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LRL has firmly in place a 99 year leasehold right to a 7 acre property in the Palatupana development area in Yala. The project development work was delayed due to a prior court order and the terror attacks that took place in April 2019.

LRL was and is in place with all resources required to develop the site on a tight timeline, it was reported.  

However, it is widely known that the SLTDA Chairperson, Kimarli Fernando has tried stalling the development process. It is also reported that government funds may have been used by filing a declaration of cancellation on the aforesaid lease.

Furthermore, it is reported that Kimarli Fernando is protecting her husband’s (Malik Fernando and family – Dilmah Tea) business operation, Wild Coast Tented Lodge (owned by Wild Coast Lodge (Pvt) Ltd) which coincidentally is on the immediate neighboring site, right next to LRL’s property.

Malik Fernando (Kimarli Fernando’s husband) is a director and shareholder of Wild Coast Lodge (Pvt) Ltd which in turn owns the Wild Coast Tented Lodge. There is a clear and apparent conflict of interest between the Chairperson of the SLTDA Ms. Kimarli Fernando, and this development project by LRL, due to the above.

When development is required in Sri Lanka at a time when our borders remain closed, it is sad to note the behaviour that state officials are engaging in by proactively seeking to stall development projects merely to protect their family business interests.

He pointed out that his government will have to take the blame for the economic slowdown due to this serious negligence on the part of the Central bank. He exhorted central bank officials not to shirk responsibility and let him know the correct strategy.

Pointing out the massive mandate he received from the people, the president lamented that the Central bank has obstructed the implementation of the proposals made by him.

Retired Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police S. M. Wickremasinghe has been appointed to the post.

The objective of setting up an Ombudsman Office is to provide solutions to any inconvenience or distress caused to the public as a result of negligence of public officers or acting beyond their limit while exercising their administrative powers.

The office is located on 3rd Floor, Old Standard Chartered Bank Building, Janadhipathi Mawatha, Colombo 1.

The public has the opportunity to submit their complaints or grievances in person by visiting the office or they can forward their issues by post addressed to “Ombudsman, Presidential Secretariat, Colombo 1”.

The public can reach the office through the telephone/ fax no. 011 2338073 or sending an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Ombudsman S. M. Wickremasinghe says people also can complain about large scale drug trafficking which causes disruption to the civilian life, damages to the environment and any other illegal activity to him.

The Commission issued summons to former ministers Rajitha Senaratne, Patali Champika Ranawaka, Arjuna Ranatunge and JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake yesterday (15).

Chairman of Avant-Garde Nissanka Senadhipathi had lodged a complaint with the Presidential Commission alleging that Avant-Garde incurred massive losses due to the arbitrary takeover of his company and due to many other instances of alleged political victimisation by the previous government.

The isolation units were set up at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, Castle Street Hospital for Women and the Base Hospital Minuwangoda. The hospitals were identified by the Ministry of Health as part of a rapid assessment for COVID-19 patient isolation and treatment purposes.

UNICEF contributed with technical expertise and funding of nearly LKR 5 million from the Japanese government while the construction expertise and labour for the refurbishment was provided by the Sri Lanka Navy.

“It is vital that we continue to support the Government of Sri Lanka in responding to the coronavirus pandemic. The setting up of the special isolation and treatment units at these hospitals is a truly a collaborative effort involving much needed assistance from the Government of Japan and the Sri Lanka Navy,” Emma Brigham, Deputy Representative of UNICEF Sri Lanka said.

This work involved the refurbishing of existing hospital spaces and the installation of ventilation and sound systems, adequate facilities for infection prevention and water and sanitation for health and establishing of a layout in line with social distancing requirements.

Several task forces were appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa citing powers vested in him by Article 33 of the Constitution.

All government institutions have been directed to follow the orders of the all-powerful task forces appointed with serving and retired military personnel who report directly to the president.

Fifty-nine individuals and sixteen organisations have expressed their grave concern regarding the establishment of a spate of Presidential Task Forces when the country was under a lock down due to the COVID-19 pandemic and citizens were unable to make inputs to express their concerns regarding their establishment.

“All the Presidential Task Forces have a complement of military personnel while the Presidential Task Force to build a Secure Country, Disciplined, Virtuous and Lawful Society is composed entirely of persons from the armed forces and police,” says the statement issued by the activists.

“This further demonstrates the steady drift towards militarizing civil functions within Sri Lanka’s health and educational sectors, development, public administration and even judicial processes following the Presidential election of November 2019. This does not bode well for Sri Lanka’s long-established parliamentary democracy.”

The activists have highlighted that the Presidential Task Force for Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province led by Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne has ignored the country’s minorities who are a significant population in the region.

“The members of the Task Forces are drawn almost entirely from the Sinhala community. Buddhist monks make up a significant portion of the Task Force for the Eastern Province, ignoring the fact that the Province is also equally populated by Tamils and Muslims. It is likely that the interests of these communities will be neglected by the Task Forces and will reflect the majoritarianism espoused by this government,” the activists noted.

