An Extraordinary Gazette Notification has been issued dividing the Sri Lanka Principals’ Service, Teaching-Advisory Service, and Sri Lanka Teachers’ Service into three separate closed services.
This Gazette Notification has been issued by the Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Prof. Kapila C.K. Perera with effect from 30.08.2021.
The complete gazette notification with relevant provisions is given below.
Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have exceeded 31,600 in the first 11 days of 2022, despite the challenges emanating from the global COVID pandemic and reinforcing the industry’s optimism. From 1 to 11 January, Sri Lanka received a record 31, 688 tourists, a significant rebound from 2021.
Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) said during the first 11 days the highest number of tourist arrivals was from the Russian Federation – 5,726.
In addition, tourists have also arrived from India – 5,566, Ukraine – 3,028, UK – 2,370, Germany – 2,046, Maldives – 1,269, France – 1,241, Australia – 1,093, Poland – 771 and US – 662.
However, future trend of tourism remains uncertain amidst the evolving nature of the pandemic and other correlated variables such as vaccination rates and efforts in curtailing the pandemic.
“It is great to see the tourism is beginning to rebound amidst concerns on highly infectious COVID variant Omicron. The collective effort of all citizens contributed to the successful recovery of the industry,” Sri Lanka Tourism Chairperson Kimarli Fernando told journalists yesterday.
Speaking at a discussion titled ‘Tourism Resumes’ organised by Presidential Media Centre (PMC) she said Sri Lanka needs to ‘ride with the tide’ to sustain the industry despite the challenges emanating from the COVID pandemic.
Fernando said they were also concerned about the continuity of the current arrival trends, given the global spike in COVID cases.
“We saw several cancellations particularly from European countries and India following resurgence of COVID Omicron variant. Certain countries have imposed restrictions already, these are inevitable in a pandemic situation,” Fernando said.
With partial reopening in January 2021 which saw 1,682 tourists, arrivals have been on the rise in tandem with the vaccination rollout, improved health and safety precautions, and easing of travel restrictions.
SLTDA Director General Dhammika Wijayasingha said that the majority of incoming tourists stay for 14 or more days on an average, from the previous 7 to 10 days.
“Post-pandemic we saw a lot of tourists coming to Sri Lanka for wellness tourism and vacation with family. These tourists stay longer than the usual, which extends to minimum 14 or more days. It’s a great trend that we hope would continue from long-haul travellers,” she added.
Given the challenges they encounter to reach final destination amidst health protocols, Wijayasingha pointed out that the travellers under new normal will want to explore the long haul countries to the fullest.
Since mid-2021, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) rolled out promotions in several countries, including Russia, France, Germany and the UK. The inflow of tourists has been boosted by increased connectivity as well by international airlines.
National carrier SriLankan Airlines also launched direct flights to Russia and France after a lapse of six years.
In November, four international airlines resumed operations to Colombo, these include France flag carrier – Air France, Swiss leisure airline – Edelweiss, Russia’s flag carrier – Aeroflot and Tata-SIA joint venture – Vistara Airlines.
In addition, Russia’s Azur Airlines and Kazakhstan’s Air Astana commenced direct flights to Sri Lanka, while popular European airlines Poland’s flag carrier Lot Polish Airlines and Italy’s Neos Airlines commenced operations from December 2021.
If the government does not manage the demand for 1.9 billion coconuts properly, there would be a risk of increasing prices of both the local coconut and coconut oil, the National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection (NMCRP) said.
NMCRP President Ranjith Vithanage noted that the annual coconut harvest is 3 billion nuts and the demand for coconuts in the country is 4.9 billion nuts.
Coconut production increased by 10.1 percent to 2,034.6 million nuts in the first eight months of 2021, compared to 1,848.3 million nuts in the same period of 2020 due to the favourable weather conditions that prevailed during 2021.
In July 2021, the planting of 100,000 coconut saplings has been implemented to meet the future coconut demands catering for the export market.
“A total volume of 1.8 billion nuts are needed for domestic consumption and another 1.8 billion are needed for coconut oil production.
