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Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera says that they have no choice but to register consumers at filling stations and give them a guaranteed weekly quota until the government is able to strengthen the financial situation, restore 24-hour power supply and a steady supply of fuel.

The minister stated that he hopes to have this system in place by the first week of July.

Until we have uninterrupted power supply and steady fuel supply, fuel line management will be impossible, Wijesekera said in a twitter message on Sunday.

He stated that with the financial restrictions, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) imports fuel to manage for a week, however some consumers collect fuel for a month or more for their machinery and generators.

He said 24-hour power supply costs an additional USD 100 million monthly for diesel, furnace oil and naphtha and that the shortage in LP gas supply has increased the demand for electricity and kerosene.

The minister said that the country’s monthly fuel bill which was at USD 200 million four months ago is currently at USD 550 million.

“We have no choice but to register consumers at filling stations and give them a guaranteed weekly quota until we are able to strengthen the financial situation, restore 24 Hour Power and a steady supply of fuel. I hope to have this system in place by the 1st week of July,” he tweeted.

The Ministry of Justice has decided to suspend the Fiscal Officer attached to the Commercial High Court in Colombo regarding his conduct on serving an court order on grounding the Russia Aeroflot flight.

The Fiscal Officer is charged with abusing the court process in enforcing the order issued by the Commercial High Court to ground the A330 flight at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

In addition, the Justice Ministry had also informed the Chief Justice that is it appropriate the take action against the Attorney-at-Law who is also accused of his conduct over the same matter.

The Consumer Affairs Authority has issued a Gazette Notification imposing a maximum retail price on local rice.

As stated in the Gazette, a kilogram of white and red kekulu rice will each be sold at Rs.210 per kg with effect from yesterday (10).

a Gazette

Minister Prasanna Ranatunga has been sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment suspended for a period of five years by the Colombo High Court in the case filed against him over the Meethotamulla land dispute.

Meanwhile the minister was also imposed a fine of Rs. 25 million by the Colombo High Court, which laos ordered that failure to pay the fine carries an additional nine months imprisonment.

In addition, the court further ordered Minister Ranatunga to pay a compensation of Rs. 1 million to the accuser, a businessman, and declared that if he fails to pay the compensation, he will be sentenced to an additional three months imprisonment.

Meanwhile two other accused in the case including the minister’s wife Morin Ranatunga and another individual were acquitted from the case by the court.

The Attorney General had filed an indictment against the former Western Province Chief Minister before the Colombo High Court in May 2016, accusing him of threatening a businessman in connection with the transactions of a land in Meethotamulla of 322 perches.

Ranatunga, who is the incumbent Minister of Urban Development and Housing, was accused of threatening a businessman named Gerard Mendis and demanding Rs. 64 million to evict unauthorized occupants of a land in the Meethotamulla area in Kolonnawa and to refill the land, during his tenure as Chief Minister.

The verdict in the case was delivered by Colombo High Court Judge Manjula Tillakaratne, today (06).

Sri Lanka’s Education Ministry declared the 13th of June, a holiday for all government and government-approved private schools.

13th June 2022, has been declared as a Special Government holiday by the Ministry of Public Administration.

The Ministry said this decision was taken citing transportation issues and difficulties experienced in operating government offices.

However, the holiday should NOT hinder essential services, said the Ministry.

A Sri Lankan Court on Monday (6) suspended an order preventing an Aeroflot flight from leaving Sri Lanka.

The order was suspended after the Colombo Commercial High Court considered a motion filed by the Attorney General.

The motion was considered in the presences of Colombo Commercial High Court Judge Harsha Setunga on Monday (6).

The Airbus A330-343 operated by Russian state-owned airline Aeroflot was denied permission to fly to Moscow as scheduled on June 2nd amid a legal dispute with a leasing company. The flight had more than 200 passengers onboard.

Celestial Aviation Trading Limited, one of the largest plane-leasing firms, is seeking to confiscate the jet after Russia failed to return its property.

The European Union in February imposed a wide-array of economic sanctions on Russia, including banning the leasing of EU airplanes, after it invaded Ukraine.

The bloc’s sanctions demanded Russia return any aircraft leased from EU firms by the end of March.

Leasing companies have confiscated 78 planes operated by Russian airlines since the sanctions were imposed, though nearly all occurred within the first few days.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has demanded Sri Lanka resolve the situation, warning it could hurt bilateral relations.

The Sri Lanka Electricity Amendment Bill No. 20 of 2009 was passed in the parliament today (June 09) without committee state amendments, by a majority of votes.

