will need evaporation shields. Furthermore, the possibility of raising the Kothmale dam to increase capacity by 20% has been proposed by Engineer Kenderagama (5-Nov-2020, Island newspaper). If this is in fact  feasible, the hydro-power output will also increase by almost 20%. Thus we see that  lack of a power research Institute” similar to, say, the TRI for the eta sector, hampers in the evaluation and analysis of new ideas in such a vital national endevour like power production, as the CEB alone is not equipped to deal with such matters.

Kendaragama has also drawn attention to the question of the long-term safety of the hydro-power dams.

The projections of power needed by Sri Lanka given by the CEB are INCORRECT and are a gross under-estimate as the CEB does not seem to have considered that most motor vehicles will use electric power within a decade.

In any case, the proposed steps are a means of establishing a solid shield against global warming and persistent drought that will be part of the future weather patterns. Then the mechanisms put in to prevent evaporation or deal with sudden excess water will become  God Sent” provisions.

The technology that is needed for the main proposal made here to save water, i.e.,  by introducing floating evaporation shields on reservoirs,  does not need modern technology or “foreign exchange”. Adding solar cells on to the floats, and using smart grid switching technology of course will bring us to the 21st century techniques, but at very little cost.

By Chandre Dharmawardana.
National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa and Department of Physics and Astronomy Université de Montreal.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Microfinance for various small businesses (including agriculture) has been a vital support for the economic development and the growth of Sri Lanka since the beginning of the economic activities of the country. Microfinance helped non-economic purposes such as giving dowry, spending for weddings, funerals, and many other purposes helped in the management of human affairs. In history, how microfinance had been operated cannot clearly state, however, it was a private business and the government regulation did not apply. It is difficult to identify a fixed beginning of credit support for the variety of small businesses and services, however, microfinance is informally operated in the country in various names or formats, and the publication of Robert Knox carries a picture and little details of microfinance (Knox, Robert (1681), A Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon, translated by David Karunaratne in 1959, Page 260-262), that reflects the truth about microfinance in history. The Mahavamsa describes that the 13^th King of Sri Lanka spent three hundred thousand (pieces of money) to free Buddhist bhikkus (Monks) from indebtedness so microfinance had been in the country and no doubt that since before Christ (The translation of Mahavamsa by Wilhelm Geiger 1912, PP 258-259) microfinance had been operated in Sri Lanka.  

Historical experience in the management of microfinance invites the attention of the government to develop policies and regulations for the operation of microfinance. It was an indispensable role of the government. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka is the regulatory authority for the financial system, which includes microfinance, too. However, the Central Bank has not done a complete job. Why the authority has neglected, the role is known by Gods, not any others.

Commercial credits were known by people through the operation of trading banks and other financial institutions, however, the operation of Gramin Bank in Bangladesh, was known to the world about microfinance operation, and when Noble Price was awarded to the leader of the Gramin Bank in Bangladesh, it was developed world. Now people of the world know what is microfinance and how it is important for lower-income earners to get rid of poverty. 

The explanation of Knox shows the management of microfinance in history was cruel when customers defaulted the repayment the modern management and if it can go back to history, it might seem that the open market system would not work supporting small businesses. The example of Mahavamsa shows that the release of borrowers from indebtedness was done by the government. The regulation and laws in the history of the applied that are effective today, it could be seen people are carrying heavy stones on the back everywhere. This means many defaulters of repayment today are in the country and will be subject to punishments. Therefore, today needs regulation and when the Central Bank cannot do so, it needs political leadership to consider while educating the public about the repercussion of the operating of microfinance.

Microfinance operates in a broader area that involves many lenders and borrowers for many purposes and is essential to small business operations, as business needs working capital frequently. Dr.N. M. Perera, when he was the Minister of Finance, explained in a budget speech the major reason for the failure of microfinance in the country and identified two reasons, when people borrow money for a business purpose, they would use such money for consumption if they have not income to spend for consumption, and when borrowed money used for consumption expected cash inflow would be weakened and repayment of the loan would be a failure.

When logically thinks 80% of the population associates with the microfinance field and identifying all coliseum of borrowing relate to microfinance and regulating and policymaking may be a complicated task. Usually, microfinance is related to production activities in history, but in the modern era, it is applied for various purposes such as wedding spending, giving dowry, and many others. In developed countries, microfinance is called personal loans that operate in a broader area.

I do not know how many researches have been conducted on the matter and making regulation covering all aspects of micro-financing may not be successful or possible either, and when deeply analyse the effort of the state minister it might be a reason to lose votes to the government and when submitting the bill to the parliament, many slogans and rallies outside the parliament would be incurred as a protest against the bill.

Mr. Shehan Semasinghe has not disclosed so far what contents they include in the proposed bill. Most probably, the bill has been drafted by persons who have no practical experience of micro-financing. The borrowing small quantum of money incurs in Sri Lanka in the way of mortgaging pieces of jewelry to informal lenders at a higher rate of interest. Sometimes, these informal lenders charge 15% monthly interest, which means the annual rate of interest could be 180%. Later, Peoples’ bank began micro-financing scheme called Athamaru” how far it was successful or was a failure is unknown to people.

