The Minister of Transport and Highways, Bandula Gunawardene, has announced that permission will be granted for individuals to carry out trade activities on the sides of roads in all parts of the island during the upcoming New Year festive season.

Speaking at an event in Galle, Minister Gunawardene stated that producers will be allowed to sell their goods on the sides of roads temporarily, from April 1 to April 12. Previously, such special locations were reserved for selling garment items in several places, including Maharagama city.

The minister emphasized that this permission will be extended to producers who are temporarily engaged in self-employment to sell their products directly to consumers in the same way in other parts of the country until the end of the festival season.

He further stated that manufacturers are temporarily entitled to this permission to sell their products on the sides of roads without making permanent constructions in specific areas with the approval and supervision of the Divisional Secretary of the respective area.

This move is expected to provide relief for local producers who have been struggling due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also offer an opportunity for consumers to purchase goods at affordable prices during the festive season.

The minister added that this decision was made in accordance with the government’s policy of promoting and supporting local businesses and entrepreneurs.

The announcement has been welcomed by the public, particularly those engaged in self-employment, as it provides a much-needed opportunity for them to increase their income during the festive season.

The Ministry of Transport and Highways has assured the public that all necessary measures will be taken to ensure the safety and security of traders and consumers during the New Year festive season.

The Ministry of Education announced that the first school term for the 2023 academic year will begin on Monday, March 27. All government and government-approved private schools are expected to commence the new academic year tomorrow.

The first school term for 2023 will continue until April 04, according to the Education Ministry. This will be followed by the Sinhala and Tamil New Year holiday, which will be observed from April 05 to April 16.

Students, teachers, and parents have eagerly awaited the start of the new school term, which marks the beginning of a new academic year. With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, many are hoping for a safe and successful school year with the implementation of strict health guidelines.

The Ministry of Education has reminded all students and teachers to adhere to the health and safety protocols to minimize the risk of infection. Schools have been instructed to implement strict measures such as mandatory mask-wearing, frequent handwashing, and social distancing to ensure a safe learning environment.

As the academic year begins, the Education Ministry encourages students to focus on their studies and to take advantage of the resources available to them. With hard work and dedication, they can achieve their academic goals and succeed in their future careers.

In response to the President’s speech on the IMF agreement, Dr. Harsha de Silva, an opposition MP, expressed relief that the government had obtained the approval of the IMF Board for the USD 3 billion facility. Dr. de Silva commended the President for convincing his majority SLPP government on the IMF program, who until recently had been opposed to it.

However, Dr. de Silva stated that the only political party that tabled their own plan out of the crisis was the SJB, which contained a detailed plan on how to come out of bankruptcy and set the stage for sustained growth. He criticized the highest marginal tax rate of 36% being applied at Rs 300,000 a month and called for massive economic reforms to increase government revenue from 8.5% to 15% of GDP.

Dr. de Silva noted that the IMF agreement was only a stabilization program and not a roadmap to develop the country. He urged extensive discussions on critical issues, including domestic debt restructuring and the impact of the economic crisis on low-income households.

In particular, he highlighted the issue of electricity tariffs, which have increased by over 1,100% in a short span of time for the bottom 25% of consumers. He suggested that the government should provide subsidies to those who need them, while the Electricity Board focuses on becoming profitable. He insisted Sri Lanka adopt a mechanism of targeted subsidies.

Dr. de Silva concluded by expressing his general agreement with Sri Lanka’s IMF program but urged further discussion to resolve the contentious issues. He emphasized the need to move away from traditional politics that advocate for providing subsidies to all or going on strike and suggested that Sri Lanka adopt a mechanism of targeted subsidies.

The Embassy and Permanent Mission together with Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and Sri Lanka Tea Board organised a destination promotion to commemorate 75th Anniversary of Independence of Sri Lanka at the high-end Wien Mitte Mall recently.

The promotion campaign showcased Sri Lanka as a tourism destination to the Viennese public.

The said event also featured Sri Lankan Dance by Sri Lanka’s world-renowned Channa-Upuli Performing Arts Foundation captivating the audience and visitors, who had an opportunity to join the dance during the performance.

The wheel of fortune which entailed questions on Sri Lanka gave the audience a chance to familiarise themselves with the destination. Several giveaways with the branding “So Sri Lanka”, promotional items, Sri Lankan biscuits, as well as Stassen tea were given to the winners. The grand prize of a 5-night/6-day stay including local transportation offered by the prestigious Aitken Spence hotel chain, was part of the raffle draw. 

