A new bill assuring National Security will be drafted replacing the currently enforced Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), revealed Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardena.
As per a Cabinet decision, the drafting of the new bill is already in progress at the Justice Ministry, the Minister said addressing the briefing held in announcing Cabinet decisions today (23).
Once the new bill is drafted it will be tabled in Parliament for approval, he added.
MIAP
The arrested Inter-University Students Federation (IUSF) members including its Convener Wasantha Mudalige, Convener of the Inter-University Bhikshu Federation Ven. Galwewa Siridhamma Thero and Hashan Gunathilake of the University of Kelaniya were taken to the Tangalle Prison last (22) night. The three were arrested due to a IUSF protest held on August 18.
The Defence Ministry approved the Police to question the three under a 90-day detention period and accordingly, the suspects were taken to the prison by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID).
A 72-hour detention order was obtained at the time of their arrest and interrogation was carried out thereafter. Without presenting them to a Court, the IUSF members were referred to a 90-day detention period under the provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
MIAP
Anandaraja Pillai, a director of Melwa Group and a well-known business tycoon, still remains at large after the July 09th insurgence where he openly endorsed the anti-government protesters who made the historic breach at the President’s House, while thousands of civilians are being tracked down and some arrested for their actions, sources said.
Steel wire kingpin Melwa is a company that holds the monopoly in the construction industry and became unimaginably rich during the previous Rajapaksa regime. Harboured under the Rajapaksa shelter, its Director Pillai became the owner of one of the five Super Bentley motor cars in Sri Lanka. The wealth the business tycoon collected during this period is yet to be comprehended that he has even built six Hilton hotels in different areas in the country including Yala.
Being blessed by the Rajapaksas for his grand entrance to the niche level of society, Pillai took his turn against the Rajapaksas by not only levelling himself with the anti-government protesters but also publicly releasing photographs of himself celebrating the July 09th victory by lying on the President’s bed.
The Police have so far arrested a number of civilians for trespassing and breaching the President’s House and even released photos to the media to identify others. The number grows by thousands as young boys and girls whose energetic and rebellious views against the ex president and the government drove them to breach the President’s House, but monopolies like Pillai, who claimed ownership to the ‘Aragalaya’ by openly posing himself to the camera, has not even been questioned to date.
It would be a question whether he has the current government and even the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) under his pedal as well.
Pillai has now removed all the photographs he posted on Social Media, but he goes on babbling that whoever comes to power will be under him in what he describes as his ‘method of subversion’, sources further said.
The overseas travel ban imposed to former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Ajith Nivard Cabraal will be lapsed today (23).
Sarath Jayamanne PC, the lawyer for the Complainant, Ven Thinniyawela Palitha Thera said they are not yet ready with the amended plaint. The Colombo Fort Magistrate Hon Thilina Gamage ordered the Complainant to file the amended complaint before 15th November.
The Complainant’s lawyers also didn’t ask for an extension of the travel ban on the defendant, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, and the travel ban lapsed.
Defendant’s lawyer Sampath Mendis PC informed Court that he has several preliminary objections to raise in relation to the filing of this case and that he would do so once the amended complaint is filed.
Several big companies have defrauded local banks. Generally the banks go after the small companies. Not the big companies. Despite shareholders and Directors writing to the CBSL no action is taken. Conflict of Interest galore but the fit and proper test is totally ignored by CBSL.
Several banks have ignored governance rules when appointing directors. For example Daya Gamage, Arjun Aloysius -WM Mendis have been given Billions nothing has been done against the officials. We have highlighted the bad lending at HNB to a big shareholder. Amal Cabral is a director of HNB. He heads the debt recovery committee according Union sources of Hatton National Bank.
We understand CIC has defaulted to the tune of 700 million the bank. The board
has decided to write off a loss of 700 million and acquire a defunct assets. Cabral is a Director or Chairman of a CIC subsidiary. The Chairperson is a Director of Sunshine Holdings. Amal Cabral is the Chairman of Sunshine holdings.
We understand a CIC employee is a Director of the Bank. What a web of connections .What is CBSL doing or investigating these connections. Public
deposits are at risk. What is SEC doing? No compliance? Another case in point is MTD walkers.