Micro-credits contain a broader area and feel like bacillus in Sri Lanka because it operates many areas and regulating entire micro-credit is a complex task. Many credits relate to informal borrowers and lenders. Sometimes, microfinance may deal with the illicit drug business. How to identify these informal businesses. The identification of their issues for regulating purposes may difficult.  

Multi-purpose cooperatives and rural banks had been operating in Sri Lanka to provide microfinance for members, the establishment of Peoples’ Bank as an initiative of Mr. Philip Gunawardane and Mr. Ronnie de Mel took over many microfinance businesses to the Peoples’ Bank. Later, after the JVP insurrection in 1971, the government introduced two major acts, which were land reforms and supports for reforms in the agricultural sector. The authority in acts permitted establishing Agricultural Service Centres. These two laws supported the Bank of Ceylon to embark the market operating branches in Agricultural Service Centres. However, they were closed down when Mr. Felix R.D Bandaranaike was the minister of finance. Microfinance in the Bank of Ceylon was called cultivation loan and later I found that the total volume default of agricultural credits in the country was less than the default of a single corporate customer in Colombo.

When regulating microfinance operations the government should take some responsibilities as in the way King Siri Naga or Voharika Tissa played, when Dr. N. M. Perera was the minister of Finance there was a Credit Guarantee and Re-finance schemes, later the credit guarantee scheme was abandoned by the Central Bank.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

The major areas of regulating microfinance should be included. Before regulating the operation process of microfinance, it requires identifying the lender and the business format of lenders that may be a sole proprietorship, partnership or a private company, or public company. Many micro-financing businesses are not identified as business owners due to tax reasons. Therefore, regulating them to register in a recognised format of business ownership is essential. In Colombo, there may be more than a hundred lenders, and in each regional town, over five lenders are operating. The regulating process would generate additional revenue for the government.

• Purpose of lending
• Amount of lending
• Collateral of lending
• Supervision of lending
• Repayment of Lending
• Restructuring and monitoring of finance
• Remedial management
• Management of past due and legal actions
• Considering for borrowers who were past due

PURPOSE OF LENDING

The central bank authority may know that the total lending of Sri Lanka is formidable to identify and the disaggregated data with the purposes cannot reconcile with the total portfolio, because many lenders are reluctant to disclose the volume of lending, and many dislike identifying as lenders. It is not a problem getting data from organized financial institutions, such as banks, finance companies, and others. Informal lenders are averse to the disclosure and the central bank needs to explain and give an ultimatum for registration. Under the proposed regulation, the name of the lender, the amount lent and other information should be compulsory to provide. Finally, the central bank should be able to calculate disaggregated figures according to the purposes and reconcile them with total lending volume.

AMOUNT OF LENDING

Microfinance should be limited to an amount that is small size and if any person or organisation lends more than a limited amount, it should be considered as either retail or medium market or corporate lending. Microfinance could be granted against collateral or the expected cash flow of the business project that microfinance is expected to be used. This is called cash flow lending, and microfinance should be subject to cash flow lending. The amount of loan that could be granted to a customer needs to decide by the lender and regulation regarding this area should be focused on various factors, such as the borrower’s ability to pay back or creditworthiness, current obligations to other lenders, and other factors. Banks and financial institutions have credit policy and operation manuals are there and the regulation relating to the amount of loan should be subject to the borrowing purpose and the injection for the purpose. When borrowers didn’t get sufficient funds, it would be a cause to default. 

COLLATERAL OF LENDING

The term collateral is used in the USA and it says in Sri Lanka security. Clean loans could be granted, signing a promissory note. Late Dr. Wickrema Weerasooria expensively did researches on this subject and published several books. Obtaining securities for microfinance is a grey area to talk about because there is a conflict between the aspect of commercial lending and micro-credits. Granting clean loans is a highly risky task and helps to default as recorded in history.

Getting a land mortgage is an arduous task as it needs to ensure the ownership of the land. The floating charge is not relevant for fixed securities. Inter-se-guarantees, indemnity bonds, and personal guarantees, Paripasu bonds, and parate execution are complicated legal concepts, and regulating microfinance needs to consider all these concepts and it cannot be done ad hoc ways. Many customers in the SME sector have no assets to keep as security.

MONITORING OF CREDITS

The major reason to default micro-credit is a weak monitoring process. Monitoring of granted credit is a broader and complex process and many lenders (formal and informal) do not successfully monitor how credit is used and how credit affects borrower’s life. The monitoring process should be associated with related organizations and should be more organized to classify the credit until they payback. The classification of granted credit is not done by lenders, and this has been the major reason for defaulting credit.

Management of microfinance is a costly exercise and when grant credits monitoring should be explained to customers and lender needs arranging such activities. 

REMEDIAL MANAGEMENT

Remedial management should be organized while monitoring granted credit, and there are many strategies for the remedial process. Sometimes, customers may need additional credit facilities or advice, or any other supports. Monitoring and remedial management should be regulated, and lenders and borrowers should be educated on this matter.