Visitors and potential travellers at the high-end mall had the opportunity to better understand the resplendent island. 

The event also promoted the world-famous Ceylon Tea by Stassen which was served alongside traditional gnanakatha cookies to a large number of visitors. The consumer event positioned and branded Sri Lanka as a leading tourist destination, having provided potential travellers with an opportunity to get a glimpse of Sri Lanka’s wide-ranging tourist attractions in the heart of Vienna.

DAILY FT

1. President Ranil Wickremesinghe advises to appoint an expert committee to plan progress of the sports field and its future; pays attention to the development of the Mahinda Rajapaksa Sports Complex in Diyagama as a Sports University: Steps to collect 100 of the best athletes to represent each sports event and provide them with the necessary facilities and training.
2. Finance State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya provides reassurance that steps are being taken to ensure that salaries, pensions and benefits, including ‘Samurdhi,’ of public servants will be paid before April 10, 2023; reveals the decision was made with consideration for the upcoming Festive season.
3. SJB MP Dr. Harsha De Silva says he is relieved that the President has convinced his majority SLPP government on the IMF bailout who until recently was totally opposed to it; stresses the SJB was the only political party that tabled their own plan out of the crisis; assures the SJB economic plan “Blueprint” first tabled in August 2022 has an updated version in February 2023 and provides a detailed plan on how to come out of bankruptcy; Silva was previously a strong advocate on the April 14, 2022 sovereign debt default which officially declared Sri Lanka a ‘bankrupt’ nation.
4. Police arrest a man for hooting Minister Bandula Gunawardena who was attending a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for a Buddhist shrine near the Pitipana Junction in Homagama – Suspect to be produced before Court for obstructing a religious ceremony.
5. Chief of the President’s Staff and Senior Advisor to the President on National Security Sagala Ratnayake says the government has no intention of dissolving the Civil Service Department (CSD); reminds the CSD was approved as a depreciable service according to the 2015 Cabinet paper, but that period has now lapsed; assures the members of the CSD are allowed to request a service extension beyond the age of 55, enabling them to serve up to 60 years.
6. Senior Counsel Kaushalya Navaratne takes office as the 27th President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL); assures he will take steps to continue the future activities of the BASL independently, away from party politics: critics claim unlike predecessor Peiris PC, Navaratne holds a politically biased record.
7. Election Commission says it requested a meeting with Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena to address the challenges against the holding of the LG Polls: Gunwardena previously said in Parliament that he wishes to call in the Commission to address the issue.
8. IGP C.D. Wickramaratne granted a 3-month service extension through an order issued by the President: Wickramaratne was to retire from the post on March 23, 2023: Early reports on SDIG Deshabandu Tennakoon, a top police official with a controversial record, being appointed as the IGP remain unconfirmed.
9. The ‘Stain Studios in Sri Lanka,’ one of South Asia’s largest studio complexes, dedicated to legendary Filmmaker and Actor Gamini Fonseka: The studio rechristened ‘The Gamini Fonseka Studio.’
10. Indian Cricket news aggregator ‘Cricbuzz’ reports the Indian Cricket Board is contemplating having another short home series in June either against Afghanistan or Sri Lanka; options are being explored to see if a three-match ODI series against SL or AFGH in the second half of June 2023, more precisely after the World Test Championship final.

A special program was held by the President’s Media Division (PMD) to celebrate the birthday of President Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday afternoon (24). The event was organized for resident disabled war heroes at the Attidiya ‘Mihindu Seth Madura’.

Mihindu Seth Madura is a residential care facility that offers ongoing care, attention, and support to war veterans with special needs due to debilitating injuries.
Minister of State for Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon and Senior Adviser to the President on National Security and Chief of Presidential Staff Mr Sagala Ratnayake were present at the event and inquired about the well-being of the war heroes.

Director General of the President’s media Division Mr. Dhanushka Ramanayake, along with Media Directors Mr Shanuka Karunaratne and Mr Meesha Gunawardena, as well as Senior Assistant Secretary to the President Mr. Sudheera Nilanga Vithana, Deputy Directors, senior and other staff members inquired about the wellbeing of the war heroes and presented gifts to them.

The group also personally interacted with the war heroes and offered their assistance. A war hero was also provided an opportunity upon his request, to contact President Ranil Wickremesinghe on his mobile phone to offer his birthday greetings to the President.

This occasion was also attended by Chief of Defence Staff General Shavendra Silva, Army Commander Lieutenant General Vikum Liyanage, Army Rehabilitation Director Brigadier Shiron Ekanayake, and Commandant, ‘Mihindu Seth Medura’ Brigadier T.S Balasooriya.

