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The Indian Company has stepped into take over 49% of shares of Colombo East Terminal amidst protests of works and sections of the society with majority of the people.    

Workers at the Port of Colombo began a protest from Jan. 29, over the proposed involvement of Indian and Japanese companies in the operation of the Eastern Container Terminal (ECT).

The organisers, together with other allied organisations such as labor unions across the country and political parties, have also warned of demonstrations and strikes in the coming days.

Following the visit to Sri Lanka by Indian Foreign Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar on 6 January 2020, it was decided to award the expansion project of the ECT to Adani Group of India.

Adani Group is India's largest integrated ports and logistics company.

A Memorandum of Corporation (MoC) to manage the ECT between Sri Lanka, India and Japan was signed in March, 2019.

However, the new Rajapaksa government appointed a committee to review all the projects that were to be awarded to foreign countries.

Subsequently, the visiting Indian Foreign Minister and his Sri Lankan counterpart held discussions on several issues pertaining to India's interests and decided to offer the ECT to Adani Group.

India had this week said that it remains committed to assisting Sri Lanka with increased foreign investment and cooperation in infrastructure projects like ports, airports, energy including renewable such as solar and wind.

India's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay said that he is confident that working together, India and Sri Lanka will be able to successfully overcome the contemporary economic and other challenges.

Serjeant-at-Arms of the Parliament, Narendra Fernando says that random PCR tests are being conducted once a week for the staff at the Parliament complex. He also invited Hon. Members of Parliament to obtain PCR testing if necessary.

The Fisheries Ministry has decided to launch this industry and private companies have expressed willingness to start inland fish canning ventures in the island as it has high local and foreign demand.

The inland fisheries industry has been encouraged to produce more inland fish stocks to cater the requirement of processing canned food for local consumption in the initial stage.

Six companies have agreed to set up inland fish processing factories using infrastructure facilities provided by the government, the Fisheries Ministry announced.  
Accordingly, they will be purchasing inland fish stocks obtained from inland fish breeding tanks countrywide, the ministry said.

The setting up of state of the art fish processing facilities will bring in new technologies to this country.

According to the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, canned fish imports from January to November 2019 was LKR 12,940 million. When considering the equivalent in foreign exchange it is an amount easily saved.

The president of the Canned Fish Manufacturers Association of Sri Lanka (CFMASL), Shiran Fernando said that the local consumption of canned fish is around 200,000 cans per day.

This amount can be increased if better quality products are available in the market.

With a level playing field, the local entrepreneurs have ample capacity to meet the total demand though they get little or no help at the moment.

At present on average, around 10000 cans are manufactured daily among five canning factories working under capacity.

This was revealed when former Director of the CID Shani Abeysekera testified before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Easter Sunday bombings on 21 April 2019, yesterday (26).

He said that he and then Senior DIG of the CID Ravi Seneviratne had informed Sirisena about this on 2 February, 2019 when they visited the former President's official residence at Paget Road in order to record a statement.  SDIG Seneviratne pointed out to the former President that the matter could not be taken lightly and that it should be discussed at the National Security Council (NSC). Then the former President said that an opportunity would be given to Seneviratne to attend the NSC in order to brief on the matter. However, such an opportunity was not given, he added.

Abeysekera also said that he had been asked by former Western Provincial Governor Azath Salley and President's Counsel Faizer Mustapha to release two suspects arrested in connection with the stock of explosives found in the Wanathawilluwa area and that he had rejected the request.

Testifying further, he said that information had come to light that a group, including National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ) Leader Zaharan Hashim was planning a large scale attack in May 2019 and that the discovery of the explosives hidden in Wanathawilluwa had averted such a catastrophe.

Meanwhile, when a copy of a report dated 09 April, 2019, submitted to the then IGP, by the State Intelligence Service (SIS), stating that the NTJ could carry out a suicide attack, the witness said that he received it on 23 April, 2019, two days after the bombings. When asked what the reason for the delay was, the witness said that he had not inquired about it.

