News

The United Nations’ refugee agency has condemned Australia’s forced return of an asylum seeker to Sri Lanka without any assessment of his claim for protection, saying the man is at serious risk of persecution in his homeland, the Guardian reported today.

The UNHCR had sought assurances from the Australian government the man would not be removed from the country and would be allowed to apply for protection.

But on Wednesday, the man was forcibly removed, in handcuffs, from Villawood detention centre and flown back to Sri Lanka.

The Australian government has maintained that the man was removed because he missed its October 1 deadline to apply for protection, and was deemed not to be seeking protection.

A spokeswoman for the UNHCR, Catherine Stubberfield, said the UN was aware of a number of asylum seekers who were unable to meet the government’s deadline of 1 October to submit their applications for asylum.

It was a worrying breach of Australia’s international legal obligations, Stubberfield said.

“In this context, the return of an asylum-seeker - whose claim for international protection was not considered on its merits - presents a serious risk of return to danger or persecution.”

Australia’s department of immigration declined to comment on the specific case of the man deported on Wednesday, but has commented on the return of Tamils generally, and its non-refoulement obligations.

“Australia does not remove people to Sri Lanka who engage Australia’s non-refoulement obligations,” a spokesperson said last week. “Australia takes its non-refoulement obligations seriously.”

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) nominations for the Thirappane Pradeshiya Sabha for upcoming Local Government polls were rejected yesterday (21).

The party also suffered a series of rejections last week when their nominations from the Weligama and Panadura Municipal Councils, Maharagama Urban Council, Badulla, Mahiyangana, Agalawatta Pradeshiya Sabhas were rejected for various reasons.

A petition was filed in the Appeals Court by five SLPP candidates against the rejection of their Local Government polls nominations for the Maharagama Urban Council, yesterday.

A special train service from Colombo Fort to Badulla will function from today to accommodate high passenger traffic during the New Year and Christmas season, Additional Railway General Manager Wijaya Samarasinghe said.

Accordingly the new Badulla train, scheduled to function on December 22,24, 26, 28, January 2,4 and 6 will begin from Colombo Fort at 7.30 a.m. and reach Badulla at 5.39 p.m.

Trains scheduled to begin from Badulla on 23,25,27, 29, January 3, 5, and 7 at 7.15 a.m. will reach Colombo Fort at 6.12 p.m.

This special train consists of an observation saloons, first class, second class and third class coaches.

Source : Daily News

The Sustainable Development and Wildlife Ministry received the Cabinet approval to amend the existing Wildlife Act, enabling to impose jail imprisonment for life if courts find the offender guilty of killing tuskers.

In addition to that, all police officers and wildlife officials will be empowered with additional legal powers to ensure the survival of the tuskers.

Source : Daily News

Several Businessman close to Former Minister Basil Rajapaksa is now said to preparing to purchase two popular newspapers and a website in the country.

According to sources, the purchases are being made in light of the upcoming local government elections. One media organization which is to be purchased was once managed with the support of the Rajapaksa’s and is currently suffering severe losses.

However, the move to purchase a weekend political newspaper once managed by a stalwart of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) is noteworthy. Sources claim discussions have already commenced through a middleman in this regard.

The group have also moved to purchase a website managed by a UNP stalwart sources say.

Too often, the cuisines of South Asia are lumped into one pot and blandly labelled 'curry'. The nuances between Keralan and Nepalese, Bangladeshi and Pakistani food are largely ignored - especially if your only contact with them is via your local takeaway.

Until recently, Sri Lankan food was similarly neglected, but UK chef Emily Dobbs is single-handedly trying to raise its profile. With an interest in fresh, seasonal dishes, she wants to "remove the stigma that curries have to be greasy, oily and a takeaway food".

"I often have a curry with scrambled eggs and salad; they can be really light and really colourful," she enthuses.

It's time we see Sri Lankan food as a distinct cuisine

The 29-year-old Londoner's debut cookbook, Weligama is like sunshine distilled. The pages are filled with coconutty curries, zingy salads, hot and sour sambals and her egg hoppers - lacy crepe bowls hollowed out with a soft boiled egg perched in the middle ("they look really cool, and they're really delicious").

Emily made her name whipping up hoppers, selling them from her one-man market stall in south London. "Egg hoppers will become as recognisable as eggs Benedict," she says, adamant. She reckons that so far, the flavours of Sri Lanka - think turmeric, cinnamon and tamarind - have been prevented from travelling further because of the country's civil war, but that's set to change.