As I mentioned before, regulating microfinance is not a simple task the way politicians think. The bill needs broadly discuss and different concerned people may propose changes and the political authority needs listening to all aspects.

WANESA TV

නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍ය

තාරුණ්‍යයේ වටිනාකම ලොව සියලුදෙනාගේ අවධානයට පාත්‍ර කරමින් සෑම වසරකම අගෝස්තු 12 වැනිදා සමරනු ලබන ජාත්‍යන්තර තරුණ දිනය  – 2021” නිමිත්තෙන් සුබාශිංසන පළ කරනුයේ ඉමහත් සතුටිනි.

”මානව හා ගෝලීය සෞඛ්‍ය උදෙසා ආහාර පද්ධති පරිවර්තනයට තරුණ ප්‍රජාවේ නවොත්පාදනයන්” යන්න මෙවර එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ජාත්‍යන්තර තරුණ දින තේමාව වී තිබේ.

කොවිඩ් වසංගතය හේතුවෙන් මුළු ලොවම පීඩාවට පත්ව සිටින මෙවැනි වටපිටාවක අනාගත ලෝකයේ සෞඛ්‍ය සම්පන්න හා නිරෝගී මිනිසකු නිර්මාණය උදෙසා තරුණ දායකත්වය මෙවැනි තේමාවක් යටතේ පෙළගැසීම ප්‍රශංසනීය වේ.

අතිගරු ජානාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා සහ ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා ඇතුළු රජයේ ආශිර්වාදය මත තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා විෂය ක්ෂේත්‍ර ඒකාබද්ධ කරමින් තාරුණ්‍යයේ අධ්‍යාපනය, ව්‍යවසායකත්වය සහ නවෝත්පාදනය වැඩි දියුණු කිරීමට හැකිවීම අප ලැබූ භාග්‍යයකි.

විවිධ ක්ෂේත්‍ර ඔස්සේ සිය නිර්මාණශීලි දක්ෂතාවන් එළිදක්වමින් පෙරට ආ ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය තාරුණ්‍ය කොවිඩ් වසංගත තත්ත්වයට මුහුණ දීම උදෙසා අඛණ්ඩව මේ දක්වා දක්වන දායකත්වය ජාත්‍යන්තර තරුණ දිනයේ දී ඇගයීමට ලක්විය යුතු බව මාගේ විශ්වාසයයි.

2030 වසරේ දී ගෝලීය තිරසර ඉලක්ක සපුරා ගැනීමේ දී තාරුණ්‍යය එහි ප්‍රබල සාධකයකි. අපේක්ෂිත ඉලක්ක වෙත පිවිසීමේ දී ආහාර පද්ධතිවල බලපෑම නව ප්‍රවේශයකින් සාකච්ඡා කළ යුතුව ඇත. නිර්මාංශ ආහාර වේලක ඇති වටිනාකම මෙන්ම දේශගුණික විපර්යාස පීඩාවන් අවම කර ගැනීමට එමගින් ලැබෙන දායකත්වය ආදිය ගැන තරුණ ප්‍රජාව දැනුවත් වීම ඉතා වැදගත්ය.

සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම අනුව යමින් රජය කාබනික කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය පිළිබඳව සමාජ කතිකාවක් නිර්මාණය කරමින් එය ක්‍රියාවට නැංවීමට පියවර ගනු ලැබුවේ ද අනාගත පරපුරේ ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතාව සහ පෝෂණය සහතික කිරීම සඳහා බව සිහිපත් කළ යුතුය.

නව නිපුණතාවලින් හා කුසලතාවලින් රටක ජවය හා ජීවය වන තාරුණ්‍යය සන්නද්ධ කළහොත්, හෙට දිනයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අනාගත අභිවෘද්ධිය සාක්ෂාත් වනවා මෙන්ම ඒ තුළින් අලුත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවක් ගොඩනැගිය හැකි බව මාගේ විශ්වාසයයි. 

මෙවන් දුෂ්කර සමයක තරුණ ප්‍රජාවේ අනාගත අපේක්ෂාවන් තේරුම් ගෙන ඔවුන් අධ්‍යාපනයෙන් සවිමත් කරමින් විරැකියාව තුරන් කොට තාරුණ්‍යය උදෙසා නව ලොවට ගැළපෙන රැකියා අවස්ථා හා ව්‍යවසායකත්ව හැකියාවන් වර්ධනය කිරීම මාගේ අපේක්ෂාවයි.

ඒ සඳහා රට පුරා විසිරී සිටින තරුණ තරුණියන්ගේ නව අදහස්වලට සවන් දෙමින් ඔවුන්ගේ දැක්ම, රටේ දැක්ම සමඟ යාවත්කාලීන කිරීමට හැකිවීම ජීවිතයේ මා ලැබූ භාග්‍යයකි.‍

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඇතුළු ජාත්‍යන්තර තරුණ දිනය සමරන ලොව පුරා සියලුම තරුණ තරුණියන්ට අභියෝග හමුවේ නොසැලෙමින් එහි අභිමතාර්ථ ජගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය ශක්තිය ලැබේවා! යැයි සුබ ප්‍රාර්ථනා එක් කරමි.

