The Sri Lankan Rupee has witnessed a depreciation against the US Dollar at commercial banks in Sri Lanka today, August 07, compared to last week’s rates.

At Peoples Bank, the buying rate of the US Dollar has risen from Rs. 311.42 to Rs. 312.39, and the selling rate has increased from Rs. 326.74 to Rs. 327.76.

Commercial Bank has also experienced an upward trend, with the buying rate of the US Dollar climbing from Rs. 309.78 to Rs. 312.75, while the selling rate has gone up from Rs. 325 to Rs. 328.

Similarly, at Sampath Bank, the buying rate of the US Dollar has surged from Rs. 313 to Rs. 316, and the selling rate has elevated from Rs. 325 to Rs. 328.

This recent fluctuation in exchange rates may have implications for foreign trade and the overall economy, warranting close monitoring by relevant authorities.

By: Staff Writer

Colombo (LNW): As per a report of the National Audit Office (NAO), the total losses incurred by the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) between 2017 – 2022 amounted to Rs. 42.81 billion.

Accordingly, the report indicated that the airport’s operating costs for the year 2022 amounted to Rs. 2.03 billion, which is, in fact, 26 times higher than its income. The airport had meanwhile incurred a loss to the tune of Rs. 22.21 billion last year.

Furthermore, while a rough estimate of one million passengers were expected at the MRIA annually, the NAO report revealed that only a total of 11,577 passengers had travelled through the Mattala Airport last year, while only 103,324 passengers have travelled via MRIA between 2017 and 2022.

The project to initially develop the MRIA costed Rs. 36.56 billion, while Rs. 19 billion had been obtained in foreign loans for the project.

It was further stressed that the MRIA was, in fact a project initiated by the government, and not one which was decided by the Airport and Aviation Services Sri Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.

The latest report issued by the National Audit Office states that the operational cost of Mattala International Airport has exceeded 2 billion rupees, but that cost is about twenty times more than the income.

The report also shows that the amount of more than 36.56 billion rupees spent for the construction of this airport has not been used effectively.

Mattala Airport’s net loss after tax in 2021 was 4 billion rupees and the net loss after tax from 2017 to 2021 is more than 2 billion rupees, according to the heads of the audit department.

The audit report states that although the expected annual passenger capacity of the airport is one million, only 91,747 passengers have arrived in the last five years and only 2,396 flights have taken place in the airport in the last five years.

It further states that the company had paid more than 2.6 billion rupees as annual loan installment including interest for the loan of 190 million US dollars taken for the construction of the airport.

The International Airport was opened for operations on 18 March 2013. The Airports and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Company Ltd. is in charge of its operations

Meanwhile NAO reports also revealed that the Batticaloa International Airport (BIA), which was opened in March 2018, has totaled an operating cost of Rs. 86 million over the past five years, however has failed to generate any income.

Ground handling is a critical activity at an airport and acts as an interface between the airport and the airlines. It manages the efficiency and ease of flow at the airport.

Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd (AASL+ ground handling service at Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) was launched by providing its ground handling services to domestic airlines with incoming passengers.

In a significant move, the Water Supply and Drainage Board has decided to provide complimentary water connections to every school in the region. The initiative, as outlined by Piyal Padmanatha, the Deputy General Manager of the board, aims to prioritize schools located in areas with sufficient water availability.

In addition to this program for schools, the Water Supply and Drainage Board has taken proactive steps to offer free water connections to selected low-income families, demonstrating the board’s commitment to ensuring access to clean water for all communities.

The authorities have decided to lift the movement restrictions that were imposed within the Vavuniya Prison due to the outbreak of measles. The Department of Prisons implemented these measures as a precautionary response after an inmate and a prison officer were diagnosed with the disease.

The restrictions, which were in effect for two weeks starting from July 25, are set to end today, August 07. The decision came following assurances from the Vavuniya Regional Epidemiology Unit that the prison premises now provide a suitable environment to reopen for movements.

The Prisons Department confirmed that normal daily activities in the prison are expected to resume from tomorrow, August 08, as per the advice of the Regional Epidemiology Unit.

In the meantime, during a press conference in Colombo, Sudesh Nandimal, the Chief Secretary of the Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners, highlighted the difficulties faced by inmates due to issues in the supply process of food and medicine in prisons across the country.