"People ask me why I cook Sri Lankan food, and it's because I like it," explains Emily, who started visiting her uncle in the country as a child. "The first time I ever tried avocado, it was in a sweet Sri Lankan dessert. We ate with our hands, and ate things like shark curry - everything was so exotic and exciting."

It's okay to tweak and develop traditional recipes

However, don't pick up Weligama expecting traditional recipes that have been handed down the generations. "You wouldn't get food like this in Sri Lanka - I take classic Sri Lankan recipes and British recipes and modernise them," says Emily.

By 'modernise', she means lightening and brightening dishes, and, where possible, swapping ingredients for ones you can actually find in the UK - for instance, you can't get "beetroot the size of my head" here, nor "this amazing buffalo curd yoghurt" that Emily loves, which is kept in clay terracotta pots and left out all day in the sun: "It's just really satisfying to eat."

Emily, who eventually trained at Ballymaloe Cookery School, began cooking in her early 20s, after studying for an art degree in Manchester. To tackle artist's block, she went travelling and wound up cooking to support herself. She made her first curry while working with a "hillbilly" on a ranch in Wyoming. "He would just let me cook anything," she remembers. "Thursday was my night and I'd cook curries. My granny, who's 86 and once lived in Delhi, she'd email me recipes." The recipe for the first curry she attempted, her grandmother's peas and cheese dish, is in Weligama.

"I was really experimental and inquisitive," adds Emily, recalling how at uni she'd mix turmeric with egg yolk to make paint, while in America she'd prepare beef carpaccio using meat from the cattle on the ranch, and go foraging. "Wyoming had the best rocket I've ever had, really spicy and white-dotted," she says.

Always be curious about what you're eating

That inquisitiveness hasn't faded, and comes in handy when trying to navigate Sri Lankan produce on her annual trips to the country. "I'll go to a market and point at a vegetable and ask, 'What is this?' And they'll say, 'Madam, it's 50 rupees', and I'll be like, 'No. What's it called?"

Emily's egg hopper street food stall is on hiatus, but she runs supper clubs and pop-ups and dreams of running her own restaurant. "I'm always cooking, I feel my most relaxed when I'm cooking - it really calms me down," she says. "I put all my creativity into food. It's a mindful thing, it's very artistic and creative. All the colours and textures, it's how I express myself."

The name of a person who was to be admitted to the UNP’s Colombo Municipal Council candidate list had been removed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The person whose name was cut is a son of a powerful underworld leader as well as a drug kingpin.

While the notorious drug kingpin is currently abroad, a powerful UNPer from the Colombo district had made an audacious effort to enter the former’s son to the candidate’s list.

It is reported that Prime Minister had resorted to remove the name of this person after being apprised of the situation around 3.30 am yesterday.

Storm warning strategy

Sri Lanka needs to improve its early warning system as the island nation is hit by a growing number of natural disasters caused by wild weather linked to climate change, experts said.

Since it was set up in the after­math of the 2004 tsunami, which killed 30,000 people alone, Sri Lan­ka’s government-run early warning system has saved many lives.

However, on several occasions – including in 2011, 2012 and 2016 – Sri Lankans have found themselves facing storms with little warning, according to survivors’ accounts.

On the night of November 29, when Cyclone Ockhi hit, govern­ment warnings were issued at 3 pm and again at 8 pm, officials said.

But, Ajith Dias, an office worker in Colombo, said he started receiving warnings that evening on Facebook of a brewing storm nearing Sri Lanka’s southern coast.

“It was Wednesday early evening, it was getting dark and cloudy. But there was no (government) warning, at least no warning that I received,” Dias said.

He had one question for the government’s Disas­ter Management Center (DMC) and other public weather officials: “If Facebook users knew of a storm coming, how come you guys could not send out a proper warning?”

Sri Lankan disaster officials say early warnings are being issued – but may not be reaching everyone.

Pradeep Kodippili, Disaster Management Centre assistant director, said the disaster agency did not send the warning directly to the public through text messages or social media networks.

“As soon as we got the warning from the Meteoro­logical Department, we sent it out to our subscriber base of media, police, (military) and other net­works,” he said.

“A strategic change needs to take place very soon,” said Jagath Abeysinghe, president of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society, which has more than 6,500 volunteers and trained staff who help with emer­gency and rescue services.

“With climate change, we know the weather is going to get worse and in return disasters like floods, cyclones (and) storms are going to increase, and not just increase but increase (in) intensity as well, Abeysinghe said.