අපි එක්ව ජයගමු”

නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ

තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍ය

Prime Minister’s Media Unit

New Zealand first resident High Commissioner to Sri Lanka  – Mr Michael Edward Appleton –  together with Mr. Andrew Traveller the Deputy High Commissioner  called on Hon. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees this morning (11th August 2021).

The Ambassador conveyed his pleasure to be the New Zealand first resident High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and expressed his keen interest in growing collaboration between the both nations. As one of the world’s largest milk producers, The Ambassador mentioned that New Zealand is pleased to share dairy industry technology and know-how with Sri Lanka. Referring to his previous discussions with  Mr. Namal Rajapaksa, Sports Minister in Sri Lanka , the Ambassador  is optimistic  on bridging the two nations through sports and games.

Thanking for opportunity the Ambassador said he is looking forward to working together with the Government to enhance bilateral relations with Sri Lanka.

Thanking the Ambassador for the visit the Prime Minister stated that he is also looking forward to working together with the Government of New Zealand to enhance the friendship between both nations and wished the Ambassador a very successful tenure in Sri Lanka.

Prof. G. L. Peiris, Minister of Education, Hon. Ajith Nivard Cabraal, State Minister of Finance, Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reforms and Mr. Yoshitha Rajapaksa, Chief of Staff of the Hon. Prime Minister and Mr Senaka Silva, former New Zealand Honorary Consulate in Sri Lanka were also present at the meeting.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

අය-වැය 2022 සම්පාදනය කිරීම සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ පසුපෙළ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගේ යෝජනා ලබා ගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් වන පළමු සාකච්ඡාව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අද (11) දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී පැවැත්විණි.

මුදල් අමාත්‍ය බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සංවිධානය කළ මෙම හමුවේ දී ග්‍රාමීය, ප්‍රාදේශීය සහ දිස්ත්‍රික් මට්ටමින් ඉටුකළ යුතු කාර්යයන්, ජාතික මට්ටමින් අවධානය යොමුකළ යුතු කාර්යයන් සහ ජාතික ආර්ථිකය ශක්තිමත් කිරීම යන අංශ සඳහා පසුපෙළ මන්ත්‍රී යෝජනා ලබා ගැනීම සිදුවිය.

දේශීය කාබනික කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය නගා සිටුවීම, අපනයන නිෂ්පාදනය ඉහළ දැමීම, කර්මාන්ත සහ සේවා අංශය වෙත ග්‍රාමීය ප්‍රජාවගේ දායකත්වය ලබා ගැනීම සහ සාම්ප්‍රදායික කර්මාන්තකරුවන් නගාසිටුවීම, සංචාරක ක්ෂේත්‍රය නගාසීටුවීම, ධීවර ක්ෂේත්‍රය පුළුල් සංවර්ධනයකට ලක් කිරීම, මල් සහ විසිතුරු පත්‍ර වගාකරුවන් නගාසිටුවීම,  සත්ත්ව නිෂ්පාදන අංශය වර්ධනය කිරීම ඇතුළු විවිධ ක්ෂේත්‍ර නියෝජනය වන පරිදි පසුපෙළ මන්ත්‍රීවරු මෙහි දී යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කළහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා, ජනාධිපතිවරයා මෙන්ම මුදල් අමාත්‍යවරයා ලෙස එවකට රටේ විවිධ අංශ නියෝජනය වන පරිදි ඊට අදාළ පිරිස් වෙතින් අය-වැය යෝජනා සකස් කිරීමේ දී අදහස් ලබා ගැනීමට කටයුතු කළ බවත් එය ඉතා සාර්ථක ප්‍රගතියක් පෙන් වූ බැවින් මෙවර අයවැය සම්පාදනයේදීත් හැකි උපරිමයෙන් විවිධ අංශ නියෝජනය වන පරිදි යෝජනා ලබා ගැනීමට කටයුතු කරන බවත් මුදල් අමාත්‍ය බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා මෙහි දී අවධාරණය කළේය.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ සභාපති සහ අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍ය මහාචාර්ය ජී. එල්. පීරිස්, මහ ලේකම් නීතිඥ සාගර කාරියවසම්, ආණ්ඩුපක්ෂයේ  ප්‍රධාන සංවිධායක සහ මහා මාර්ග අමාත්‍ය ජෝන්ස්ටන් ප්‍රනාන්දු මහත්වරු ඇතුළු ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ පසුපෙළ මන්ත්‍රීවරු පිරිසක් සහභාගි වී සිටියහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

2011 වර්ෂයේ අගෝස්තු මස 12 වන දින කැනේඩියානු ජාතික චිත්‍රපට නිෂ්පාදිකාවක් වන ප්‍රිටිසියා සිටි මයිකල් ක්ලාක් සහ අලි නැවක හඳුන්වාදීමේ පදනමේ ලේකම් වන සිවපෝන් ධර්දරානන්ද යන මහත්ම මහත්මීන් මූලිකත්වයෙන් අලි නැවත සිහි කිරීමේ පදනම” මඟින් සෑම වසරකම අගොස්තු මස 12 වන දින ලෝක අලි දිනය (World Elephant Day) ලෙස නම් කරන ලදී.