Senior lawyer Kaushalya Navaratne took office as the 27th President of the Sri Lanka Bar Association yesterday (25).

He was recently elected as the President of the Sri Lanka Bar Association for the year 2023-2024 without polling. That was because he was the only one nominated for the post of chairman.

Kaushalya Navaratne, starting work in his position yesterday, stated that he will take steps to continue the future activities of the Bar Association independently, away from party politics.

(Colombo, Sri Lanka): The Government of Japan provided USD 1.6 million to UN Women in support of humanitarian assistance for women most affected by the socio-economic crisis in Sri Lanka. The funding is part of a new project “Empowering women in crisis”, running from February 2023 to December 2023, which will support at least 1,200 women, including their children who have faced sexual and gender-based violence. It will further support 500 women-led micro-enterprises at risk of collapse and over 2,000 individuals at risk of poverty and malnutrition.

H.E. MIZUKOSHI Hideaki, Ambassador of Japan to Sri Lanka, stressed: “Our goal is to ensure that women and girls who are most vulnerable to the ongoing crisis are not left behind in response and recovery efforts, and to ensure that their safety and security are prioritized during this time.”

As reports on the ground reflect a continuing increase in cases of sexual and gender-based violence, the ongoing crisis and economic instability have hindered access to state services such as safe houses and shelters resulting in devastating implications for women and girls.

Through this project, UN Women will provide safe houses with continued access to commodities including food and other essential items. Additionally, it will ensure that shelters and safe houses where facilities were improved and refurbished continue to function rather than face closure due to inadequate funding and support. This will ensure that more safe houses are available for women and girls fleeing abusive circumstances.

Moreover, due to a lack of access to viable employment opportunities and soaring food inflation, there is an urgent need to ensure that households – particularly those already vulnerable and marginalized – have access to basic food and necessities to support their survival.

“We are grateful for the contribution provided by the Government of Japan to address the urgent needs of women and girls”, said Prashani Dias, Head of Office a.i. at UN Women Sri Lanka. “This will provide income-generating resources and life-saving support to vulnerable women, and ensure that the status of women and girls in the country does not regress further”.

To support these efforts, this project will work with women-led enterprises to strengthen their business resilience and livelihoods through the provision of in-kind support and business development trainings, in the districts of Ampara, Colombo, Monaragala, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu.

AHRC: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Fund Facility has approved a fund to assist Sri Lanka at this time of terrible economic crisis. While there are many things to talk about that issue, we wish at the very beginning to highlight what we think is the most important issue that should be brought to the notice of the people on this matter. 

The IMF has strongly recommended, in fact, has made it one of its key demands, that the corruption in the country has to be brought under control or to eliminate it as a condition of this loan. 

That is quite understandable, because otherwise, this money will also land where other monies have landed in the past, to benefit most ‘individuals’, rather than the country. The IMF recommends that for this purpose of the elimination of corruption, very comprehensive laws should be passed in Sri Lanka regarding the elimination of corruption. 

However, at the very start, we wish to highlight that the mere passing of a law as the IMF suggests is wholly inadequate to deal with this objective of the elimination of corruption in Sri Lanka. Sometimes, the experts from Western countries may think that once a law is passed, it will get automatically implemented. 

That is not the case in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has had a very developed system of law, and at the same time, it has also in recent times brought in some very progressive international laws under the pressure of international agencies. However, the problem in Sri Lanka is that while the law exists, the law is not enforced.  The Executive can be very comfortable in passing any legislation, if they have the adequate majority to do that in the Parliament, because that will remain just in a book and nothing else will happen. 

Examples are many.  For example, Sri Lanka, passed the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel. Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Act, No. 22 of 1994, which is one of the most remarkably developed laws when compared with international laws. Similar laws have been passed in other matters, like children’s rights, women’s rights, and even on issues like poverty alleviation and many other matters. 

They are all good looking laws, which are, as you know, never touched and never implemented.  The reason is that Sri Lanka’s crisis is essentially a crisis of law enforcement, not the lack of laws. Law enforcement is understood more like the use of violence and you know, direct punishments, rather than the enforcement of the law, through a proper system of a functioning policing system. 

