News

Sri Lankan farmers were up in arms over a severe shortage of fertilizers as they struggled to start paddy cultivations in the Yala season amidst the government‘s decision to ban the import of chemical fertilizers.

The Lawyers for Democracy Movement has expressed concerns regarding the Colombo Port City bill during a media briefing on Sunday (18).

Sri Lanka has signed an agreement l to borrow 69.53 million US dollars from the World Bank to improve dams and irrigation schemes and preserve watershed with a focus on the Upper Mahaweli River in the central hills.

Sri Lanka and India have taken a progressive step to integrate expertise in the area of science and technology with scientists from both the nations gearing up to undertake joint research.

Commenting on the government's decision to ban all May Day rallies and processions, the general secretary of the United National Party (UNP) Palitha Range Bandara said that the working people of this country should not be deprived of their rights.

The proposed Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill will turn the Colombo Port City - a dream project of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa - into a Chinese colony, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) alleged. JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said on Monday (12) that the bill would allow the Port City to function beyond the existing laws of the country.

He further added that the proposed bill which was included in the Order Paper of Parliament would empower the president to appoint a Colombo Port City Economic Commission which includes five or seven members named by him.

Under the bill, the commission would be empowered with special financial power and judicial immunity, he claimed.

Local businesses, he said, would not be allowed to establish laws in the post-city areas. Another controversial clause is the payment of salary to the staff working in the port city zone. The rules will empower the commission to pay salaries to employees even in foreign currencies.

There was a threat of the Port City becoming a separate territory with independent powers devoid of common laws of the country, he said. He stressed the need to defeat it being enacted in Parliament.

Accordingly, the JVP has decided to file a petition with the Supreme Court today (15) challenging the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill.

Meanwhile, The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) have also filed petitions before the Supreme Court today challenging the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill.  

The petitions were filed by CPA Executive Director P. Saravanamuttu and AITP Chairman Engineer Kapila Renuka Perera on behalf of their respective organisations.

The Sri Lanka government is on an unprecedented move to acquit criminals and fraudsters through a resolution in Parliament, former State Minister of Finance and SJB lawmaker Eran Wickramaratne said.

Sri Lanka on Wednesday (14) banned 11 organisations, including the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda, a week ahead of the second anniversary of the Easter Sunday suicide bombings which killed 279 people. Anyone linked to the groups - the other nine of which are local religious and social organisations - faces up to 20 years in jail, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in a gazette notification.

Ahead of the anniversary, the country's Roman Catholics had threatened to take to the streets over what they say is the government's failure to act against those responsible for the attacks.

Some of the groups banned Wednesday had previously been linked to the lead bomber.

The move, made under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, was "in furtherance of the efforts of the government of Sri Lanka made in good faith for the purpose of ensuring the continuance of peace within the country", Rajapaksa said.

The seven Sri Lankans who attacked three churches and three hotels in April 2019 had pledged allegiance to the IS leader at the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

However, investigators said they had found no evidence of direct links to IS.

Two local groups said to be directly linked to the attacks were banned in 2019, but a presidential investigation into the bombings wanted similar Islamic groups outlawed too.

All seven bombers died and no other suspects have been charged.

Colombo's Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, has demanded swift action not just against those responsible, but against the politicians and officials who failed to stop them.

The investigation found that then president Maithripala Sirisena and his intelligence leaders were warned by India about the attacks 17 days before they were staged.

The United States has filed action against three Sri Lankans over the bombings. Five US nationals were among 45 foreigners killed in the blasts.

The inquiry, whose report was released earlier this year, also recommended that Buddhist organisations accused of instigating intercommunal unrest before and after the bombings be banned, but none were named in Wednesday's decree.

The government is compelled to dispel the Sri Lankan public's and neighboring India’s concerns over Chinese dominance mainly in administration, military maritime and aviation issues which will crop during the implementation of the legally challenged Port City Economic Commission Bill, foreign affairs analysts said.

The Sri Lankan public is really worried about the powers vested in the commission over the Western Provincial Council and the Colombo Municipality in the governance of the newly added area spanning 269 hectares of reclaimed land from the sea.

The major issue in foreign affairs of Sri Lanka is the Indian authority's concern on China’s increasing presence in the Indian ocean and aviation advantages along with military matters, several experts and analysts of foreign and current affairs said.

The New Port City Commission Bill has renewed concern in India that the project will give China a naval base just 150 miles off India’s southeast coast.

Sri Lanka’s strategic positioning between the Strait of Malacca and China’s new base at Djibouti make Port City more than a construction project and it has become a barometer of Chinese influence in South Asia.

Conversely, the tangled history of this project shows the limits of India’s ability to project power in its immediate region, foreign affairs analysts said.

One of the serious issues which will arise in the implementation of the bill is the air space over the Chinese-held area which would be controlled exclusively by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), a Chinese government-owned construction company.

According to Article 01 and 02 of the Chicago Convention on Civil Aviation, 1944 – to which Sri Lanka is a signatory – China would have exclusive rights over the air space above the reclaimed land that would constitute Colombo Port City, aviation experts pointed out.  

The land had been given to China on a 99-year lease basis, they said, adding that Sri Lanka’s Civil Aviation Act No. 14 of 2010 and Air Navigation Act No. 15 of 1950 were enacted in line with the Chicago Convention of Civil Aviation, making Sri Lanka bound to the terms of the international convention, to which 191 countries are signatories.

Meanwhile, Chinese diplomatic sources noted that the reclaimed land of Port City is part of Sri Lanka's territory and therefore, Sri Lanka has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the reclaimed land and the air space above it.

Any individual or company's ownership right or right of use of land does not affect sovereignty, official sources claimed.

State Minister of Finance Ajith Nivard Cabraal on Friday (16) hailed the proposed legislation for the Port City Commission as a “turning point” for the overall economy and insisted sufficient safeguards have been built into the Bill to protect Sri Lankan interests and ensure compliance under local laws.

He pointed out that oversight of any tax concessions, licences, investment approvals or regulatory decisions, which would be done by the commission with the concurrence of regulators, such as the Central Bank or the Auditor General.

He also emphasised that such decisions would be gazetted, with the documents presented to Parliament within a period of three months, or they would become defunct.

The Leader of the United National Party (UNP), former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is slated to assume the UNP's vacant national list seat in the month of June, party chairman Vajira Abeywardena said.

Speaking at a media briefing in Galle, Abeywardena said that the UNP was unanimous in their decision to select Wickremesinghe to represent the party in parliament.

Several opposition Tamil and Muslim party leaders as well as Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) parliamentarians had recently called on the former Prime Minister and urged him to take up the UNp national list seat.

A senior official of the Prime Minister's Media Division rejected news reports which claimed that Ministers Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Wimal Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila had walked out of the party leaders meeting held under the patronage of Premier Mahinda Rajapaksa today (19).

The Convener of the Movement for the Protection of Public Rights Asela Sampath has been arrested by the Police a short while ago. A video on his Facebook page showed him being taken into police custody at his residence.

Police Media Division confirmed that Asela Sampath has been arrested but didn’t provide any further details on what charges he was arrested.

Asela Sampath and Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena had been arguing in the media recently over the relief package worth Rs. 1000 comprising essential food items provided by the Trade Minister through Sathosa outlets.

Minister Gunawardane went so far as to lodge a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) against Asela Sampath for allegedly making false accusations with regard to the relief package provided by him through Sathosa outlets.