Mar 14 (SO) Harak Kata was known as the Godfather of the underworld after the death of Makandure Madhush making Nadun Wickramarathne alias Harak Kata Police Narcotics Bureau’s most wanted criminal. His close business associate is said to be Salindu Gunaratne alias Kudu Salindu of Panadura. It is claimed that Salindu dealt with the Police and authorities allowing Harak Kata’s businesses to continue unhindered. more..

Mar 14 (DM) Sri Lankans often draw the comparison to Singapore or South Korea and lament why their country could not replicate the economic success of the other. That is a misplaced comparison, for they generally pick and choose a few Asian Tiger economies, which were rather an exception, not the norm in the recent history of international political economy. However, there is no argument that independent Sri Lanka has seen needless chaos and bloodshed. more..

Mar 14 (CT) Children are a resource no matter what happens. The adult is the one making them a threat. When we look back in time, we see that there have been many headline-grabbing worries about mothers taking their own lives because they could no longer stand to raise their children. The decision to end a pregnancy is a profoundly personal one and an abortion is a method of doing so. In our society discussing abortion is frowned upon & those who do feel safe doing so are frequently irate or more..

Mar 14 (TM) The election spotlight is now firmly on Secretary to Treasury whether he will release the funds allocated for LG polls via the Budget or defy a direct order from the Supreme Court. With the SC directing Ministry of Finance Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana to release the finances required and allocated for the LG Elections, pressure continues to mount on the Treasury to release the required funds to hold the polls. more..

Mar 14 (TM) Sri Lanka has entered another era of protests. Anti-Govt protests that emerged in the context of the aragalaya (people’s struggle to remove the former Govt led by then Prez Gotabaya Rajapaksa) movement continue against the new administration, while anti-tax hike protestors, mainly professionals such as doctors and high ranking public officials, have taken to the streets demanding that the Govt withdraw its new tax policy or that it seek alternative sources of tax revenue. more..

Mar 14 (Island) Progress eludes countries where populist politics has taken precedence over economics, Sri Lanka being a glaring example. Politicians, unlike statespersons, do not care much about the long-term interests of a country, and never hesitate to subjugate macroeconomic fundamentals to political expediency. But for some ill-conceived economic decisions the incumbent dispensation made for reasons of political patronage, the current economic crisis would not have come about. more..

Mar 14 (ST) Alleged attempts by Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe and his govt to stop the 2023 local govt election came under a barrage of criticism from opposition parties in Parliament throughout the week. The matter was repeatedly brought up during a two-day adjournment debate on Franchise moved by the SJB and often led to heated exchanges in the House. The Prez and the govt are both trying to wrest the people’s democratic right from them, accused SJB’s Ranjith Madduma Bandara as more..

Mar 14 (TM) The PTA as amended can be interpreted to give effect to arbitrary arrest and detention. Thus, Human Rights Commission of SL (HRCSL) emphasises that the PTA must be repealed. Directives were issued in May, 2016, by the Commission on arrest and detention under the PTA. Those directives included inter alia advice to the Police on the rights of detainees to be informed of the reason for the arrest and the right to have legal assistance. more..

Mar 14 (DM) Several credit card issuers have lifted the limits that hitherto had on overseas use, as they saw their foreign currency conditions improving substantially in the recent times, providing them a lot more room to allow their cardholders with higher spending thresholds when they travel overseas. When the country’s foreign currency conditions were getting tightened last year, the banks that issued credit cards imposed more..

Mar 14 (DN) We gave a good fight until the last ball and we have lot of positives after this first test match said skipper Dimuth Karunaratne after losing the game. Actually we fought back strongly while our batters & bowlers did a decent job but unfortunately we were on the losing side, he said. I think we started very well losing a toss and batted very well during the first innings with seamers doing well in overcast conditions and our bowlers gave a good show to contain our opponents. more..

Mar 14 (CT) Sri Lanka’s U-19 team will tour Abu Dhabi, UAE, from 15 March to 3 April to take part in a Tri-Nation tournament involving Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the Board said. Apart from its involvement in the One Day Limited Over tri-nation competition, the team will also play two One Day Limited Over games against Afghanistan on a bilateral scale. The final of the Tri-Nation Tournament, which is organised by the Afghanistan Cricket Board, will be played on 30 March more..

Mar 14 (TM) The market will see the impact on non-essential goods from the recent appreciation of the rupee (LKR) in two or three months due to the delays in supply chains, Colombo Business Association (CBA) said. Speaking to the media yesterday, General Secretary of CBA Chaminda Vidanagamage said although there has been an appreciation of the rupee in recent weeks, the wholesale prices of goods cannot be changed within a day due to the supply chain connected. more..