The number of coconuts required for export is 1.3 billion nuts. Compared to the annual coconut harvest, the deficit is 1.9 billion nuts. Local coconut and coconut oil prices also went up last year due to this situation.
Therefore, we told the government about this situation earlier. Due to the careless decisions taken by the government at that time, the local consumers had to buy coconuts and coconut oil at higher prices,” he said.
However, the government would be able to increase the export revenue if the situation is managed properly.
Although the government had taken steps to import rice to meet the demand in the country, coconut could not be imported.
Furthermore, due to the dollar crisis in the country, it is not possible to reduce the volume of 1.3 billion coconuts required for exports.
If so, what the government can do is manage the consumption of coconut oil in the country. The consumption of coconut oil in the country is 240,000 metric tons.
October and November coconut harvests were generally safe. The coconut harvest comes to the market in January, February and March every year.
The price of a coconut could increase from Rs.120 and Rs.130 due to the higher cost of buying for coconut oil production. Therefore, the price of a bottle of coconut could pitch between Rs. 700 and Rs. 800 in the future.
Sri Lanka’s State owned Enterprises (SOEs) are set to undergo structural reforms making it more financially viable, competitive, and innovative.
Sub-optimal performance of the SOEs is driven by a lack of capacity, transparency, and accountability remains a concern and, hence, some have become a burden to the public coffers.
Therefore, the government is mulling to restructure SOEs with Public Private Partnership while the state-owned asset sale process is being, a leading Colombo-based investment and equities broking firm said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has given prominence to the role played by State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). However, The aggregated net profits of the 52 strategic SOEs was Rs. 7.3 billion for the first seven months of 2021; out of which 32 SOEs recorded an aggregated profit before tax of Rs. 102.8 billion.
However, this performance is eroded by the balance of 20 SOEs’ aggregated net loss of Rs. 95.5 billion. Only 19 SOEs paid dividends and levies to the government amounting to Rs. 13.7 billion in the first seven months of 2021 with a year-on-year increase of 63 percent on the back of higher payments of dividends and levies by financial and telecommunication sectors.
A Committee is appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers to make decisions on the remuneration packages and recruitment processes of selected SOEs in order to achieve the objectives of the government policy framework.
Cabinet approval is already granted to recruit high caliber professionals to the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) to increase Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) with an aim to fuel the economy.
Furthermore, introducing technology into the financial and operational management systems of the SOEs has been identified for corrective measures in advance. In this regard, a web based data collection machanism has been introduced to make SOE monitoring further strengthening.
“Sri Lanka has two key options at this juncture; first, to maintain status quo, if sufficient bilateral lending and swap agreements materialise early on or second, to reach out to the IMF for a long-term agreement,” said Asia Securities Research Macro Economist Lakshini Fernando, presenting Sri Lanka’s macroeconomic outlook for 2022.
The economist noted that in the current context, the first option is viable only if non-debt inflows of at least US$ 3 billion come, in addition to the government-to-government funding lines.
“In the absence of about US$ 3 billion of inflows, there will be difficulties in meeting the upcoming payment towards the second half of the year,” said Fernando.
The government has made it clear in the recent weeks that the depleted reserves position will not stop Sri Lanka from meeting the US$ 500 million International Sovereign Bond (ISB) commitment next week.
But, Fernando said that towards the second half of the year, the government could come under heightened pressure when it tries to settle the US$ 1 billion sovereign bond due in July, without bolstering its foreign reserves.
In terms of the rupee, Fernando said Asia Securities has factored in a “very sharp” correction this year.
“We expect some of that correction to take place at least in the first quarter of this year, probably towards the early end of the quarter. By the end of the year, we expect the currency to be at about Rs.245 to Rs.250 (against the US dollar),” said Fernando.
The basic legal argument against the proposal to present the draft Constitution is as follows;
The proposal is based on a false premise as it denies the process of the making of the Constitution whereas it must provide everyone and every group of people the right of participation as it is a Constitution of the people and not of a Government.
The existing Constitution which is fundamentally flawed is a major factor and has caused all the crises in the country. The major flaw is that it has situated the head of state above the law – above the jurisdiction of the courts. Once anyone is placed above the law, it is not possible to operate a legal system based on the principle of equality before the law.