The Commission inquired at length about the stock of explosives discovered in Wanathawilluwa and Abeysekera said that he felt that a certain group was preparing to carry out some destructive action after the incident. He said that he had informed the then IGP Pujith Jayasundara in writing on three or four occasions in this connection.

Meanwhile, when the Commission questioned him on whether he was aware of the fact that then Coordinating Secretary to former Minister Kabir Hashim, Mohomed Thasleen, was being used as an informant by the CID, the witness said that he was not aware of it. He also said that no information would be provided to senior officials regarding informants.

The Commission also inquired from Abeysekera about the release of two suspects named Mohamed Nafridi and Mohamed Nafees who were arrested in connection with the explosives discovered in Wanathawilluwa. In response, he said he had made a recommendation to the then President to release the two suspects who were being held on detention orders as there wasn’t sufficient evidence against them.

"Accordingly, the suspects were released on six bail conditions on 10 April, 2019 and they appeared before the CID on the last Saturday of every month even after the Easter Sunday bombings," he said.

When asked if there was any pressure from the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) or from any politician to release the said two suspects, the witness said that there was no such pressure. He said that during a meeting, Salley and Mustapha had asked for their release, but he had refused.

Meanwhile, the Commission inquired about when he came to know about Zaharan, as Former Director of the CID. In reply he said he came to know about Zaharan on 17 January, 2019 following the interrogation of suspects arrested in connection with the Wanathawilluwa incident.

He added that he had learned that Zaharan was planning to commit a serious crime. In response to a question from the Commission as to why a team of officers was not deployed to arrest Zaharan, the witness said that the teams investigating the Wanathawilluwa and Mawanella incidents had been deployed full time to arrest Zaharan and other suspects involved in those incidents.

Meanwhile, the Commission asked the witness why the CID, which was able to arrest many significant suspects, was unable to arrest Zaharan. In response, he noted that criminals are usually arrested on the basis of their telephone data reports. However, he said that specific information was not received about the whereabouts of the Zaharan-led group because they used secret communication applications such as 'Threema'. He added that the CID was aware before 21 April, 2019 that they were using such communication methods. We looked into the applications but could not find enough information, said Abeysekera.

Meanwhile, when asked if he, as then CID Director was informed by the CID officers regarding the use of Bathiudeen Ahmed Mohammed alias Army Mohideen as an informant, the witness said that he came to know about it only after the Easter Sunday bombings.

Non-compliance with the Finance Act In pursuance of Section 10 (5) of the Finance Act No. 38 of 1971 is a violation of its obligation to credit the balance money of the surplus of net profit to the treasury fund.

If there is a surplus in a public corporation for a certain year, the balance should be credited to the Consolidated Fund after making deductions specified in the Act.

Nevertheless, out of the total net profit of Rs. 30,253 million received by the SLPA from 2016 to 2019, only Rs. 600 million had been credited to the Consolidated Fund.

Further, the above profit included a total rent of Rs. 8,514 million relevant to the period from 2016 to 2019 received from the two companies engaged in the operations at South Asian Gateway Terminal (SAGT) and the Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT).

The two terminals were given on long-term lease basis to the private sector and Rs. 11,250 million collected as royalty for that period.

It was further revealed that the above revenue was not the direct operating revenue of the port.

According to the information received from the Deputy General Manager (Premises) Letter No. 1/1/156 dated 13 July 2020, the Authority had leased 236 acres, 32.74 Perches and 375.44 square meters of land without obtaining an assessed value from the Department of Valuation as at 31 December 2019.

The Colombo International Container Terminal (C.I.C.T) is the only container terminal currently operating at the Colombo Port that can handle ships over 14.25 meter in depth (Dratf).

The capacity thereof is 2.4 million of twenty equivalent units per year. A number of 374 ships with a draft of more than 14.25 meters had arrived at the terminal and a total of more than 2.6 million container units had been handled in 2019.

It was observed that the maximum capacity was also exceeded. Accordingly, the container handling of the terminal had increased by 8 per cent compared to 2018.