Mar 14 (BT) After playing just three Test matches in almost six years, Ireland are set to play their next three inside a month. It is reported that instead of playing a Test match and two ODIs in SL next month, the hosts have instead offered back to back Test matches in Galle. Ireland’s last Test was against England at Lord’s back in July 2019 and their wait for the next one will end in Bangladesh when they conclude their seven-match multi-format tour in Dhaka. The five-day match begins on April 4. more..

Mar 14 (TM) The SJB is at present mulling the possibility of bringing contempt of Court charges against Govt MP, Attorney Premnath C. Dolawatte over a Parliamentary privileges’ related issue raised by the latter in connection with the Supreme Court’s (SC) recent interim order preventing the Finance Ministry from withholding 2023 Budgetary allocations for the announced Local Govt (LG) polls. more..

Mar 14 (Island) Savinaka Weerasekara and Nadeesha Gayanthi clinched men’s and women’s open singles titles respectively at the Southern Province Open Badminton Championships held at the Dadella Sports Complex in Galle. Weerasekara, a student of D S Senanayake College, Colombo, overcame Kasun Madushanka Rathnayake in straight sets (21-8, 21-12) to clinch the title, while Gayanthi also lifted her singles crown with a 21-13, 21-13 win over Isuri Amanda De Alwis more..

Mar 14 (FT) The UK will today kick off a roadshow in Colombo on its new Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), its successor to the GSP+ following Brexit. Two officials from the Dept of International Trade in UK (UKDIT) who are policy advisors of DCTS Sofie Kinsey and Fabian Hartwell are in SL to popularise the scheme among private sector and other stakeholders. DCTS is a generous set of trading preferences that would help Sri Lanka to diversify exports and expand its economy. more..

Mar 14 (FT) MP and PHU Leader Udaya Gammanpila filed an application in Supreme Court challenging the Central Bank Bill that the latter violates Article 3 and 4 of the Constitution hence needing approval of the people at a referendum. The respondent in the case is the AG. He said that the enactment of this Bill was a condition imposed by the IMF. “If there is a conflict between the Constitution and the agreement more..

Mar 14 (Island) Women’s participation in the ICT sector in SL is low compared to many countries but Virtusa SL has taken the lead to bridge this female deficit by having the highest number of women employees within its organization, Chief People Officer Virtusa Sundar Narayan said. “Virtusa has around 40,000 employees globally. With a female workforce of 38%, Virtusa SL is one of the organization’s key development centres and percentage of its female work force is higher more..

Mar 14 (Island) In a bid to introduce Heritage Tourism to the Negombo tourism belt, a pioneer in the hotel and aviation industry, Mervyn Ferndopulle, will be reactivating a tourist hot spot in the area which, according to legend, was patronized by kings and colonial rulers of yore. Fernandopulle who is the chairman of Airwing Tours and Royal Castle Hotel, Negombo, said that after intense studies he found that the Mora Wala beach in Negombo was used by Dutch & English people for over 3 centuries. more..

Mar 14 (FT) Marking its 13th year of honouring inspiring SL women, Women in Management (WIM), in collaboration with Women in Work, a partnership between IFC and the govt of Australia, have now opened nominations for the Top50 Professional and Career Women Global Awards 2023 under the theme of Women Taking Centre Stage for Economic Recovery. This will be IFC’s eighth consecutive year – fourth under the IFC-DFAT Women in Work program – in co-hosting the awards, more..

Mar 14 (TM) Deputy Commissioner General of Excise Dept said that no discussions have taken place on granting permission to sell liquor on Poya days as the Excise Dept has no power to make such a decision according to the prevailing rules and regulations. He expressed these views when inquired regarding a statement which was allegedly made by the State Minister Diana Gamage, that the govt authorities should allow opening liquor bars for foreigners on Poya days. more..

Mar 14 (TM) Minister Tiran Alles, who has sent a letter to the Human Rights Commission of SL (HRCSL), querying as to whether all of its members had taken a decision to summon him to inquire about the measures taken by the Police to control two protests organised by the Inter-University Students’ Federation last week, said that he would consider making an appearance before the HRCSL if such a collective decision had been made. more..

Mar 14 (EN) SL’s coconut milk exporters see a rare opportunity in expanding their sales in foreign markets after an American animal rights group has urged coconut buyers to stop importing coconut milk from Thailand due to monkey labour practice. Thailand is the third largest coconut exporter in the World after Indonesia and Philippines. SL is the fourth-largest exporter of fresh and dried coconut products, including desiccated coconut, brown fiber, virgin coconut oil, and coconut water. more..