ලෝක අලි සුරක්ෂිතතා දිනයේ තේමාව වනුයේ අරුම පුදුම සතුන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව හා සංරක්ෂණය සොයා දැනගන්න හොඳම කාලයය” යන්නයි. වන අලින්ගේ රැකවරණය සහ කළමනාකරණය වෙනුවෙන් වූ සුභදායි විසඳුම් ලෙස දැනුවත් කිරීම සඳහා නිර්මාණශීලී දැනුම බෙදා හැරීම ලෝක අලි දිනයේ ප්‍රධාන ඉලක්කය මෙන්ම මෙහෙවරයි. 

ලොව පුරා සිටින මිනිසුන් හා සංස්කෘතීන් විසින් මහත් ආදරයට හා ගෞරවය පාත්‍ර වූ ගොඩබිම වෙසෙන විශාලම සත්ත්වයා වන, අලි ඇතුන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව හා සංරක්ෂණය වෙනුවෙන් අප රජයක් ලෙස සැමදා පෙනී සිටියෙමු. ඔවුන්ගේ සුරක්ෂිතතාව වෙනුවෙන් සුවිශාල කාර්යය භාරයක් අප ඉටු කර ඇත්තෙමු.

එසේම අනාදිමත් කාලයක සිට ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය සංස්කෘතිය මෙන්ම පෞඩත්වය ලොවට කියා පාන්නා වූ සංස්කෘතිකාංග වන පෙරහැර හා බැඳුණු මෙම ගෞරවනීය සත්ත්වයා ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරයට ද සිදු කරන්නා වූ මෙහෙය අතිමහත්ය.

දඩයම් කිරීම, වාසස්ථාන අහිමි වීම, මිනිස්-අලි ගැටුම සහ වහල්භාවයේ අයුතු ලෙස සැලකීම අප්‍රිකානු සහ ආසියානු අලි ඇතුන්ට ඇති තර්ජන කිහිපයකි. වන අලි සඳහා වඩා හොඳ ආරක්ෂාවක් ලබා දීම, ඇත්දළ නීතිවිරෝධී ලෙස දඩයම් කිරීම හා වෙළඳාම් කිරීම වැළැක්වීම සඳහා නීති බලාත්මක කිරීමේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති වැඩිදියුණු කිරීම, අලි වාසස්ථාන සංරක්ෂණය කිරීම, අල්ලා ගත් අලි ඇතුන්ට වඩා හොඳ ප්‍රතිකාර කිරීම සහ ආරක්ෂිත අභයභූමිවලට නැවත ලබාදීම අලි සංරක්ෂණය කිරීමේ අරමුණු වේ. අලි ඇතුන් සංරක්ෂණය කිරීමේ සංවිධාන විසින් ද ලොව පුරා මේ පිළිබඳව වැඩි අවධානයක් යොමු කරයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ වැඩි වශයෙන් කතා බහට ලක්වන මෙන්ම, ජනතාව දුෂ්කරතාවයට පත්ව ඇති  අලිමිනිස් ගැටුම සමතයකට පත් කිරීම සඳහා ද වත්මන් රජය මේ වන විට විවිධ ක්‍රියා මාර්ග රැසක් ගෙන ඇති අතර, අලි වදවීමේ තර්ජනයට ලක්ව ඇති මෙවැනි කාල වකවානුවකදී, අලි ඇතුන් සුරක්ෂිත කිරීම ද රජයක් ලෙස අප සැමගේ වගකීමකි.

එමෙන්ම, ඒ සඳහා ජාතියක් ලෙස පෙළගැසීමට කාලය එළඹ ඇති බව ද ලෝක අලි සුරක්ෂිතතා දිනය යෙදී ඇති අද දිනයේ අප තරයේ සිහිතබා ගත යුතු සේම ඒ සඳහා අප කටයුතු කළ යුතුය.

ලංකාවේ වෙනදේ

ලෝක වෙළඳපොලේ කිරිපිටි කිලෝ එකක මිල අද ඩොලර් 3.6කි. එනම් රු. 720කි. මේ වන විට හිතාමතාම ෆොන්ටෙරා සමාගම විසින් වරායේ ගුදම් තුළ රඳවාගෙන සිටින ප්‍රමාණය මෙට්‍රික් ටොන් 4200කි. එනම් කිලෝ මිලියන 4.2කි. මේවා මෙට්‍රික් ටොන් 28 බැගින් වූ කන්ටේනර් 150ක ඇත.

මේ සඳහා දැනට අයකරන කිලෝවකට රුපියල් 15ක් වන බද්ද ඉවත් කළහොත් රජයට අහිමිවන මුදල රුපියල් මිලියන 63කි. වැට් බද්ද ඉවත් කළහොත් අහිමිවන මුදල මිලියන 242ක. පැල් ඉවත් කලහොත් මිලියන 302ක් අහිමිවේ.

