News

President Maithripala Sirisena says he is prepared to form an SLFP government if the 96 parliamentarians of the United National Freedom Alliance extends their support to him.

The President made these comments at a public rally held in Ratnapura today.

Pure Alliance!

According to the President, a thieving elitist alliance has been formed and a pure alliance should be formed against it as an alternative. The President had made these comments while meeting with editors and media heads yesterday at the President's house.

The President had gone on to say that he is on a difficult journey within this government but however he will face any obstacles in his fight against corruption.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo pledged his country’s assistance to upgrade the train service in Sri Lanka when he met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at Temple Trees yesterday morning.

Widodo accordingly promised to send a team of technical experts to Sri Lanka to assist in upgrading the train service. He has also stated that arrangements should be made to strengthen the friendship between Sri Lanka and Indonesia based on historical relationships.

The Indonesian President also expressed his willingness to contribute towards infrastructure development activities in Sri Lanka.

Discussions were held on developing education and tourism through joint efforts and ensuring free and peaceful naval transportation.

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry has recommended filing criminal cases against 13 individuals including former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Avant Garde Chairman Nissanka Senadhipathi over the Avant Garde case.

The final report of Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Serious Acts of Fraud, Corruption and Abuse of Power, State Resources and Privileges (PRECIFAC) was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

The other individuals against whom the Commission recommends filing criminal cases over the Avant Garde case include former Additional Defence Secretary Damayanthi Jayaratne, former Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Limited (RALL) CEO Major General K.B. Egodawela, former RALL Chairman Major General Palitha Fernando, former Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, former Mayor Dhanasiri Amaratunga, former Mayor Janaka Ranawaka, former MP Duminda Silva,

Western Provincial Councilor Upali Kodikara, former Navy Commanders Jayantha Perera and Jayanath Colombage and Rohanaweera De Zoysa.

The Commission has held that the state officials among those mentioned above are deemed not fit to hold any office in the public service hereafter. It observed the former Navy Commanders, who acted in a manner that Avant Garde Maritimes Services gets undue benefit, have been recruited to the company at higher salaries after their retirement.

It has proposed taking legal action against the deployment of RALL employees at election work and crediting those expenses to RALL, depriving a considerable income to the Navy by handing over the floating armoury project to Avant Garde and not issuing permits under the Firearms Ordinance to the weapons possessed by the RALL.

It has also recommended that the Auditor General must be given full authority to audit the business undertakings with majority shares to the Government in the same manner that the public enterprises are being audited.

Source : Daily News

UNP Uva Provincial Councillor A. Ganeshamoorthy who is alleged to have committed financial frauds was ordered to be arrested today.

Provincial Councillors Ganeshamoorthy, Upali Senaratne and eight others sustained injuries during an assault which took place yesterday.

Ganeshamoorthy was ordered to be arrested while receiving treatment at the Badulla hospital.

Meanwhile, six persons were also arrested in connection with the assault on Provincial Councillor Ganeshamoorthy at the Uva Provincial Council, yesterday.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe today announced that the parliament will be convened on February 8 to debate the Bond commission report and other reports in to on serious fraud and corruption.

The Prime Minister made this announcement at a public rally in Morawaka, Deniyaya.

The PM said the letters calling for parliament to be convened will be sent out tomorrow.

“February 8 was decided as being a suitable date as the Ministers and Parliamentarians are currently engaged in election campaign process,” Wickramasinghe said.

According to political sources the decision was taken in response to the challenge made by the President to hold the debate prior to the election. He had alleged the debate was put off in agreement with corrupt individuals.

The Prime Minister also went on to say that it is not an issue if the party leaders wish to debate on the matter for a number of days as the United National Party has done nothing that needs to be hidden or swept under the rug.

“There is much discussion regarding holding a debate on the commission reports in the country today” he said adding that the party leaders had agreed to hold a debate on February 19 regarding the two reports that have been submitted to parliament. However the debate will now be held on February 8 after the Prime Minister has decided to convene parliament following a request made by JVP MP and Chief opposition whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake to the Speaker in this regard. “The speaker informed me of the request yesterday,” he said adding that thereafter he asked for the parliament to be convened on February 8.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private lending arm of the World Bank Group, is considering a senior loan investment of up to $15 million to Senkadagala Finance PLC (SFCL), a licensed finance company in Sri Lanka and IFC client since 2014.

In a disclosure, IFC said the five-year $15-million senior loan will support SFCL’s lending to women micro, small, and medium-sized (MSME) entrepreneurs and the expansion of the financing firm’s branch network in tier II cities in Sri Lanka.

SFCL, listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange, is headquartered in Colombo with 90 branches and service centers spread across Sri Lanka.