1. As per CB data, Govt Revenue in the first 5 months of 2023 compared to that of 2022, increases by 38% to Rs.1,120 bn from Rs.813 bn: however, Expenditure and Net Lending also increases by 47% to Rs. 2,130 bn in the first 5 months of 2023, from Rs.1,450 bn in 2022: accordingly, budget deficit in the first 5 months, increases by a staggering 59%, from Rs.637 bn to Rs.1,010 bn, notwithstanding massive increases in tax rates.
2. Angry borrowers denounce aggression by commercial banks to execute “Parate action” while the borrowers are experiencing the worst continuous contraction in the economy: allege that “parate actions” by banks are being made public without proper prior notice and in some cases amidst negotiations for revised settlement plans: some newspapers carry 15 to 25 Parate action “advertisements” by banks daily.
3. Tea Board Chairman Niraj de Mel reveals that Sri Lanka is hopeful of starting tea exports to Iran under the barter deal from this month onwards, with formalities to operationalise the arrangement reaching completion.
4. Education Minister Susil Premajayantha says school term tests from Grade 1 and above will be conducted only once an year, commencing from 2024.
5. Several high level public administration officials say the Govt will hold back some of the structural reforms agreed with the IMF under its economic reform programme, due to lack of political & public support: some Revenue administration reforms and expenditure rationalisation measures to compress the public sector wage bill and public pensions, are feared to create social unrest: sources also say the Govt will be compelled to hold back these reforms at a time of impending elections.
6. The Ministry of Ports decides to reconstruct the Talaimannar pier to facilitate passengers from Rameswaram, India, in a bid to improve people-to-people ties with India, at a cost of Rs.1.8 bn: the Ministry also says nearly 10 acres of state-owned land bordering the pier will be acquired for the development of the relevant infrastructure.
7. Consumer Affairs Authority raids a warehouse in Wattala, leading to the seizure of a large stock of rations and canned food valued at over Rs.500 mn, deemed unfit for human consumption.
8. Public Utilities Commission rejects the CEB request for a fresh electricity tariff hike: the CEB had sought the tariff hike on the grounds that it is estimated to lose around Rs.33 bn by the end of this year owing to the tariff reduction approved by the PUC for the 2nd half of 2023.
9. Top batter Kusal Janith Perera returns to the ODI side for the Asia Cricket Cup tournament, after more than 2 years: Angelo Mathews and Chamika Karunaratne left out: squad to include left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage.
10. A team headed by the Chief of the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit, Alex Marshall arrives in Sri Lanka: expected to meet with officials of Sri Lanka Cricket in the coming days.

There was chatter and a lot of activity all around Kaliperumal when his boat left the shores of Ceylon early one morning in 1966. As the passengers settled down and the boat headed north toward the horizon, talk became sparse.

Occasionally, a child posed a question, loud and clear over the constant rumble of the waves. The responses were brief and often monosyllabic. Kaliperumal, then 11, and the other children, were curious to know what was in store for them when they reached their destination.

The adults, too, wore curious and worried looks. They have received promises of a better life in a land where they had their roots. Yet the land was foreign to them, far away from their familiar plantations.

Kaliperumal was both excited and worried. But somewhere deep down in his mind, he knew something was amiss, he would recall decades later.

Several such boats had left the shores of Ceylon since the then Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri signed an agreement with his counterpart in the island nation, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, in October 1964, to take back the “estate Tamilians”.

DS Senanayake, the first Ceylonese prime minister had stripped the estate Tamilians of their citizenship in 1949, a year after the country gained independence from the British. Successive governments tried to remove them from the country, culminating in two pacts between Ceylon — now Sri Lanka — and India: One in 1964 and the second, 10 years later with Indira Gandhi.

The two countries agreed that estate Tamils would go to India over 15 years. Kaliperumal and his family were among those Tamils, forced to cross the Palk Straits, the same waters between Tamil Nadu and Jaffna, that their predecessors had crossed in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The British had then taken them to work at the tea, cardamom and coffee estates in the central province of the island, also known as the teardrop of India.

A new identity

A few days later at a camp in Tamil Nadu, Kaliperumal and others hit the road. They travelled further north, across the plains and crossed the state where they once had their roots. Kaliperumal felt the landscape looked similar to that back home as he had the first glimpse of the mountains in Kerala.

