The Ceylon Petroleum Private Tank Drivers Association said they will withdraw from the fuel transport services from midnight today (30) due to the non-reception of an effective response to the request made to the subject Minister on increasing the charges on fuel transportation.
However, Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara commented otherwise stating that there are alternate methods of fuel transportation regardless of any decision to withdraw from driving private fuel bowsers.
MIAP
A special discussion was held between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and leaders of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) last (29) night.
The event was attended by SLPP National Organiser Basil Rajapaksa, Party Chairman G.L. Peiris, Party Secretary General Sagara Kariyawasam and Party Media Secretary Sanjeewa Edirimanna.
The SLPP had informed the President that the Party was paying attention to the proposals made by the Chief Prelates of Buddhism to resolve the current crisis in the Country, Kariyawasam said.
He added that a request was made to the President to submit them the proposals tabled by the Independent Parliamentary Group for the formation of an all-party government.
The SLPP Secretary General further added that his party will be paying its attention for the country and that they will be working expeditiously with the President in this regard.
MIAP
The seventy second annual report of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has been handed over to Finance Minister Ali Sabry yesterday (29).
The report has been handed over by Governor of the Central Bank Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe.
MIAP
Former MP Ranjan Ramanayake’s controversial speech in Parliament on allegedly slain Rugby Player Wasim Thajudeen several years ago has been played on a widescreen at the Galleface Ground today (30).
The former MP is currently spending a prison sentence over contempt of court.
MIAP
Three conditions will be put forward in joining the May 06 Harthal Movement organised by the trade unions, said Gemunu Wijeratne, Chairman of the Lanka Private Bus Owners Association.
Accordingly, Wijeratne tables the following conditions;
MIAP
The Rajapaksas who were sworn in before the Ruwanwelisaya Temple in their coming to power ended up in submission to witchcraft practiced by Spiritual Advisor ‘Gnana Akka’ revealing their savagery, said Kapila Rajapaksa, the President of the Jana Handa Movement, speaking to a briefing today (30).
In the face of the people’s voice this group of savages is now under house arrest, he added.
The children lost their glass of milk because they listened to the words of people like Wimal Weerawansa, Udaya Gammanpila and Vasudewa Nanayakkara and did not seek the International Monetary Fund’s support then, he alleged.
The idea of establishing an interim government is the current regime’s trick of repressing the people’s struggle, said Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa, speaking during the Samagi Bala Pagamana walk organised by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) in Yakkala today (30).
Nevertheless, the heinous government that led the country to bankruptcy should be sent home by the power of the people, he added.
MIAP
Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (YoY) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2013=100)1 increased to 29.8% in April 2022 from 18.7% in March 2022.
The Central Bank said this increase in YoY inflation was driven by the monthly increases of both Food and Non-Food categories. Subsequently, Food inflation (YoY) increased to 46.6% in April 2022 from 30.2% in March 2022, while Non-Food inflation (YoY) increased to 22.0% in April 2022 from 13.4% in March 2022.
Monthly change of CCPI recorded at 9.25% in April 2022 due to price increases observed in items of both Non-Food and Food categories which were 4.95% and 4.31%, respectively. Accordingly, prices of items in the Non-Food category recorded increases mainly due to price increases observed in the transport (petrol and diesel), education (tuition fees), housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuel (housing rent, maintenance/reconstruction) and restaurant and hotels sub-categories. Further, within the Food category, increases were observed in prices of milk powder, rice, bread, dhal, sugar and dried fish during the month.
The annual average inflation rose to 11.3% in April 2022 from 9.1% in March 2022.
CBSL also said the core inflation (YoY), which reflects the underlying inflation in the economy increased to 22.0% in April 2022 from 13.0% in March 2022, while annual average core inflation increased to 8.1% in April 2022 from 6.5% in March 2022
The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka has granted permission to Bharti Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd (Airtel) to shut down its 3G mobile network by 24.06.2022.
As a result of the shutdown of the 3G network, the 3G connectivity of Airtel subscribers who use only 2G and 3G enabled mobile phones would be disconnected automatically after the scheduled date of the network shut down.
TRC said that the 3G shutdown is primarily intended to utilize the existing frequencies to deploy 4G services that offer better speed and capacity.
According to the TRC, a timeline of 15 months had been given to Airtel to avoid service disruptions it might experience at the end of the transition period due to the shutdown of its 3G network.
Airtel is obliged to absorb at least 90% of its 3G subscriber base into their 4G network during the transition phase subject to the following conditions.
Airtel subscribers who are still using only 2G and 3G enabled phones have been told to contact Airtel over the shortcode 780 immediately to obtain the 4G connectivity together with a new mobile phone under concessionary terms.
One of the main reasons for the current dollar crisis is lack of higher educational opportunities in Sri Lanka.
So, many students of age 18-20 leave Sri Lanka and their education abroad is fully funded by the hard earned dollars that are sent to Sri Lanka by the expatriate workers. In addition, these students has a simple way of stopping dollars coming to Sri Lanka. They meet residents of Sri Lankan origin and get their dollars they intent to send to their relatives in Sri Lanka and then get their parents to settle the amount at the black market rate. So, many in Australia, Canada now do not send dollars to Sri Lanka, but simply get it all sorted out with our students following their undergraduate programmes in those countries. So, if we are to solve the dollar crisis, we must stop this need to migrate to get higher education.