This makes it impossible to operate the principle of the supremacy of the law and instead the system creates the supremacy of man, which the Chinese characterised as the “rule of man”. Under those conditions, the law ceases to be the organising principle and foundation of the social organisation of the society.
Under these circumstances, judicial power, its role and independence is drastically undermined. Public institutions cannot perform their legally required function, and the administration of justice with a legal framework becomes impossible and law enforcement suffers a drastic setback. Such a situation in law is called “a state of disorder”.
The present state of Sri Lanka is one of disorder and that is the root cause of all major problems in Sri Lanka. The only justifiable reason for the nation to have a new Constitution is to get over the state of disorder and chaos it is in and to return to an orderly society based on the supremacy of the law and the rule of law.
In order to achieve this original Constitutional cause and thereby remedy such disorder, the cause which is the 1978 Constitution must be abolished and all persons, including the head of state, must be brought under the law, as an equal of the rest of the citizens. Anything short of that will not remove the state of disorder and the consequent crises faced by the society.
There is justifiable reason to believe that the proposed draft of the Constitution will not abolish the 1978 Constitution and will instead place the head of state as a person who is above all. There is reason to believe that in fact the situation that prevails under the 1978 Constitution will be further re-enforced under the proposed law.
The present state of the country transgresses the liberty of the people and the enjoyment of their rights. Any and every kind of repression is allowed under the existing Constitutional order.
A primary goal of a new Constitution is the end of this and to recognise liberty as a fundamental principle and to expand the enjoyment of human rights by all. For this to happen, there has to be a proper process for making a Constitution.
The proper process recognized in modern times, practiced in many countries, including India, South Africa, Kenya, Nepal and Thailand, is the creation of a Constitutional Assembly and to provide an opportunity for all persons to participate. If Sri Lanka makes a farce of the Constitution, it has no chance of overcoming the present crisis. It will also further lose confidence in the nation and the confidence reposed in it by the international community.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has denied parole to Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian refugee serving a life sentence for assassinating US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy in 1968.
Newsom made the announcement on Thursday after a California review board in August recommended Sirhan be released from prison, subject to review by the board’s legal staff and by the governor himself. He had previously been denied parole 15 times.
Outlining his decision in an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, Newsom said he disagreed with the Board of Parole Hearings finding that the 77-year-old was suitable for parole.
“After carefully reviewing the case, including records in the California State Archives, I have determined that Sirhan has not developed the accountability and insight required to support his safe release into the community,” Newsom wrote.
Sirhan’s lawyer, Angela Berry, suggested in a statement that Newsom had bowed to political considerations in denying her client parole.
“While I appreciate that the release of Mr Sirhan presents Governor Newsom with a challenging political calculation, the legal decision for his release is clear and straight forward. We are confident that the judicial review of the governor’s decision will show that the governor got it wrong,” Berry said.
Sirhan was convicted of gunning down Kennedy, 42, in the kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968.
The shooting occurred minutes after the US senator and former US attorney general gave his victory speech after winning the California Democratic primary. Kennedy died the next day. Kennedy’s older brother President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.
Sirhan has said he had no recollection of the killing of Robert Kennedy, although he has also said he fired at Kennedy because he was enraged by his support for Israel.
After the parole board issued its recommendation, Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, 93, voiced her opposition to Sirhan’s release, saying “our family and our country suffered an unspeakable loss due to the inhumanity of one man”.
Six of Kennedy’s nine surviving children also said they were shocked by the recommendation and urged Newsom to reverse the parole board’s decision.
Newsom pointed to what he called Sirhan’s “shifting narrative” over the killing and his refusal to take responsibility for it as proof he was ineligible for release.
Newsom added the assassination was “among the most notorious crimes in American history”.
Some of Kennedy’s children and others have called for a reinvestigation of the killing, believing there was a second shooter who got away.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has spoken in favour of Sirhan’s release in the past, wrote in favour of paroling Sirhan.
He said he met Sirhan in prison and was moved after he “wept clinching my hands and asked for forgiveness”.