[8/10, 10:59 PM]  කිරිපිටි සමාගමට කිරි උතුරුවමින් කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය, ජනතාවගෙන් මුදල් එකතුකර නවසීලන්තයට පටවයි. ගුදම් ගාස්තු චීනයට! අහිමිවන බදු මුදලේ අලාභය පමණක් ලංකාවට!!

ෆොන්ටෙරා සමාගම පසුගිය සති දෙකක් පුරාවට තමන් ⁣ආනයනය කළ කිරිපිටි වරායෙන් නිදහස් කර ගත්තේ නැත. හිතාමතාම චීන ජැටියේ ගොඩ ගසාගෙන සිටියේ ගුදම් අධිභාරයක් ලෙසද රුපියල් කෝටි දහයකට ආසන්න මුදලක් චීනයට ගෙවමිනි. ඒ අතර තම බෙදාහැරීම් නතර කරමින් වෙළඳපොලේ කිරිපිටි හිගයක් ද ඇති කළේය. මේ කුරුමානම් ඇල්ලූවේ මිල වැඩිකිරීමක් හෝ බදු සහනයක් ලබාගැනීමේ කූට අරමුණ ඇතිවය.

අවසානයේ හැටනමලක්ෂයක් සහ පනස් හතර ලක්ෂයත් ඔවුනගේ ඡන්දය අහිමි තවත් මිලියන ගණනකුත් පරදා ෆොන්ටෙරා ජයගත්තේය. කිරිපිටිවල ආනයන බදු සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම ඉවත් කළ බව  කැබිනට් ප්‍රකාශක විසින් නිල වශයෙන් ප්‍රකාශ කළ බව කියැවිනි.  කාගේ බොක්ක පිරුණාද කියා තවමත් හෙළිදරව් වී නැති නමුත් කවුරුන් හෝ ඒ පාවාදීම කළ බව නම් තවදුරටත් රහසක් නොවේ. මහදවල් මංකොල්ලකෑම් හෙවත් day light robbery යනු මේවාය. සීනි, පොල්තෙල් පෝලිමට මෙලෙස අලුතින්ම එකතු වූ කිරිපිටි ගනුදෙනුවේ සම්පූර්ණ ලාභය ගලායන්නේ නවසීලන්තයට ය. අධිබර ගුදම් ගාස්තුව පවා ගලා යන්නේ ජැටියේ අයිතිය හිමි චීනයටය. සසිරිබර මෙසිරිලකට උරුම වන්නේ බදු අහිමි වීමේ පාඩුව පමණකි. මේ සහගහන අපරාධය වෙනුවෙන් ලබාදුන් දොළ පිදේනියද පැනමා පත්‍රිකාවල හෝ ස්විස් ගිණුම්වල හෝ තැන්පත් වනු ඇත.

රටේ ඩොලර්ං නැති බවත් ඩොලර් ඉතිරි කරගතයුතු බවත් ජනතාවට කියන මේ ආණ්ඩුව ජනතාවගේ මුදල් වැඩි වැඩියෙන් එකතුකර පිටරට පටවන්නේ කිසිදු හිරිකිතයකින් තොරව මහ දවාලේ ය. මේ කැබිනට් පත්‍රිකාව ඇමතිවරුන්ට කලින් ලබාදෙන කැබිනට් පත්‍රිකා අතර නොතිබුනු විශේෂ වර්ගයේ එකකි. රෝහලේ තුන්ඩු දෙනවිට කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ අය වෙනුවෙන් මුල් තුන්ඩු කිහිපය පැත්තකට කරන්නා සේ 1සිට5 දක්වා හදිසි පත්‍රිකා වෙනුවෙන් වෙන්කර තිබූ අංකයක් මීට අදාල කැබිනට් පත්‍රිකාවට හිමිවූ  බවටද අරාංචි වේ. මේ බළධාරියා කවුද? මේ අල්ලස තමා නොගත් බවට ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඇතුළු කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයේ සාමාජිකයන්ට වෙන වෙනම ජනතාවට සහතික කළ හැකිද? මේ ගබඩා කරගෙන සිටි කිරිපිටි තොගයට, මේ ලබා දී ඇති බදු සහනය හිමි නොවන බවට නියෝගයක් කරන්නැයි ඉල්ලා උසාවියට යන්නේ කවුරුන්ද? මේ මංකොල්ලය ගැන ගුදම් සඳහාම පත්කළ රාජ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයා ජනතාවට සත්‍යය හෙළි කරන්නේ කවදාද?  ජනතාවගේ මුදලින්ම කමින් බොමින් යමින් එමින් සැප විඳිමින් ගත කරන ජීවිතවලට හෘදය සාක්ෂියක් උනන්නේ කවදාද? මේ කාලකන්නි හිඟාකෑම් නොකරන පාලක පංතියක් ලක්මව බිහි කරගන්නේ කවදාද?

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Hambantota, August 10 (Xinhua/HIP): Sri Lanka’s Hambantota International Port (HIP) signed a 58-million-U.S. dollar deal with Maldivian company Sea Horse Yachts on Monday to assemble and export yachts from HIP’s industrial park.