This can be done only with the following:
1. Increase the intake for popular courses in the state funded higher education system (state funded universities with accredited degrees must go for Hybrid mode and with the existing facilities shall increase the intake and we need a system to motivate the academics to do so).
2. Encourage the Privately Funded Higher Education Institutes to seek proper accreditation (like Washington Accord or similar) so that many students will find that there is no need to go abroad for higher education using the hard earned dollars since a high quality internationally recognized education can be easily obtained in Sri Lanka for a fraction of the cost that needed to get the education abroad.
3. Streamline and develop accredited courses in popular fields to attract students from the region (Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Madagascar, Sea-shells, Bhutan, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Angola, etc.) so that they will come to Sri Lanka as foreign students and will pay their fees in dollars (say, US $ 10,000/= per year per student). We shall target about 50,000 foreign students per year initially, but it can be increased to a higher number thus making education a dollar spinner for Sri Lanka as we expect from the Tourism industry.
Such students can be given Hybrid mode of education and we can expect them to spend at least one month in Sri Lanka per year for their in-person activities.
In addition to the student fees in US Dollars, these students will become tourists to Sri Lanka and can boost the tourism income as well. Their presence will give a new international experience to our students and also be a good motivator for our students to become very fluent in communicating in English. We can simply create a multi-cultural experience for our local students so that they will be of higher maturity by the time they complete their degrees.
Please note that to go this goal, as a body vested with the responsibility of providing internationally recognized Washington Accord Accreditation (also Sydney Accord as well), IESL council shall be able to have proper accreditation committee with experienced academics and practicing engineers and also with a proven track record for unbiased action. In this context, IESL Council of year 2021/22 and the one of 2022/23 will have to undertake accreditation requests from various higher education institutes with an open mind and also with the willingness to help those institutes to grow to be become giants of education in near future so that Sri Lanka could be ranked as a knowledge hub for Engineering Education not only for Sri Lankans but also for the Asian/African region.
As I indicated, our IESL proposal shall not be one that looks inward, but shall be outward with Out of Box thinking. As long as we think inside the box, we will never come up with naval ideas that can give us a chance to jump start a stagnated and mismanaged economy. Inward thinkers are only good at splitting hair looking at the available regulations and bylaws.
In my view, as the apex body for engineering, we are not presenting a set of typical proposals.
If we are to issue such a typical proposal, there is no need for the President Elect to call for suggestions and then take time to formulate a good set of proposals with great deal of care by taking the views of a cross section of our very experienced general membership.
Let’s be proactive and unbiased when we make suggestions to take our wonderful country out of the current messy situation since we have to consider this as a last chance before a major uprising by the low and middle income people who are really dejected by the way they are treated in this current crisis where we are in a hyper-inflation situation.
Only upper middle and high income earners will be able to cushion such critical economic situations and as a person who always talks with the people with monthly salaries between Rs 35,000/= to 50,000/=, I have seen the real predicament of those families specially with only one breadwinner due to kids being too small for the mothers to get involved in gainful employment.
Any family that managed to make ends meet with a monthly salary of Rs 35,000/= when rice was Rs 100/= per kg and dhal was Rs 180/= per kg and Petrol Rs 150/= per liter and bus charges are less than Rs 10/= for the first km would find it pretty hard to live today. We have a huge population in this category of Rs 35,000/= to Rs 50,000/= range and unless both parents work, those families will have to beg on the streets for living.
Therefore, our suggestions shall not address the issues of upper middle class and middle class, but the poor and lower middle class. As engineers with good salaries, many of us could be in insulated glass boxes and may have only a scanty idea of the predicament of many people in Sri Lanka.
For example, many technical officers of our university system will get a monthly salary of Rs 45,000/= to 50,000/= though they are expected to maintain a reasonable quality of life. With current conditions, they are all wondering what to do next.
The only way that we can solve their problems is by bringing US dollars in sufficient quantities so that the Sri Lankan Rupee will start strengthening from Rs 360/= per US $ to about more realistic Rs 250/= per US $. So, our suggestions shall address that fundamental point.
The pertinent question to ask is the following:
We have seen many proposals by OPA, Medical Associations, etc. Has any of such proposals addressed this fundamental problem or the crux of the matter?
Unless it is addressed, many can be considered as pretty ordinary suggestions that any layman can easily formulate. You do not need professionals to prepare such a set of proposals.
When professionals are requested to address a problem, our first duty shall be to understand the problem with a deep investigation and brainstorming and then to formulate many alternative strategies and then to select the most feasible and pragmatic ones as the probable solutions.
Then, the implementation strategies can be formulated only for the selected ones and then evaluated with an appropriate technique and the best strategies can be selected for implementation.
This is what we teach our students when we ask them to come up with solutions to open ended problem solving advocated a lot in Washington Accord supporting Outcome Based Education.
However, when it comes to the real practicing engineers, what we often see is that they often prefer to work like layman with so much biases and prejudices, but not with an open mind and aggressive will to solve the problems creating a win-win situation for all stakeholders (you are free to wear the hat if you like).
Prof M T R Jayasinghe
Chairman, Civil Engineering Sectional Committee.