Sirhan was sentenced to death in 1969, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison after California banned the death penalty.
AL JAZEERA
Rescuers have found four bodies overnight as they clear the 12 mangled coaches of a train that derailed in India’s West Bengal state, raising the death toll to nine, a railroad official said.
At least 45 people were injured in the accident on Thursday as the coaches went off the rails and three capsized, said Rajiv Jain, a railroad ministry spokesman.
The rescue work was completed and the track was being cleared to restore train services in the region, Jain said on Friday.
Images from the scene after the accident showed passengers stuck in twisted metal and debris as rescuers tried to pull them out.
Six people lost their lives after 12 coaches of the Bikaner-Guwahati Express (15633) derailed in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district on Thursday: Chief Public Relations Officer, Northeast Frontier Railway
— ANI (@ANI) January 14, 2022
The train was on its way to Guwahati in Assam state from Bikaner, a city in Rajasthan state, when the accident occurred in Jalpaiguri district.
All of the injured were being treated in a hospital, senior police officer Debarshi Dutta said.
Senior railway official Guneet Kaur said the cause of the accident was being investigated. She said the government would provide financial compensation to families of the deceased and all of the injured.
Accidents are common on India’s massive but ageing railway network.
Safety standards have been an ongoing concern on the state-run system, which operates 9,000 passenger trains and carries about 23 million passengers every day.
In 2016, 127 people were killed when 14 coaches derailed in Uttar Pradesh state in one of India’s worst train accidents.SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES
China has assured Sri Lanka continued economic assistance, hours after Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said that Sri Lanka is negotiating another loan from China.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that China and Sri Lanka have been showing each other mutual understanding and support, since the establishment of diplomatic ties.
“China has always been doing its utmost to provide help for Sri Lanka’s economic and social development and will continue to do so in the future,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a media briefing in Beijing.
His comments came in response to a question raised over Cabraal’s statement that Sri Lanka is negotiating another loan from China as part of attempts to restructure its debt repayment.
Cabraal said that the loan amount has not yet been decided. However; he said the matter is being discussed and Sri Lanka hopes to reach an agreement with China at the earliest.
“There is a possibility that we would have a new loan coming from China in order to cushion the effects of our debt repayments to China itself,” the Governor had said.
He emphasized that the new loan will be sought to cushion debt repayments to China.
The Governor also said that Sri Lanka is negotiating a USD 1 billion facility with India to import goods from India.
Cabraal said that this will also help Sri Lanka in its debt repayment and promote more trade with the respective countries.
“The central bank governor noted that Sri Lanka is also negotiating US$ 1 billion facility with India to import goods from the neighboring nation.
It’s a kind of an arraignment that would encourage us as well as help us to make repayments to those countries and at the same time promote more trade between the two countries as well.
He said that countries normally do that in the midst of changing circumstances in the economy and that’s the type of discussion they have had with China as well as India.
He revealed that those talks are at reasonable levels of advanced negotiations and they are looking forward to seeing some breakthrough in those as well.
The restrictions imposed on the import of vehicles and other non-essential items to Sri Lanka will only be lifted when there is an inflow of foreign exchange from other sources, he added.
He asserted that other than vehicles, all the other non-essential items are being imported ‘heavily’. “What is the non-essential item that is not available? If you go to any supermarket, you would find that almost every conceivable type of goods is available,” he emphasized.
He said that items which are available in any part of the world are imported to Sri Lanka as well and that they also in his view can sometimes be termed as non-essential, but those also are being imported.
“And that’s causing a fairly heavy outflow of foreign exchange as well,” he said, adding that this can sometime disturb the overall importation as well because these items which are considered non-essential are flooding the market
A National Digital Healthcare Blueprint is to be formulated to provide a higher quality of healthcare for citizens of Sri Lanka.
he National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) will be released by the government bringing in the National Digital Health Eco-system (NDHE) to guarantee the availability of healthcare services on large-scale.
It encapsulates the goals of NHP 2017 and aims to leapfrog to the digital age by providing a wide range of digital health services.
It will support the quality of healthcare, Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in an efficient, accessible, inclusive, affordable, timely and safe manner through the provision of a wide range of data, information, and infrastructure services.