They further questioned the ‘policing’ of the civil service by security service personnel in these task forces and the funding of these new bodies.

“These new Task Forces are structures that are solely accountable to the President and are staffed, not by professional civil service personnel, with the required experience, but by security personnel with no experience in civil functions. They are expected to ‘police’ the civil service and are usurping the powers and functions of the Cabinet and Ministries, which are vital in a parliamentary democracy. Rather than these Task Forces, the Sectoral Oversight Committee system in Parliament established under the 19th Amendment and populated by Members of Parliament from all political parties is a much more independent and efficient oversight mechanism that can respond to the exigencies faced by the country at this time. It is also unclear how the work of these task forces will be financed, to what extent they will duplicate functions of ministries, and the extra costs and expenditures that this will entail at a time when the need for cost cutting should be a primary concern of the government.”

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on ‘Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province’ has been tasked to conserve all archaeological heritage sites in the Eastern Province irrespective of religion, Defence Secretary Maj.Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne said.

Addressing the members of the PTF on ‘Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province’, at their inaugural meeting at the Defence Ministry today, the Defence Secretary, who is the Chairman of the PTF, requested all Sri Lankans irrespective of their race, religion and other differences to support the PTF to preserve Sri Lanka’s historical heritage in the Eastern Province for future generations.  

“We have many historical archaeological sites in the Eastern Province and many are under threat due to different reasons, today. The Government wants to conserve and restore these sites irrespective of the religion or ethnic group that they belong to as they are national heritage sites,” he said.  

The Defence Secretary said the PTF would work closely with all the ethnic groups in the Eastern Province to restore and manage those historical archaeological sites.  

The members of the PTF discussed matters related to planning and implementation of its tasks. During the discussion, the members representing different establishments agreed upon sharing knowledge and mutual cooperation with a view to bringing everyone into one grid in implementing the PTF’s mandate.

The 11-member PTF is given the task of identifying sites of archaeological importance in the Eastern Province, identifying and implementing an appropriate program for the management of archaeological heritage by conserving and restoring such identified sites and antiquities, identifying the extent of land that should be allocated for such archaeological sites and take necessary measures to allocate them properly and legally and preserving the cultural value of sites of archaeological importance and promoting the uniqueness of Sri Lanka, both locally and internationally and making recommendations to  promote such heritage.  

The PTF members during the meeting emphasized the importance of getting the support of local communities whose knowledge and information on the sites would be of significance to conserve them. They also agreed to initiate viable options in conserving and restoring archaeological and heritage sites already identified as a stepping stone of the PTF’s work on the ground while simultaneously utilizing available resources in discovering more sites in the Eastern Province.  

A decision was arrived at creating a database of archaeological sites with the inclusion of geo-spatial data enabling effective and transparent implementation in preservation and conservation efforts.

The PTF members -  Purawidya Chakravarthi Ven. Ellawala Medhananda thero, Chief Prelate for the Eastern and Northern Provinces Ven. Panamure Thilakawansha thero, Governor Eastern Province Anuradha Yahampath, Director General of Archaeology Dr. Senarath Bandara Dissanayake, Land Commissioner General Chandra Herath, Surveyor General A.L.S.C. Perera, Prof. Raj Kumar Somadeva,  Prof. Kapila Gunawardena,  Senior DIG Western Province  Deshabandu  Thennakoon, Provincial Land Commissioner, Eastern Province H.E.M.W.G. Dissanayake, Chairman of Derana Media Network Dilith Jayaweera and Senior Assistant Secretary to the President Jeevanthie Senanayake were present in the meeting.

The President's Media Division said that 95% of the Uma Oya project has already been completed and the remaining work is to be completed before December this year.

The project will add 120 MW of electricity to the national grid.

After undergoing the mandatory PCR test at the airport, they were directed to the quarantine centres run by the Army, President's Media Division said adding that at the end of the quarantine period, the group will have to undergo a second round of PCR tests and will be taken to the project site thereafter.

The Prime Minister's son has called for a probe into the incident and observed that the recent behaviour of some members of the Police should not tarnish the track record of the entire Police Department and the great job done during COVID -19 pandemic

 

Archaeological excavations deep within the rainforests of Sri Lanka have unearthed the earliest evidence for hunting with bows and arrows outside Africa.

At Fa-Hien Lena, a cave in the heart of Sri Lanka’s wet zone forests, we discovered numerous tools made of stone, bone, and tooth – including a number of small arrow points carved from bone which are about 48,000 years old.

When was the bow and arrow invented?

The invention of the bow and arrow allowed people to hunt prey at a much greater distance. People no longer had to get within “a stone’s throw” of prey which could suddenly bolt and escape. This innovation greatly increased the chances of a successful hunt.

Bows and arrows also made it much safer to hunt dangerous prey. If you don’t have to get too close, you’re less likely to be trampled or mauled by a hurt and angry animal.

The origin of the bow and arrow is one of the great mysteries of human technological innovation. How did it come about? When? Where? And why?