They were taken to Gavi, a little-known place deep in the forests, then in the Idukki district. The estate Tamils were asked to clear the forest, dense and deep, and to engage in cardamom farming. Left with no other option, they relented. After all, it was something they knew.

Life was not easy for them, They braved wild animals, inclement weather, and frequent jungle diseases. The moist land and climate, however, was suitable for cardamom. The plants flourished, the clusters of leaves sheathing the flowers and pods that grew close to the earth, sometimes even hugging the land.

The estate Tamils, too, adapted to the new environment, and like cardamom pods, they also became close to the new land. Yet, they were now considered as one section of Keralites. They were given a new identity — the Sri Lankan-Tamil settlers.

They remained cloistered in the forest, aloof from the mainstream society. Even after Gavi became a part of the newly carved out district Pathanamthitta in 1982, it remained relatively unknown until a Malayalam movie, Ordinary, hit the screens in 2012.

Alien in God’s Own Country

As she inches close to the retirement age of 58, storekeeper Stella Rajeswaran at the defunct cardamom plantation of the Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC) in the now-popular Gavi forests has reason to believe that her gods have stopped smiling.

As the estate lacks any agricultural income and faces accumulating losses, she and her four-member family depended solely on the small earnings as casual workers for the KFDC’s ongoing ecotourism initiative in Gavi.

Her husband Rajeswaran, already retired, also forms part of the ecotourism project as a driver.

The three children who completed their graduation from faraway colleges feel directionless in the face of the inability of the family to support their continuing education.

“I will retire in another few months, and then we have to vacate the estate quarters allotted to us. Then there would be no land for us to relocate,” said Stella, whose forefathers were taken from southern Tamil Nadu by the Britishers to Sri Lanka, then Ceylon.

“We are quickly realising that we are landless, and our children cannot even get educational loans in the absence of any collateral,” she told South First.

Also read: NYT puts another feather in Kerala’s cap

Over time

Along with the many pristine forests of South India, Gavi, which forms a crucial part of the present-day Periyar Tiger Reserve, was opened up to create a cardamom estate under the KFDC. It was created exclusively to rehabilitate families from Sri Lanka.

“Back then, each evicted family was provided ₹20,000 as cash compensation. We pledged everything, including that compensation amount, with the KFDC to get placement in Gavi and four other estates of KFDC,” Rajeswaran said.

“In all these years, we earned nothing but neglect. The company started accumulating losses due to mismanagement. Often, the employees were blamed for the losses. Our children and we had a near-animal existence inside these forests, thanks to adverse weather conditions, and especially because there is no school, hospital, phone access, and other basic facilities even now,” he told South First.

For a full day’s work with the tourism project, a person is paid ₹450. Other than the living quarters, which have not seen any repairs for over three decades, the families get no assistance from the authorities.

Those who studied in faraway colleges using the meagre savings of their parents now feel the going is tough as the families do not have much to invest in them.

Achu Rameswaran, who landed in Gavi from Sri Lanka at the age of one, is also directionless about the future. He is now 47.

“Once we vacate these houses, we have no land or other means of survival. The rehabilitation proposals from the state government are very meagre. But there are moves to merge Gavi with the surrounding forests, so the authorities are keen on removing human presence here. We are ready to move out, but rehabilitation holds the key,” he said.

Also read: Pristine Gavi soon turns 3rd tiger reserve for Kerala

Ground reality

It has been half a century since the Gavi settlement was created for Tamil repatriates from Sri Lanka.

Almost half the families have left the forests, searching for alternative means of survival in different parts of Tamil Nadu. There are hardly 183 families left, spread across the Gavi, Meenar, and Pamba estates of the KFDC.

As there is no cardamom production, these families have temporarily been assigned jobs under the ecotourism facility, which includes boating, safari rides, trekking, and jungle camping.

Though the quarters of the beneficiaries are in disrepair, giving rise to questions of safety, the KFDC has rooms, tents, and log houses to accommodate tourists who arrive either through Ranni in Pathanamthitta or Thekkady in Idukki.

According to the KFDC officials, the older generation is hesitant and nostalgic about the proposal to vacate Gavi; the youngsters prefer an early escape from the inadequate facilities in Gavi.