The new branches will be established mainly in rural regions, where access to finance for MSMEs are a challenge.

“The project will create better access to finance for around 20,000 women MSME customers at an affordable rate,” the IFC said, adding that the loan will be secured by future receivables and would be funded in Sri Lankan Rupees.

The credit gap for women entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka is estimated at $350 million. This project is likely to incentivize banks and other non-banking financial institutions to launch funding programs targeted at women, the IFC added.

“The availability of credit would enable women MSMEs to compete and be a part of local/global value chains and grow their businesses by accessing domestic and foreign markets, which are not currently accessible,” it added.

As a result of the loan project, the combined economic activity would result in an increase in tax revenue to the state at a time where the fiscal position is under stress due to high debt servicing cost.

Minister Ratnayake today claimed that the United National Party has no deals with other parties and its only deals are with the people of Sri Lanka. “According to the deal with the public we will develop the country’s economy,” the Minister said adding that new employment opportunities will be generated for the youth while health services will also be developed. “This deal will be strictly adhered to in order ensure a corruption less country” the Minister stressed.

The government will investigate corruption and frauds committed during the Rajapaksa era, Minister of Law and Order & Southern Development Sagala Ratnayake said. The Minister made these comments while addressing a public rally in Morawaka, Deniyaya today.

However, while claiming that action will be taken against wrongdoers according to proper legal procedures the Minister went on to say it will not be done in the fashion that punishment was meted out by the Rajapaksa’s to Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka.

While claiming that the United National Party’s candidates are experienced and capable individuals the Minister said the party will not allow them to commit any fraudulent acts if appointment.

Ceylon tea exports to China surged 30 percent to 9.9 million kilograms in 2017 from the year before, making China the eighth biggest market for Ceylon tea, local media quoting the Sri Lanka Tea Board said on Thursday.

Minister of Plantation Industries Naveen Dissanayake said the fast growth of the Chinese market showed it had a lot of potential.
"I visited China twice to promote Ceylon tea. We can export more to China," the minister said.

Statistics from the Sri Lanka Tea Board showed Ceylon tea exports to China have been rising strongly since 2012.

Tea exports to China have risen 230 percent in the past five years, with the growth in 2016 being the fourth highest among the island's major markets.

The livelihood of more than 350,000 smallholders in Sri Lanka depend entirely on tea cultivation.

A group of war-displaced Tamils have prevented state authorities from officially validating the illegal occupation of privately owned land in the Jaffna peninsula by Sri Lanka security forces.

Government surveyors who arrived at a village in the northern islet of Kayts, to chart an area for a permanent navy installation, had to turn back after meeting with stiff resistance from the original owners and their neighbours.

Almost 30 families from the Paruththiyadaippu village have been displaced for more than a decade.

Government Surveyor ET Yogatheepan had earlier informed Jaffna District Surveyor Yogaratnam Kadirgamanathan that he will conduct the demarcation on 25 January to establish a sentry point for the Kanchadeva naval base as authorized by Minister of Lands Gayantha Karunathilake.

The letter seen by JDS dated 10 January 2018 had been copied to local government authorities and the commander of Kanchadeva camp.

Alarmed by the surveyor’s visit, the legal owner of the land, Pushparaj Sujeewarasa had informed local authorities that he had no idea of the demarcation.

Devious scheme

Villagers who rushed to the scene in protest, are wary of a devious government scheme to gradually legalise the military occupation.

"Our land will be surveyed bit by bit and officially handed over to the navy permanently."

Traditional Paruththiyadaippu residents believe that the officials backing off was temporary as local government elections are due to be held on 10 February.

"They can come back once the elections are over," a displaced villager told journalists.

"The navy should vacate forever and allow us to live in our land peacefully."

Vacating military occupied the land, release of political prisoners, revealing the fate of disappeared and accountability for war crimes have been the key demands of a majority of Tamil political parties campaigning in the north and east.

According to Tamil politicians, at least 35,000 acres of land in the predominantly Tamil north and east, is under military occupation.

Source : www.jdslanka.org

Eight Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested on Thursday by the Sri Lankan Navy while they were allegedly fishing near Neduntheevu.

Assistant Director of Fisheries, Pudukottai, Kumaresan said the fishers belonging to Jagadapattinam in Pududottai district were arrested while fishing off Neduntheevu by the Lankan naval men and taken to Kangesanthurai port there. Two boats were also seized, Kumaresan added.

The arrest of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy has become a flash point in India-Sri Lanka relations.

(PTI)

President Maithripala said on Friday that more than $58 billion, or 90 percent, of foreign loans borrowed by the previous government, was unaccounted for in Finance Ministry records.