Then Board and some employees misrepresented the true situation of the company and acted like confidence tricksters, giving newspaper interviews etc only to end up as conmen. Violated all SEC and CBSL rules and cheated investors, the public and the banks PEOPLES BANK default of Rs 10 Billion ,should be treated as criminal as its public funds.A proper investigation must be done to ascertain whether cash cheques were withdrawn, who approved them? The chairman?
The CFO ? The accountant ? Who cashed those cheques if so? Who did they give the cash to?
One must study the board minutes to see the depth of involvement and who is responsible and whether there are any explanations to what happened to the money. In 2019 News 1st in an exclusive exposé on a conflict of interest involving the Chairman, who served as the Director of Peoples Bank and as the Chairman of MTD Walkers PLC has now uncovered yet another irregular business dealings.
The People’s Bank granted MTD Walkers PLC various types of borrowings at times amounting to Rs 10 billion. These borrowings were granted without sufficient and easily realisable assets.
Without proper securities in place, the bank will be unable to recover the monies owed to it. The Credit was given by Aruni Goonthileke now Chairman of HNB, unions say criminal charges are to be put against her soon. Whilst there were significant disclosures by News 1st in the past regarding various malpractices involving the state banks and MTD Walkers PLC, the authorities are yet to initiate any legal action.
The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has placed MTD Walkers PLC (KAPI.N0000) on a watch list.The company’s financial records show a staggering Rs 18 billion debt to many local banks. Of the Rs 18 billion, Rs 4 billion is owed to state banks on top of other borrowing facilities already granted to MTD Walkers PLC.The SEC has ordered the MTD the board CEO, CFO and all management personnel to desist in any manner from destroying, concealing, altering, removing, amending or cause the destruction, concealment, alteration, amendment or removal of any information that is in the records or books maintained by the Company. SEC further imposed a fine of Rs.36.3 million on the MTD directors for breach of listing rules violating rule no.6 of the Act. “The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hired a local
audit firm to get to the bottom of MTD accounts.
The auditors will advise future course of action against MTD Walkers taking note on the debentures issued, the non-submission of the Annual Reports for the financial years ended 2018/2019, interim financial statements after 30 June 2019 and on the complaints received alleging that the assets of MTD Walkers were being sold and funds being siphoned out without proper internal controls. Despite all these allegations the Central Bank has done nothing other than being a silent bystander. (https://www.dailymirror.lk/business-news/Peoples-Bank-acquires-Arjun-Aloysius-owned-W-M-Mendis-Co-s-Aluthgamadistillery/273-235304)
Adolf
The Colombo Magistrate Court today (23) issued warrants for the arrest of activist Pathum Kerner, a prominent figure of the people’s struggle against the government.
The Court issued the order as the activist failed to appear in Court regarding the case filed by the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) involving a series of incidents at the Polduwa intersection.
Kerner, who is accused of assembling people to the Polduwa Junction near Parliament, was arrested and remanded in connection with the anti-government riots on July 13 and later granted bail.
MIAP
Four more people accused of involvement in May 09 tensions were arrested by the Police yesterday (22).
Among the arrestees were a person accused of breaking into a business venue belonging to MP Johnston Fernando and stealing property valued over Rs. 2.4 million, a 22 year-old resident of Panliyadda accused of setting MP Sumith Udukumbura’s house on fire, a 33-year old resident of Kaduwela accused of damaging property and the residence of MP Premnath C Dolawatta, and a 26 year-old resident of Kollupitiya accused of assaulting an Ambalangoda SLPP Pradeshiya Sabha Member and throwing him into the Beira Lake.
MIAP
Sri Lanka’s nation-wide inflation galloped 66.7 percent in the 12 – months to July 2022, the state statistics office said, amid the worst currency triggered by the islands intermediate regime Central Bank.
Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe recently said that the bank is optimistic that inflation will be around 60-65 in the comming months and it will go up to 70 percent in September in aacordance with their projections .
But the Deartment of Census and Statistics announced that Sri Lanka’s nationwide inflation in July 2022 determined under the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) rose to 66.7 percent from 58.9 percent recorded in May 2022 on a year-on-year basis.