The Policing system has been seriously criticised even by the Supreme Court (SC), including in a very recent case where the SC said that “the Sri Lankan Police has ceased to be a professional force.” It was referring to a case of ‘extra-judicial killings’, and the Court noted that it is a very frequent practice, despite many reminders by even the SC, and the Police authorities including the Inspector General of Police (IGP), having done almost nothing to improve this situation.  In fact, the situation is deteriorating. If you ask the Police, unofficially, they will say, ‘this is not due to their fault, it is because of external forces, particularly politicians who interfere with their work, and that if they in fact do serious work, they get punished.” 

And, there are glaring examples of very ‘credible work’, done by some very competent investigators, into some very serious crimes and the result has been that they have been taken out of their jobs, while some had to flee from the country, and others had to remain, go to even jail for some time, and now await trials which are kept on being postponed, the latter which is also a way of punishment in Sri Lanka.  To put a ‘faults case’, and then keep on postponing for years and years so that the officer loses his/her job during that time, while his/her family and himself/herself, suffer for many years for nothing is the norm. And, that is a way that the law enforcement officers serious about their jobs are being treated. 

The obstacles to investigations into allegations of corruption maybe summed up as follows:

The failures in the investigations into corruption in its various forms, are due to many factors. Some important factors are as follows: 

1. A lack of a clear policy of the State to require strict investigations into all complaints regarding crimes related to corruption. In fact, the existing policy is to discourage such investigations on the basis of many considerations which favour those who engage in such crimes. 

2. The lack of trained Police investigators into crimes in general, but most specifically, into crimes relating to financial and other forms of corruption.  Investigations into crimes other than those committed by those who are called ordinary criminals has been very rare, as a result of which, the experience processed by the law enforcement agencies into such corruption is very limited. Thus, without a considerable effort to improve the quality of the investigations into corruption related crimes, it is very unlikely that the IMF recommendations on this matter will be practically put into effect. 

3. The resources that are needed for investigations into financial and other crimes are also not available to the investigation agencies. The development in this area of more technologically based investigations has been very negligible. Besides, such investigations require equipment in order to conduct such inquiries thoroughly and also to preserve evidence, and this is hardly available to the investigating agencies. 

4. Perhaps the most disheartening aspect on this matter is the absence of protection for independent and committed investigators. There are highly publicised cases of such investigators being punished without any basis and some having had to flee the country as a result of serious death threats. Thus, the professional environment that is needed for the proper performance of their functions is virtually absent.

5. Direct political interferences into investigations into crimes related to corruption.  The laws relating to interference or the obstruction of justice is hardly being enforced. 

6. There are public attacks, directly or indirectly led by the Executive on oversight mechanisms such as the Auditor General’s Department, the Judiciary itself and other agencies such as the National Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka which have the legal obligations to oversee the prevention of corruption.

7. There are heavy attacks on the media which seriously pursue information relating to corruption and constantly call for investigations. This has created a very serious setback to the work of the media. Meanwhile, cultivating a politically biased section of the media which pursues the critics and creates baseless propaganda campaigns against those who are demanding investigations into corruption is also a negative factor. 

8. The cultivation of underground elements to engage in physical attacks and even make death threats and sometimes commit extra-judicial killings against those who make complaints of corruption or those who in various ways engage in anti-corruption work also creates a climate of fear affecting proper investigations into allegations of corruption. 

So, there is a glaring problem of the collapse of the system of law enforcement.  And, a test can be seen within the coming days, concerning who will be selected for the IGP position. Will it be a person committed to reforming the policing system, to enforce the rule of law strictly and bring it to the respectable institution that it once was? Or, will it be another self serving officer who will serve ‘political masters’?  Now, that is the kind of issue that the IMF loan will be faced with soon. 

It is not only in the policing that there is a problem, as in other law enforcement agencies for example like the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, they face the same problem.  In countries where there is successful law enforcement regarding corruption, one of the first steps is to eliminate all police officers from the ‘investigative functions’ in the Commission. The Commission develops its own ‘professional staff’, as investigators, who will work independently for the Commission.  Like for example, the Independent Commission Against Corruption in Hong Kong, one of the most effective corruption control agencies. 

Now, will the Government and will the Executive, be willing to enforce that kind of a system in order to ensure that corruption is eliminated.  The IMF will be able to find the answer very soon. 

It is time for the people, the Parliament, and also the IMF itself, to examine this question now itself.  ‘What is the capacity of Sri Lanka to enforce good law enforcement related laws once they are passed’?. 

The enforcement aspect should be addressed within the law itself and of course, the resources should be made available for effective implementation. Otherwise, very soon, it will be discovered that the recommendations that were given by the IMF on this occasion, have not borne any fruit, in the same way that the earlier pronouncement about corruption elimination has also borne no fruit.