Namal Rajapaksa, minister of youth and sports and state minister of digital technology and enterprise development, told Xinhua that the project would be a stepping stone for bigger investments in the local maritime industry, and for establishing Sri Lanka as a yacht-building nation.

He later tweeted that the project is expected to generate 500 jobs.

Rajapaksa said that the Hambantota Port was fully equipped with all the infrastructure needed to attract investment, and that the government was working on improving the ease of doing business and expanding technical and vocational training for the maritime sector.

The objective of our government is to promote Sri Lanka as a maritime and aviation hub in South Asia focusing on transshipment and manufacturing. This project is a landmark for the Yacht industry and for Yacht manufacturers as Sri Lanka has a rich history in boat building dating back to the times of our kings. Island nations such as Sri Lanka and the Maldives have always built their economies around trade and our proximity to ancient maritime routes which are still used to this day. We look forward to strengthening these and developing them to cater to the needs of a modern world. Ventures such as this will pave the way for the next generation of youth, providing them with the knowledge and the tools to build an entirely new industry and a new era of boat building! I hope it will serve as a catalyst to spark in our youth the entrepreneurial drive to take Sri Lanka to the next level,” Namal Rajapaksa said.

High Commissioner of Maldives to Sri Lanka Omar Abdul Razzak who was at the ceremony said it was noteworthy to mention that according to history, the first connection between Sri Lanka and Maldives made hundreds of years ago was through maritime relations.

 I understand  this new collaboration to build state of the art, modern, luxury, high-speed passenger boats & yachts would have the highest standards, and would use advanced composite materials and innovative technologies in boat building,” he said, adding that this initiative further cements strong trade bonds between the two countries,” Razzak said.

Johnson Liu, CEO of HIPG, speaking at the ceremony, said the Hambantota Port Industrial Park is an international trade zone. We are rapidly moving to diversify HIP’s industrial zone portfolio and at the same time we are widely promoting the location internationally. We have signed with more than 30 investors from across the globe i.e. UK, Singapore, Japan, Sri Lanka, China and now the Maldives. We provide on ground logistical and operational support for these new ventures so that they will be up and running within a short space of time. This is done under our new operational blueprint ‘HIPG Speed’. Our port industrial park team has assisted Sea Horse Yachts to obtain the necessary approvals from BOI, CEA, MEPA & CCD, and we will continue to provide further support, with land levelling, construction and operations etc.”

Sri Lanka Tourism Courtesy The Island

Foreign investment is a key driver of economic growth, as is the revenue generated via tourism. As one of its primary exports, tourism remains Sri Lanka’s calling card to the world. Over the last fifteen months (March 2020-June 2021) the government has attracted over $950 million in investments, dedicated to revitalising the island’s burgeoning tourism sector.

64 project proposals have currently been received and 38 projects, to the value of $102.38 Million, have received approval. These ventures will be executed under the auspices of SLTDA. The level of interest shown by global investors is a positive sign for things to come and indicative of the immense potential inherent to the local tourism sector.

To ensure a faster and more convenient process for all investors, numerous measures have been put in place. Sri Lanka Tourism Chairperson Kimarli Fernando speaking about these initiatives highlighted some of the key policies designed to encourage international investment and expedite the process.

This new era of strategic investment is like nothing the country has seen before and is set to launch Sri Lanka’s tourism sector into a brave new future. We have taken great care to streamline the investment process, so it is more in line with what international investors expect. This includes a master document which merges the requirements of all government agencies into a single easy to use application for investors.” She shared.

By removing previous hurdles, streamlining the entire process for greater efficiency, and ensuring absolute transparency, the government has given investors a clear route. This provides interested parties with the guarantee they need when considering the long-term viability of their investment. SLTDA has also established an Investment Relations Unit (IRU) to expedite the approval of all tourism investments. This provides greater clarity on regulatory issues and allows investors to form a direct partnership with the administrative body.

As Sri Lanka positions itself as the ideal destination for post covid travel, these investments, and the subsequent revenue they generate will empower communities and benefit local economies all across the island.

Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Nearly 150,000 persons have not received their COVID-19 vaccine in the Colombo district, Colombo District Secretary Pradeep Yasaratne said today.

He said a total of 99,373 persons between the age 30 to 59 have forgone their vaccine while about 46,600 elderly above 60 have not taken their vaccine in the Colombo district.

“It has been observed that the majority of peope above 60, who have not got themselves vaccinated are residents of Colombo and Kolonnawa areas,” he underlined.

The District Secretary said the Police have already launched an operation to identify the unvaccinated people and take them to vaccination centres with their consent.

The Health officials have set up a special vaccination center at the Shalika ground to administer vaccine for all unvaccinated people.

According to health authorities, there have been several misconceptions, which discourage people to get vaccinated. 

Courtesy Adaderana

Providing home-based care for COVID-infected children aged above 02 years has commenced, says Dr. Channa De Silva, Consultant Paediatric Chest Physician at Lady Ridgeway Hospital, Colombo.

Accordingly, symptomatic or mildly symptomatic children can also be referred to medical supervision, he added.