CB Governor is trying to mislead the masses and international financial agencies including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announcing the shrinked data of inflation . The inflation targeting is the responsibilty of the Central Bank
The NCPI for all items for the month of July 2022 increased to 244.4 from 231.5 in the previous month.With respect to July 2021, the reported inflation for the month of July 2022 was mainly due to the higher price levels prevailed in both food and non-food groups.
Accordingly, the Year-on-Year inflation of the food group increased to 82.5 percent in July 2022 from 75.8 percent in May 2022 and the Year-on-Year inflation of the non-food group increased to 52.4 percent in July 2022 from 43.6 percent in previous month.
Contributions to the inflation rate of July 2022 from food group and non-food group are 39.28 percent and 27.44 percent respectively.
The moving average inflation for the month of July 2022 is 25.9 percent. The corresponding rate for the month of June 2022 was 20.8 percent.
Sri Lanka has a reserves collecting soft-peg but under ‘flexible’ inflation targeting it was bombarded with liquidity injection until in collapsed repeatedly and eventually the country ended up in default.
The Central Bank in April allowed interest rates to go up and private credit has collapsed and inflation especially from traded goods and food is starting to ease. However services prices tend to go up for a longer period.
Following several complaints that former President Gotabaya had tendered his resignation under threat and coercion, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has written to current President Ranil Wickremesinghe to ensure his safe return to the island, saying that he is entitled to certain privileges and benefits as a former President of Sri Lanka under law.
The Family of Rajapaksa, now living aboard, is entitled to the protection of the law to a safe return to the country and the government should provide adequate protection to him and his family to return to the country, the HRCSL said in a statement.
Full statement:
Several complainants were received by the HRCSL alleging that Ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had tendered his resignation under threat and coercion. And the government had failed to provide adequate security to Gotabaya Rajapaksa during this period. And now, the ExPresident and his family intend to return to the Country. The complaint is based on the premise that the Ex-President and family cannot return to the country due to the prevailing threats they face and that it violates fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution for every citizen.
The HRCSL has gone through the complaint. lt grossly violates the fundamental rights guaranteed to every citizen if that citizen cannot return to the country for extraneous reasons beyond his control and which are within the control of the State to eliminate.
Primarily it is inherent for all citizens to return to their country whenever such a citizen seems necessary.
“Every citizen is entitled to the freedom to return to Sri Lanka, (Article 14 (1) (i) It is alleged in the complaint that Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family, who are citizens of this country, are unable to return to the country due to prevailing threats to their lives.
It unequivocally violates fundamental rights if all persons are not guaranteed equal protection under the law.
“All persons are equal before the law and are entitled to the equal protection of the law (Article 12 (1).
The complaint further alleged that the Ex-President could not return to the Country unless the Government guaranteed the security he is entitled to under the law as Ex-president of Sri Lanka.
The Commission observed that Ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is entitled to certain privileges and benefits as an Ex-President established under law.
It is recommended that the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) takes all necessary steps to assess the threat situation and provide the Ex-President with the security protection provided under the law for an Ex-President to return to the country whenever he makes such a request.
The Family of Gotabaya Rajapakse, now living aboard, is entitled to the protection of the law to a safe return to the country. The HRCSL recommends that the GOSL provide adequate protection to the family of Gotabaya Rajapakse to return to the country.
The Law enforcement officials of Sri Lanka should assess the threat situation that would affect the violation of the fundamental Rights of Gotabaya Rajapakse and his family now living abroad to return to the country and take all reasonable and appropriate means to prevent and or remedy such infringement within the framework of the law of Sri Lanka and permit their safe return to the country.
MIAP
Sri Lanka the wonder of Asia has ranked fifth among the top ten countries that are hit hardest by food inflation, World Bank revealed.
The latest report issued by the World Bank reveals that Sri Lanka has ranked fifth among the countries with the highest inflation in the food category, standing below Lebanon, which is the highest, Zimbabwe the second, Venezuela the third and Turkiey the fourth.
Below Sri Lanka are Iran the sixth, Argentina the seventh, Suriname the eighth, Ethiopia the ninth and Moldova the tenth.
MIAP