“So it’s vital that we take the step towards (better) early warning for these disasters,” he said.

Sri Lanka’s Red Cross says the country has a ro­bust system of alerts and interventions once a disas­ter begins to occur, but is poorly equipped to send out mass early warnings.

The country’s 25 million registered mobile phone users can receive government alerts directly once a dis­aster has begun, and government units under the disas­ter authority are tasked with early relief operations.

commuters drive past branches of a fallen tree

 But no such mechanisms have yet been put in place to get early warnings sent directly to commu­nities before a crisis hits.

Abeysinghe said that there is an over-reliance on using military, police, media and other public net­works to send out warnings rather than setting up a system that will send messages directly to vulnera­ble communities.

Mobile phone companies should be required to take part in such systems when they are granted operating licenses, he said.

Trained experts could also send alerts directly via Facebook and Twitter, he added.

Kodippili said the change is one the country’s disaster agency will consider.

“That is something that we are looking at,” he said.

(Reuters)

Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has said a new elevated highway will be built connecting the New Kelani bridge to Colombo Fort.

The Premier disclosed the information when he visited the Rajagiriya flyover yesterday (21) to observe its progress.

Accordingly, the new elevated highway will include a three-kilometre elevated highway connecting the New Kelani Bridge and Colombo Fort while a new road extending from Orugodawatta to Rajagiriya is also in the offing. The new road networks will see the construction of the New Kelani Bridge and its extensions while developing the road system to ease the traffic congestion.

The project is set to be funded by the Asian Development Bank.

With the twin drags of tight monetary and fiscal policy, Sri Lanka's growth is set to remain sluggish, Alex Holmes, an economist at Capital Economics, said.

The economy grew 3.3 percent in the third quarter, slower than the 4 percent expansion in the preceding period, the Department of Census and Statistics reported on December 15.

The slowdown in the third quarter was driven by the poor performance of industry, the economist observed.

The industrial sector expanded only 1.9 percent after a 5.2 percent growth in the second quarter.

The volatility of Sri Lanka's GDP series raises serious questions over their reliability.

"Looking past the problematic GDP data, the overall picture is one of a weak economy that has little chance of seeing a meaningful recovery anytime soon," Holmes pointed out.

Looking ahead, one point is that fiscal policy will remain a drag on growth as the government attempts to reduce its fiscal deficit to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2020, from 5.4 percent in 2016, under the terms of its $1.5 billion IMF loan agreement.

"Interest rates were last raised in March and although we don't expect any further hikes, cuts are unlikely," Capital Economics said.

Therefore, monetary policy is set to remain tight, too, the economist added.

Admittedly, inflation slowed to 7.8 percent in November from 7.8 percent in October and should fall further next year.

However, credit growth is still on the high side and Sri Lanka needs to sure up its currency in the face of its vulnerable external position, the economist said.

On a more positive note, the agricultural sector should rebound over the coming quarters.

Besides this, the strong external environment should also help to provide some support to the economy.

"On balance, while GDP growth should pick up a little next year, with the twin drags of tight monetary and fiscal policy, it is set to remain sluggish - we expect an underwhelming 4.5 percent y/y expansion in 2018," the economist said.

The National Transport Commission (NTC) has ordered all Air conditioned Intercity buses to install GPS tracking systems before the imposed deadline of December 31. While around 700 intercity buses are expected to comply with the latest regulation speaking to the Sunday Observer Chairman of the National Transport Commission M.A.P Hemachandra said a new fines system for bus operators to be enforced through GPS monitoring is also currently in the pipeworks.

 Once GPS tracking devices are installed the buses will be monitored through a control room located at the commissioner the Chairman said confirming that the commission is in the process of hiring employees for this purpose.

“Reckless driving is expected to decrease drastically as bus operators will be heavily penalized for any infractions after implementation of the GPS tracking,” he said adding that other long-distance buses will also be required to install similar devices prior to July 31 next year.

A new television channel for the Tamil-speaking community in the North and the East with the intention of fostering reconciliation received Cabinet approval yesterday. The government has decided to name this new channel as the 'Channel of Reconciliation'.

Cabinet approval was also given to acquire a land in Chavakachcheri, Northern Province to construct a television studio for the new channel.

Cabinet co-spokesman Minister Rajitha Senaratne stated that a separate frequency has already been allocated for the new television service and that the technical equipment for the new channel has already been ordered.