Currently, the oldest evidence for the use of the bow and arrow are small stone points found in Sibudu cave in South Africa, which are some 64,000 years old.

Outside Africa, the oldest finds were previously pieces of bows found in Germany dating back no more than 18,000 years.

Because bows and arrows are mainly made from highly perishable stuff like wood, sinew, and fibres, they don’t leave a lot of evidence behind for archaeologists to find. So the small bone points recovered from Fa-Hien Lena are an important discovery.

The bone points show evidence for having been fixed to a small shaft and shot at high speed into prey – which were apparently mostly small monkeys and giant squirrels, judging by the butchered bones thrown away at the site after meals.

Complex tools, complex minds

One of the small bone points discovered at Fa-Hien Lena. M. C. Langley

The discovery of such ancient bone arrow points is startling in itself. However, we also found other tools which give equally rare insights into the lives of the earliest members of our species currently documented in Sri Lanka.

Particularly interesting are well-preserved knives, scrapers, and awls made from the bones and teeth of monkeys and deer, which were used to work skins or plant materials.

These tools are our only way to learn about the other, more fragile items that may originally have been at the site, because anything made from leather or plant fibre (such as clothing, bags, baskets, mats, or nets) stood no chance of surviving 48,000 years in the humid tropical environment.

One of these artifacts is an unusual implement with carefully spaced notches down each side. It appears to be a shuttle for creating nets of woven fibres. No doubt nets would have been incredibly useful for catching the tree-dwelling prey the people of Fa-Hien Lena hunted, as well as bringing the fish up from the rivers.


These rainforest pioneers also left behind evidence about their social lives in the form of white shell beads and small blocks of mineral pigments in bright colours: red, yellow, and silver.

Each of the pigment nodules show signs they were used to create paints for the body, and three of the bright red nodules were drilled to be strung as beads – something we have not found anywhere else in the world.

The white shell beads, on the other hand, are similar to those found in Africa and Eurasia, but were collected or traded from the coast some 20–30 kilometres away. Apparently, small, shiny, white shell beads never get old.

With these finds, it is becoming more and more clear that we have only just begun to scratch the surface when it comes to understanding the earliest modern human communities.

Located at the Colombo Innovation Tower, AI Academy is an incubator for students and business professionals to implement innovative ideas, apply emerging technologies, and embrace lifelong learning. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, executive part-time courses and knowledge sharing forums; also providing collaborative projects to support industries, start-ups, and governments.

As part of the arrangement, Microsoft will provide AI Academy with cloud-enabled software and tools for teaching and learning through Microsoft Hands-on Labs and other industry-recognized programs such as Microsoft Learn, AI Lab, AI School, and AI Business School to ensure its students and working professionals are exposed to practical applications of AI.

AI Academy will leverage Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams to support virtual teaching and learning with international faculty while regional Microsoft specialists will help conduct AI business workshops and hands-on technical lab sessions to help participants identify business challenges that can be optimized with the help of AI—driving AI literacy and empowering the workforce of Sri Lanka to deliver more value.

“Our partnership with Microsoft represents our commitment to address the unmet needs of students and working professionals in Sri Lanka by empowering them with the tools and capabilities to go from envisioning to rapid prototyping,” said Lin Gong-Deutschmann, Co-founder, AI Academy. ”AI will transform industries and societies, so governments, technology companies, businesses, academia, and society will need to work together to reform the curriculum in higher education to meet local and global market demands and prioritize technology-based education in driving faster economic growth, creating a skilled resource pool for economic transformation.”



Lin Gong-Deutschmann, Co-Founder, AI Academy (Top Left); Hasitha Abeywardena, Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka and Maldives (Top Right); Ashiq Niyas, Territory Channel Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka and Maldives (Bottom Left); and Sachindi Weerakoon, Business Strategist, AI Academy (Bottom Right) during the virtual signing via Microsoft Teams

“We look forward to building on our partnership with Microsoft to further strengthen Sri Lanka’s capabilities, and enhance our competitiveness as a global hub for students and business professionals in all sectors,” added Lin.

“It’s great to see AI Academy and its leadership set an example by investing in the workforce of tomorrow,” said Hasitha Abeywardena, Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka and Maldives. “By building their own unique digital capabilities, AI Academy is becoming a fast adopter of best-in-class technology. AI is one of the technologies that will transform every industry, and we’re proud to be partners with AI Academy in readying and upskilling their students and working professionals.”

AI Academy has announced plans to set up a physical AI Experience Center to encourage the public to explore and experience what is possible with emerging technology. Its educational programs will be very much integrated with industry requirements and the practical applications of AI. Subject areas include, but are not limited to, data science, machine learning, computer science, data analytics, and intelligent systems.

“With this partnership, we see a potential to scale and drive our efforts to empower the market with the right tools and technology. We can help to further accelerate AI-enabled digital transformation, build coalitions to nurture a vibrant local technology ecosystem, close the digital skills gap and create societal impact from innovations in AI,” added Hasitha.