However, ministry officials the last government said President Maithripala Sirisena’s numbers were false.

The central bank’s latest records show Sri Lanka’s total outstanding debt was 10.3 trillion rupees as of the end of September last year.

Sirisena, who is struggling to deliver his 2015 election promise of eliminating corruption, also said a large sum of funds under the previous government that should have been deposited with the treasury have gone to private companies. This was done in a systematic manner to avoid disclosure, he said.

His administration is facing a debt crisis and struggling to face an expensive loan repayment cycle started this year. It must repay an estimated 1.97 trillion rupees ($12.85 billion) in 2018 - a record high - including $2.9 billion of foreign loans, and a total of $5.36 billion in interest.

“President Maithripala Sirisena said of the 10 trillion rupees loans taken by the previous government from abroad, only about 1 trillion rupees could be accounted for in the assets and huge sum of money could not be accounted for in the documents in the finance ministry,” his office said in a statement.

Sirisena’s office did not respond when asked if the numbers were correct. However, it confirmed that the president stated the numbers. He made the comments to a group of local editors.

The president also criticised his own coalition government, saying some of the sales of state properties during the last three years were done without informing the cabinet.

Two officials at the Finance Ministry who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said Sirisena’s statement on the foreign loan was wrong.

Under the previous government from 2004-2015 led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka borrowed 5.17 trillion rupees of total loans including 2.16 trillion rupees ($14.06 billion) of foreign loan.

Ajith Nivard Cabraal, central bank governor between 2006 and 2015 and a close ally of former leader Rajapaksa, said the president may have made “this irresponsible statement to sling mud at the previous regime”.

“Sri Lanka has diligently and faithfully recorded all foreign borrowings in accordance with our laws and regulations as well the terms of issue, during the time of the previous government,” Cabraal said.

Source: Reuters

A gym in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo caused outrage after it put up a billboard featuring a picture of a barrel with the text "this is no shape for a woman". The BBC's Ayeshea Perera reports on the fight to get it taken down.

The hoarding for Osmo gym went up in a Colombo suburb last week and the row almost instantly made it on to social media.

Both men and women shared pictures of the billboard along with expressions of outrage and disgust at the "blatant sexism" and "body shaming" depicted.

Some began a hashtag campaign entitled #BoycottOsmo, while others tagged the organisation on Facebook asking them to take down the hoardings and apologise. However the gym did not respond, and a post featuring the images used in the billboard stayed pinned to the top of their Facebook page.

"The ad was nothing very different from the typical objectification and sexist usage of women by the ad industry, which has been selling anything from cars to perfume by sexualising women and their bodies," Marisa de Silva, an activist, told the BBC.

"But this ad also attempted to body shame by dictating to women the ideal shape they should resemble, almost as though it is the sole basis of their worth."

So, along with a group of women who had been discussing the billboard on social media, she decided to do something about it.

The gym said it was inspired by a World Health Organization report on obesity in Sri Lanka (Getty).

One of them, who did not want to be identified, tried calling Osmo's marketing manager to complain, and was told that the hoarding had used an image that had not been "approved" by the company. He did not offer to take it down.

A few others decided to approach Harsha de Silva, the minister in charge of the Kotte constituency where the billboard was put up.

He responded with the tweet: "I asked the Colombo MC Commissioner to remove this unapproved offensive hoarding. I would not tolerate this in Kotte."

So the billboard was covered up on the basis that it did not have the necessary permissions, and the Colombo Municipal Council allowed the women to use the space to display a message against sexism for two days.

Ms. de Silva, who was one of the women who spoke to the minister, canvassed opinion on social media for the text of the new banner, before settling on "no more space for sexism" in Sri Lanka's three major languages - Sinhala, Tamil and English.

A local graphics company stepped in with an offer of sponsorship and the banner went up a day later.

But while many cheered the initiative to take down the billboard and replace it with a banner against sexism, a few men on social media warned that such a move set a "dangerous precedent" against free speech.

 The banner did not last long either. It was taken down after a day, and its whereabouts are currently unknown.

Meanwhile Osmo also responded with an official statement on the campaign, saying that it had "withdrawn" the advertisement, which was not intended to "degrade, offend, insult or undermine any one person or women in general".

It further explained that the ad had been inspired by a "disturbing" WHO report that said there were higher rates of diabetes, being overweight, obesity and physical inactivity among Sri Lankan women than men.

However Ms de Silva says she hopes that some lessons have been learned from the incident.

"This set off a chain reaction which I hope might make the ad industry at least think twice before subscribing to sexist advertising in the future," she said.

(BBC)