Mar 14 (ST) A string of strikes by trade unions have been organised for the coming week, but the govt has vowed it will maintain essential services during those days. GMOA spokesperson Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe said their Central Committee held a meeting on Friday and decided to launch a strike tomorrow in the Western, Southern, Eastern and Central Provinces. In the other five provinces, strike would be launched on Tuesday. On Wednesday (15), all doctors would be on strike and more..

Mar 14 (DM) Peradeniya Uni Administration has decided to subject all new entrants to a Psychoanalysis medical test. Deputy VC Terrance Madujith said that the students admitted to the Medical Faculty and the Management Faculty were medically tested and found that five percent of them were in a condition requiring psychiatric treatment. Prof. Madujith said that the new entrants would be subject to a psychoanalysis test to identify their mental disorders, if any, more..

Mar 14 (CT) To cover overtime payments alone, the Election Commission has sought recurrent expenditure of Rs 60.5 million from the Treasury, for the past two months. This was confirmed by a document sent for approval by the Ministry of Finance. As per the document seeking recurrent funds, the commission has claimed nearly Rs 92 million for the same period to cover expenses, including casual pay (with allowances), payments of pensioners, holiday payments of both more..

Mar 14 (Island) Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith declared that Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is also the Finance Minister, had to carry out the interim order issued by the Supreme Court on March 03 pertaining to a fundamental rights petition filed by SJB General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara. Cardinal strongly criticised Prez Wickremesinghe’s conduct and statements by SLPP MP more..

Mar 14 (AD) The discussion held between the govt and the trade union collective of professionals on Monday ended unsuccessfully, the secretary of the GMOA says. Speaking to reporters following the meeting, Dr. Haritha Aluthge said conclusive solutions were not tabled by the govt for the professionals to put an end to their ongoing trade union action. However, govt’s side responded positively to the alternatives that were proposed previously to boost the state revenue, more..

Mar 14 (DM) The prime rate fell sharply, despite the Central Bank half-heartedly raising the key policy rates by 100 basis points, reflecting that the most recent policy move is entirely symbolic and has no real impact on the markets. The prime lending rate, the benchmark rate used to price loans to top-tier borrowers and also provides direction for the rest of the markets from home mortgages, small business loans to consumer loans, fell by 71 basis points to 22.74 percent last week, more..

Mar 14 (TM) Election Commission (EC), which is yet to decide on what steps should be taken if the Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies, and the general Treasury do not release the necessary funds for the holding of the LG Elections, is scheduled to take a final decision in that regard by the end of this week. The Daily Morning queried EC Chairman, Nimal Punchihewa as to whether the EC would more..

Mar 14 (FT) SL uses paper records to store land titles held in the Registrar General’s Dept. It is an extremely inefficient process as lost land titles can take, on average, six to twelve months to retrieve, which limits the public’s ability to borrow against their immobile asset, making it what Hernando De Soto calls dead capital. This inefficiency is due to both internal inefficiency (as titles are passed down through decades) and corruption. Since most citizens do not write officiated wills, more..

Mar 14 (FT) For SL’s political and economic establishment, the current moment is no doubt unnerving. In this context, there is an emerging style of commentary that focuses on critiquing or otherwise cautioning the Govt led by Ranil Wickremesinghe for its poor optics. Many commentators of this type embrace the underlying assumptions about the necessity of the IMF policy package. But they also say, for example, do not delay LG Elections and let the people vent more..

Mar 14 (FT) The American Chamber of Commerce in SL (AmCham SL) on 1 March, convened a roundtable discussion with the participation of over 60 C-suite representatives of the private sector across over 20 industries, to discuss, dissect and design solutions to the age-old problem of attrition of women. Setting the context, AmCham SL Head of Chamber Vrai Raymond said, “As many of us know first-hand, many women opt to leave the workforce after marriage or after the birth of a child, more..

Mar 14 (AD) Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the recent finding of a female body in a paddy field in the Alwathugoda area in Kandy. Accordingly, Police revealed that the suspect, identified as an area resident, was arrested with the help of a police dog named Eagle, who had caught the scent of the arrested individual in the muddy area in which the girl’s body had been buried. Subsequently, Eagle had followed this scent, for nearly four km, after which the suspect was more..

Mar 14 (TM) Govt Printer Gangani Liyanage is to inform the Election Commission (EC) today in writing that the general Treasury is yet to provide the necessary financial allocation for the printing of ballot papers for the LG polls. When contacted, Govt Printer Gangani Liyanage said: "After the discussion with the EC last week, I submitted a written request to the Secretary to the Treasury Mahinda Siriwardana requesting more..