The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka announced that an agreement was signed between ICTA and the Ministry of Health (MoH) recently to formulate a National Digital Healthcare Blueprint.
The blueprint serves as a comprehensive roadmap with standards, policies, guidance, and specifications for implementation that will facilitate a higher quality of healthcare for citizens of Sri Lanka.
The objective is to improve healthcare services to the overall population, control healthcare costs by promoting health maintenance, prevention, and care coordination. Thereby develop resilient and sustainable systems for quality healthcare in Sri Lanka.
Under this initiative, a Digital Healthcare architecture blueprint, operational interoperability plan, Leadership, governance, point of care services including community health information system, electronic medical records, lab systems, pharmacy, logistics management systems, including capacity development and technical assistance will be looked into in this holistic approach.
ICTA has been actively collaborating with the MoH for several key initiatives, including successful implementation of Medical Supplies Management Information System (MSMIS), Hospital Health Information Management System (HHIMS), and the software solutions implemented to combat COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 5.7 million patients have benefited with quick and hassle-free access to healthcare services, efficient services delivery and dispensing of medicine in hospitals around the country including Kegalle, Wathupitawela, and Matara where the Hospital Health Information Management System (HHIMS) have been implemented.
The agreement was signed by Dr. S.H. Munasinghe, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Mr. Oshada Senanayake, Chairman, ICTA in the presence of Mr.Kanchana Thudugala, Chief Digital Government Officer ICTA, and Dr. Palitha Karunapema, Director – Health Information of MoH.
Measures will be taken to establish state-of-the-art digital health systems, for managing the core digital health data, and the infrastructure required for its smooth exchange.
·National and Regional Registries will be maintained to create Single Source of Truth in respect of Clinical Establishments, Healthcare Professionals, Health Workers and Pharmacies.
A system of Personal Health Records will be introduced, based on international standards that can be easily accessible to the citizens and to the healthcare professionals and services providers, based on citizen-consent.
·Measures will be taken to promote development of enterprise-class health application systems with a special focus on addressing the Sustainable Development Goals related to the health sector.
India has extended over USD 900 million facilities to Sri Lanka in line with its strong commitment to stand with Sri Lanka for economic recovery and growth.
This includes deferment of Asian Clearing Union settlement of over USD 500 mn and currency swap of USD 400 mn.
India’s High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay on Thursday met with Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Nivard Cabraal and expressed India’s support to the island nation.
The Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka provided the details in a series of tweets.
“High Commissioner met Gov @CBSL and expressed #India’s strong support to #SriLanka in the wake of @RBI extending over USD 900 mn facilities over the last week,” it stated.
“These comprise deferment of Asian Clearing Union settlement of over USD 500 mn and currency swap of USD 400 mn,” the tweet added.
“The Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka noted that these steps are in line with India’s strong commitment to stand with Sri Lanka for economic recovery and growth,” it further said.
Earlier this week, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Cabraal had said that his country was negotiating a USD one billion loan from India to import goods from the country amidst a shortage of all essential commodities.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the South Asian country hard, forcing the Government to last year declare an economic emergency, after a steep fall in the value of its currency taking inflation to a high level.
Sri Lanka is staring at a loss of revenue from tourism, high government spending and tax cuts eroding state revenues, huge debt payments and foreign exchange reserves at their lowest level in a decade have added to the crisis.
India and Sri Lanka had last month, finalized a four-point package for economic cooperation that includes an extension of a line of credit to Sri Lanka cover and offer of a currency swap arrangement during Sri Lankan Finance Minister, Basil Rajapaksa’s visit to India, a statement by the Indian High Commission had said last month.
During his visit on December 1-2, Sri Lankan Finance Minister Rajapaksa had briefed the Indian side of the economic situation in Sri Lanka and his Government’s approach to addressing post-covid challenges, it had informed.
The Indian Ministers expressed India’s solidarity with Sri Lanka at this juncture, the statement had added.
They reiterated that India has always stood by Sri Lanka and in the current situation would be guided by its Neighbourhood First policy, it had further stated.
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