Day: 30 May 2016

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has decided to back powers of an Executive President as with its proposals on Constitutional Reforms. SLFP heavyweights yesterday, said the SLFP Committee appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena to present proposals for Constitutional Reforms has declared its party line opinion would be so. The party will support the Executive Presidency and also a broader delegation of powers to Provincial Councils. SLFP senior and Minister S.B. Dissanayake yesterday said the SLFP presented 10 party-line proposals on Constitutional Reforms to Parliament and they have been accepted.…

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The European Union (EU), in close consultation with the Government, is currently in the process of revising its development strategy for Sri Lanka, a Sri Lanka – EU joint statement said today. The joint statement said that the Working Group on Cooperation under the framework of the European Union-Sri Lanka Joint Commission concluded its meeting in Colombo today. The meeting was held in a positive, open and constructive atmosphere. It was co-chaired by Jorge de la Caballeria, Head of Unit for South Asia and South East Asia – Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development of…

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The opposition today questioned the failure by the Attorney General ‘s (AG) department to look into over 8000 files piled up at the department. Former Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera said the failure to look into over 8000 files means the complaints of the public are not being investigated. He said that some files have been at the AG’s department for years and yet there is no one to raise a voice over this issue. Gunasekera said the President and Parliament have failed to take note of the issue and obtain a solution…

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astern Province Chief Minister Nazeer Ahamed should now be every chief minister’s envy. They hardly make news even when they try their personal best, perhaps except C.V. Wigneshwaran, the Northern CM  for his own antics. CM Ahamed overnight broke ranks with that obscure lot to place himself at the centre of the news cycle. He is now by far the chief minister with the most YouTube views in his name after a video of him insulting a Naval officer at an official function at a school in Sampur went viral.…

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ECONOMYNEXT – Victims of Sri Lanka’s recent floods and landslides had been repeatedly affected by previous natural disasters and were now highly indebted with insecure livelihoods, a survey by the Ministry of Disaster Management has found. The May 2016 floods and landslide have caused the highest displacements, wide spread damage to productive assets, and losses to livelihoods and agricultural and livestock production, it said in an assessment of Colombo, Gampaha and Kegalle, the worst affected districts. Over 90% of these populations had been hard-hit by the recurrent natural disasters during…

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By Shamindra Ferdinando In the wake of a spate of arrests of former senior members of the LTTE, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has issued specific directives in respect of detaining persons under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). HRCSL spokesman attorney-at-law Saliya Peiris yesterday told The Island that directives had been issued following concerns expressed by some persons. Responding to a query, Peiris emphasized that their intervention wasn’t in any way meant to impede ongoing investigations. The government has assured Western powers that the Prevention of…

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The welfare of working people is sine qua non for economic and social development of societies. More than a quarter century of civil war in Jaffna (1983-2009) has destroyed several institutions that are the lifeblood of economic and social well-being of democratic societies. The vanguard institutions of labour such as collective bargaining through labour associations/unions, labour departments (government regulator), and indeed labour standards have been dissipated in the name of ‘national liberation’ and ‘national security’. These institutions have been subsumed into the overarching imperatives of Tamil nationalism, Tamil national liberation…

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Decision conveyed to senior Army  officers, details soon, but TNA unhappy Geneva Resolution watered down Armed services to return more private lands to civilians, high-powered Office of Missing Persons to be set up Government to raise funds through international bonds, under interest-free Islamic banking system The United National Front Government’s final position on the UN mandated probe on allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka was spelt out on Thursday by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. He told senior Army officers that the judicial mechanism would be made up entirely of Sri Lankan judges,…

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