Following the debate on the second reading of the Bill, the Opposition had demanded a vote. A total of 120 votes were cast in favour and 36 were cast against while 13 lawmakers abstained from voting. Accordingly, the second reading was passed by a majority of 84 votes.

Subsequently, during the committee stage, the Opposition objected to the amendment brought by the Minister of Energy to Article 4 and the ruling party had to withdraw the amendment.

Accordingly, MP Harsha de Silva, on behalf of the Opposition, moved an amendment to Article 4, which the Power & Energy Minister rejected. Thus, the Opposition called for a division and the amendment moved by the Opposition was rejected by a majority of 64 votes. A total of 51 votes were cast in favour and 115 votes were cast against.

The Opposition then went on to call for a vote for Article 4 in its entirety, which was passed by a majority of 70 votes to which 116 votes were cast in favor and 46 cast against.

Accordingly, the Electricity (Amendment) Bill was passed by a majority in Parliament.

This Bill, introduced in Parliament on May 17, 2022 by the Power & Energy Minister, qualifies a person to apply for a generation license to generate electricity.

Accordingly, this amendment will remove the restrictions on the issuance of a power generation license for a person whose generating electricity over and above the generation capacity of 25 MW and will allow anyone to apply for it without any restriction on the generation capacity.

In addition, Regulations under the Petroleum Resources Act made by the Minister of Energy were approved by Parliament today. These orders were published in the Gazette Notification No. 2249/32 dated 15.10.2021.

These Regulations are referred to as Petroleum Resources No. 1 of 2021 (Minimum Eligibility Orders of the Appointed Members and the Director General).

Accordingly, the minimum qualifications of a member appointed to the Board of Directors under the Petroleum Resources Act No. 21 of 2021 and the minimum qualifications and experience of the Director General of the Sri Lanka Petroleum Development Authority are stated in these orders.

However, the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) vehemently opposed what it called the “deceitful” amendments to the Sri Lanka Electricity Act, alleging that it is an attempt by the government to entirely abolish the competitive bidding process in electricity procurement from private sector.

The argued the competitive bidding process ensures the right of the general public to receive electricity at the least cost.

In protest of the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act, the CEBEU said it would resort to a trade union action effective from midnight yesterday. The CEB Technical Engineers’ Association meanwhile stated that it would not support the strike, stressing that the strike was unacceptable at the moment.

The trade union action was called off this morning following discussions with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The CEBEU said “a team of corrupt individuals has employed a cunning strategy abusing the Act through these proposed amendments to secure large-scale solar, wind and other kinds of power generation projects which are to be implemented in future among their interested partners at their will without having any competitive bidding process and incurring huge adverse impact to the national economy while they are being profited exorbitantly.

“It is clear that the parties with vested interests want these amendments implemented to entertain unsolicited proposals such as proposals of New Fortress Energy and Adani Group, to gain immense undue financial benefits.”

Veteran actress Sumana Amarasinghe has passed away.

Close relatives stated that she passed away at the Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital last night (5) following to a heart attack.

Amarasinghe entered the film industry with the film Pipena Kumudu directed by Ruby de Mel. She acted in many films and won the Most Popular Actress award on several occasions, in addition to producing six films.

Close relatives mentioned that the date of the funeral of the late actress will be announced later.

The wearing of face masks will no longer be made mandatory from tomorrow (10), Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella stated.

As per a circular issued by the Director General of Health Services (DGHS), it is no longer mandatory to wear face masks within indoor and outdoor spaces.

Those with respiratory symptoms have, however, been advised to wear a face mask.

The High Commission of India in Colombo Tweeted that it handed over 3.3 tonnes of medical supplies to Sri Lanka on Friday (3)

According to the Tweet, India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar was apprised in March of the shortages of medicines faced by the 1990 Suwa Seriya service, and hence the supplies have been handed over in order to help the vital lifeline run smoothly.

The Tweet goes on to say:

“This is part of over 370 million Rupees worth of medical aid delivered from India in the last two months. Happy to have supported the Service since its beginning with gifts of ambulances from India.”

The Court of Appeal on Thursday (9) ordered former Minister Johnston Fernando to surrender to the Magistrate’s Court before 8 PM..

The Court of Appeal ordered the CID not to execute the warrant issued by the Fort Magistrate for Fernando’s arrest, until that time.

The Court of Appeal also directed the Fort Magistrate not to issue any order against Johnston Fernando until the Court of Appeal gives its final verdict on the writ petition filed by Johnston Fernando.

Colombo Municipal Councilor Mahinda Kahandagama was arrested by Sri Lanka Police on Thursday (2).

He surrendered to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) today.