Kaliperumal, who crossed the Palk Strait as an 11-year-old boy, is now 68, He spent almost his whole life working on the plantation. The excited anticipation of the little boy to experience the new evaporated long ago. He now has only one wish.

“I prefer die here, where I gained nothing, but experienced a lot,” he told South First.

Also read: Andhra’s oil palm farmers are battling a triple threat

The younger generation

The situation in the KFDC’s other repatriated Tamils’ rehabilitation projects — like those in Kulathupuzha and Arippa in Thiruvananthapuram, Thavinjal in Wayanad, and Nelliyampathy in Palakkad — is almost the same.

In all these locations, those who found permanent plantation jobs upon arrival from Sri Lanka would retire without land ownership or other privileges in the coming years. They would get meagre retirement benefits.

In most cases, the younger generation has worked as temporary hands.

Since they are located far from towns and villages, the children of these plantation workers have been unable to get a proper education.

Once their parents retire, these temporary hands must vacate the housing lines and leave the plantations.

“I have been allotted land at Angamoozhy in Pathanamthitta under the state government’s LIFE Mission housing programme,” said 43-year-old Manikandan.

“However, my employment prospects are limited there, in the rubber-dominant interiors of Pathanamthitta district, and I will have to travel over 60 km daily through forests to work at the cardamom plantations in Idukki,” he explained his travails.

Also Read: Munnar, and a century-old flood that devastated it

Authorities confused

The KFDC officials, too, appeared confused over the future of Gavi, with the lease period of the plantation set to expire by 2025. Privately, they confided that the rehabilitation amount promised is meagre.

Prakriti Srivastava, a senior forest officer who retired on 31 July as the state special officer for the Rebuild Kerala Initiative (RKI), said as many as 601 non-tribal families living in settlements inside the forests had been relocated under the “Navakiranam” voluntary relocation scheme implemented by the Kerala Forest Department so far.

She said as many as 894 more families would be shifted under the scheme, including those from Gavi.

The state government announced the project in 2019 to relocate people facing attacks from wild animals and landslide threats in isolated forest areas. As per the scheme, a couple owning up to two hectares of land with title deeds will get ₹15 lakh as compensation.

She said as a special case, KFDC employees who lack land or title deeds would get special consideration under the project.

“The scheme is compensating people as units. A family will constitute three or more units under the scheme. Each unmarried adult above 18 will get ₹15 lakh each, while each differently-abled family member will get an additional ₹15 lakh, irrespective of age,” Srivastava told South First.

She added that the project had been implemented in 26 out of 34 forest divisions in the state.

“After implementing the project, the Forest Department received over 4,000 applications from various parts of the state. A total of 894 applications are in the final stages of being processed, and the families will be relocated within two months. Over 2,000 families will be relocated from the forest through the scheme within a year,” said Srivastava.

Vaikom Satyagraha: Thanthai Periyar’s role and his differences with Gandhi

Repatriates want more

But the Tamil repatriates said they could not purchases land with the meagre amount even in the remote corners of Kerala.

They demanded a compensation of at least ₹25 lakh a unit, considering the prevailing land prices in Kerala.

Most repatriates retain the documents of their repatriation, which continued till 1983, when the ferry service between Talaimannar in Sri Lanka and Rameswaram in India was suspended due to militancy in northern Sri Lanka.

According to data from the Union government, as many as 4,61,630 Tamil repatriates live in India now. They belong to 1,16,152 families.

Of these, 3,33,843 were repatriated under different bilateral agreements. The remaining represents a natural increase.

Among the people who returned to India, 4,639 families were moved to Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh, and rehabilitated in projects that the respective governments started. The rest are working with tea plantations in Tamil Nadu.

“For many of us, Gavi was a new world where even the language was different. It was an arduous task to create cardamom estates inside the forests known for rains throughout the year,” 58-year-old Durailingam told South First.

He said the KFDC’s ecotourism initiative is now making profits, and tourists are reaching the pristine destination daily.

“If they can properly expand the project by adding more attractions, they can easily utilise us. We already proved we can do wonders in ecotourism. Now the roads are in good condition, and efforts are on to install mobile and internet towers. Why don’t they use the changing scene in a way favourable to us,” he asked.

Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha recently announced a series of transformative changes aimed at improving the education system in Sri Lanka. Starting from 2024, the number of school term tests for all grades will be limited to just one per year. Instead, regular assessment tests will be conducted at the end of each lesson or module, with scores recorded in computers and later added to the year-end exam.

Initially, the marks for the year-end term test will be calculated as 70 percent from the exam and 30 percent from the modules. However, the Ministry plans to eventually equalize the weightage to 50 percent each.

The Minister emphasized that the implementation of this new system will require compulsory attendance for students during daily classes. As a result, there will be no need for students to attend extra classes after school hours, reducing the burden on parents financially and freeing up resources for the nutritional needs of their children.

Furthermore, to alleviate the physical strain on students, the Ministry will issue only one workbook per school term, with the school workbook for the entire year divided into three parts. This move aims to reduce the weight of students’ schoolbags, allowing them to walk with a straight back and promoting better health.

Dr. Premajayantha expressed confidence that these comprehensive reforms will not only enhance the quality of education but also align with the core principles of the free education system in the country. By streamlining assessments and reducing the academic workload, the Ministry aims to create a more conducive learning environment for students while easing financial burdens on parents. These progressive changes hold the potential to transform the education landscape in Sri Lanka for the better.

During a press conference themed ‘Collective Path to a Stable Country’ held at the Presidential Media Centre (PMC), Minister of Environment Naseer Ahamed announced Sri Lanka’s plan to launch the Climate Justice Forum (CJF) at the upcoming 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 28) during the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference. The proposed CJF aims to promote climate justice and expedite financial support for losses and damages in vulnerable and developing countries through an alternative and non-traditional approach.

The Ministry of Environment, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme, will also host the fifth Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of Asia Pacific (5th AP Forum) in Colombo from October 3rd to 6th, 2023. This forum will serve as a platform for governments, intergovernmental organizations, and stakeholders to discuss and prioritize environmental issues in the Asia Pacific region.

Additionally, Sri Lanka is taking significant steps to address environmental concerns. The government plans to develop the Dambulla and Hiriwadduna eco-tourism sites as eco-tourism destinations. Furthermore, the country is moving forward with the ban on various single-use plastic items, including garlands, spoons, straws, stirrers, and more.

Minister Ahamed highlighted the preparedness of the Ministry of Environment in dealing with air quality calamities through a contingency responsive action plan. Moreover, the ministry is working on a National Policy for electricity and electronic waste management.

In the mining sector, the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB) are issuing transport licenses with computer-generated details to prevent alterations by license holders. Additionally, amendments to the Mines and Mineral Act have been introduced, facilitating direct investment in mineral resources in Sri Lanka without the involvement of brokers.

These initiatives demonstrate Sri Lanka’s commitment to addressing environmental challenges and promoting climate justice on regional and global levels.

Minister of Environment Naseer Ahamed, further commented;

“Sri Lanka has proposed the establishment of a Climate Justice Forum with the aim of accelerating the financing of losses and damages and providing an alternative and non-traditional approach. Also, Sri Lanka is of the opinion that it is appropriate to include debt justice as an essential component of the overall solution proposal to be given to the climate-vulnerable and developing countries for their mitigation and adaptation interventions, taking into account the debt crises faced by those countries. In order to make that effort successful, the Cabinet approved the implementation of the strategic program presented by the Ministry of Environment as the proponent of establishing the Climate Justice Forum.

The Major activities to be carried out by the Ministry for this year include the formulation of a national climatic change policy, formulation of a national mineral policy, formulation of a national cooling policy for Sri Lanka, formulation of a Sri Lanka Road map for net zero Carbon by 2025, prohibition of four (04) environmentally harmful single-use plastic products and the establishment of climate cells to facilitate implementation of Provincial Adaptation Plan.

Under waste management, we have introduced new rules for plastic use and recycling. The Central Environment Authority (CEA) has already incorporated the provisions of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and polluter pays the principal to National Environment Act amendment. Two pilot projects have already been implemented to practice EPR voluntarily.”

Several spells of light showers will occur in Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Galle, Matara, Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts.

Showers or thundershowers may occur at a few places in Eastern and Uva provinces during the evening or night.

Mainly fair weather will prevail elsewhere over the Island.

General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.