Dr. De Silva noted that children who undergo home-based care should not have uncontrolled comorbidities, chronic heart diseases or other medical conditions.

A home-based treatment program was initiated after taking into account the rapid increase in the number of children infected with COVID-19 and it is now being implemented island-wide, he stated further.

According to Dr. De Silva, the children requiring home-based care should have an adult at home for providing caregiver support, as well as proper communication facilities.

Children eligible for this procedure can be given treatment at home in coordination with the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) of the area.

For inquiries in this regard can be obtained from the call centre through the hotline 1390.

Speaking further, Dr. de Silva stated that COVID-19 is a common viral condition in most children and that they recover from the infection the due to natural immunity, adding less than 1% of children with novel coronavirus end up having complications.

He also urged parents to hospitalize children with any COVID-related complication, without delay.

Further. Dr. De Silva cautioned that giving medicines to children without the prescription from a doctor can be harmful.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka’s Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi says that around 95 percent of the country’s population above the age of 30 have received at least a single dose of one of the Covid-19 vaccines. 

The government had recently decided to extend the current Covid vaccination programme to include those below 30 years of age.

Around 3.5 million of the total 21 million population of the country are below 30 and given the current surge of the deadly viral infection, the importance of vaccinating people in the 18-29 age group had been highlighted.

The government had expressed confidence that it can start vaccinating below 30 years of age population by the end of August.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Director General of Health Services has confirmed another 124 coronavirus related deaths for August 10, pushing the country official death toll due to the virus pandemic to 5,464. 

This is reportedly the highest daily count of Covid-19 deaths recorded in the country while this also marks the third consecutive day that the daily count of Covid-19 deaths has exceeded 100. 

Of the Covid-19 deaths confirmed today, 75 are males and 49 are females while one of the victims is below the age of 30.  Twenty-eight are between the ages of 30-59 while the remaining 95 are aged 60 and above. 

Courtesy Adaderana

The Ministry of Health reported that another 736 persons have tested positive for Covid-19 today, increasing the daily count of new cases to 2,890.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country thus far to 341,982.

Over 36,000 infected patients are currently being treated for the virus while total recoveries has crossed the 300,000-mark in Sri Lanka. 

The death toll due to Covid-19 in island has climbed to 5,464.

Courtesy Hiru News

A meeting to obtain the proposals of the backbenchers for the 2022 budget was held under the patronage of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees today (11).<

At this meeting organized by the Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa, suggestions were obtained from the backbenchers on the work to be done for the development of the country at the rural, divisional, and district levels.

It is stated that the backbenchers have been made aware of the measures to be taken to strengthen the national economy through these activities

Backbenchers representing various sectors including the development of local organic agriculture, increase of export production, the contribution of rural people to industries and services sector and upliftment of traditional industrialists, upliftment of tourism sector, extensive development of fisheries sector, upliftment of floriculture growers and animal farming sector, have presented their proposals.

The Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, as the President and as well as the Finance Minister at that time, had taken steps to seek the views of various sections of the country in preparing the budget proposals.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa stated that since it has shown successful progress, the views of various sectors will be sought in preparing the budget this time.

The prevailing COVID situation has also been discussed during the session.

Meanwhile, reports are being published regarding a cabinet reshuffle.

Hiru News team inquired about this from several major parties representing the government.

They stated that such a discussion was taking place and that no final position or date had been announced yet.

Courtesy Hiru News

State Minister of Agriculture Shasheendra Rajapaksa states that permission was not granted to import carbonic compost fertilizer.

he State Minister was responding to a statement made by Co-Cabinet Spokesman Ramesh Pathirana that the Cabinet had approved the importation of carbonic fertilizer following procurement methods

Courtesy Hiru News

Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) has organized a mobile vaccination program for citizens who are immobile and or bedridden and cannot go to a vaccination centre.

Any citizen of Colombo who is residing in Colombo 1-15 and in need of this special service, can register for the service.

To request vaccination, please email with name of the person to be vaccinated, National Identity Card (NIC) number, Address, mobile number and the reason to request the service in brief.

CMC will SMS a slot with a date and a time frame to the mobile number provided.For more information, please visit https://www.colombo.mc.gov.lk/“COLOMBO MUNICIPAL COUNCIL.

Courtesy Hiru News

It has been revealed that there is a discrepancy in the statistics on COVID infections in the Gampaha District and the Eastern Province.

The Gampaha district has the second-highest number of infected persons in the country with 58,943 cases.

Against this backdrop, the Gampaha District COVID Control  Committee met at the Gampaha District Secretariat yesterday to find a solution to the increasing COVID risk in the district.

Observation of the data presented by the Gampaha District Health Director’s Office revealed that there was a discrepancy between the identification and reporting of infected persons in the district.

According to the data released by the COVID Task Force to the daily media, only 3,729 cases have been reported in those 8 days whereas, in the first eight days of August, 12,555 cases have been reported

Accordingly, 8,826 cases have not been reported to the Epidemiology Unit.

In addition to the Gampaha District, there is a discrepancy in the statistics of COVID infections in the Eastern Province as well, according to data presented by the Eastern Provincial Director of Health Services