Sep 20 (DM) The dairy co-operative federation in Jaffna, YARLCO, raised the price of fresh milk sold through its many outlets from Rs.100 to Rs.120 per litre last week. In doing so, they also increased the price they pay to the farmer from Rs.85 to Rs.102 per litre of milk. While a 20% rise in the price of milk is steep, I was nevertheless relieved. In recent months, animal feed prices have gone up by as much as 50% and milk production was becoming unsustainable. Farmers were reducing the milk supplied to more..

Sep 20 (DM) On or around Sept 6, 2021, Magistrate�s Courts in Colombo Fort and Matale ordered the Director-General of National Zoological Gardens to release elephants that were in the custody of the Dept of National Zoological Gardens (DNZG) as productions in cases bearing Nos. B 23073/01/15 and B 941/14, respectively back to their so-called owners. This order was made upon the consideration of an application made by the Officer-in-charge of the Special Investigation No. 1 of the CID. more..

Sep 20 (ST) Are we a nation of savage beasts that a drunk State Minister, ironically tasked to oversee prisons reforms, can allegedly (a caveat that we are duty bound to enter) lurch into the Welikada and Anuradhapura prisons on sight-seeing expeditions to show the gallows to his acolytes in one instance and threaten prisoners of Tamil ethnicity in another? Let us be clear. It is not prisoners who are facing the gallows but the State of Sri Lanka. more..

Sep 20 (ST) On Monday morn, while UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet in Geneva was firing another scathing salvo on the Lankan Govt for repeatedly failing to honour its commitments to human rights, details were emerging in Colombo claiming that the Lankan Minister of Prisons had been busy the night before, working overtime to provide more ammunition to her booming cannons and to prove her tirade was justified. Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris� laboured attempts to deny Bachelet�s allegations and more..

Sep 20 (Island) No sooner had Hambantota Mayor Eraj Fernando (SLFP) been arrested yesterday for trespassing on a land in Bambalapitiya recently and assaulting two security personnel guarding the property than he was given police bail. It looks as if the police had been eagerly waiting for his arrival to grant him bail! He is sure to come out with a tall tale in bid to justify his unlawful action. This is not the first time he has allegedly committed trespass. In Nov 2020, a video circulated on social media showed him and more..

Sep 20 (Island) State Minister Lohan Ratwatte�s wild behaviour at the A'pura prison last week has triggered universal condemnation and rightly so. He has tendered his resignation from one of his ministries, Prison Management and Prisoner Rehabilitation, but not from his position at the Ministry of Gems and Jewellery related industries prompting The Island to editorially describe him as a gem of a minister! But chuckles apart, the public continues to be kept in the dark about much of this horrific incident. more..

Sep 20 (TM) As predicted, SL was in the international spotlight last week following the oral update on SL by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, with the UK, representing the Core Group, EU, and Japan speaking in support of the concerns raised by Bachelet. However, Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris gave a clear indication to the UNHRC that the Govt, led by Prez Rajapaksa and PM Rajapaksa, while addressing certain issues raised in UNHRC Resolution 46/1 on SL, more..

Sep 20 (DN) The Buddha�s initial rejection for a Bhikkhuni Sasana is scoffed at by feminists from some quarters. They question if the woman cannot achieve the nibbana. This shows their lack of common sense as well as ignorance of teachings. The Buddha was only reluctant to install the bhikkhuni order, but he preached to women such as his mothers and wife: Maya, Pajapathi and Yasodhara. Pajapathi had the support of 500 wives of princes. They all shaved their heads, wore yellow robes, and met monk Ananda. more..

Sep 20 (DN) Following a true tradition of Buddhist teaching, more will have to be left unsaid here than can possibly be said. The subject of women is large; and the contents of the Pali canon on which this article is based are vast. One can make therefore only a relatively small selection of matters that I hope may prove to be of some interest. Women are often the main upholders and supporters of a religion or faith or movement. This was certainly so with Buddhism when it was at its beginnings, more..

Sep 20 (ST) In early September, DM Sports, our sister publication exposed a lesser known bit of quiet legislation approved by the Cabinet on a proposal submitted by the Youth and Sports Minister. The DM article goes on to caste some concerns about the ultimate objectives of this grandiose concept but what this discourse attempts to do is examine the veracity of such a radical shift in sports infrastructure management; in particular the conceptual framework of its bold PPP plan of action. more..

Sep 20 (CT) A global BBC analysis last week found that the number of extremely hot days every year when the temperature reaches 50 Celsius has doubled since the 1980s. The total number of days above 50C has increased in each decade since 1980. On average, between 1980 and 2009, temperatures passed 50C about 14 days a year. The number rose to 26 days a year between 2010 and 2019. In the same period, temperatures of 45C and above occurred on average extra two weeks a year. more..

Sep 20 (ANI) Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli feels the inclusion of SL cricketers Wanidu Hasaranga and Dushmantha Chameera has bolstered the side ahead of the UAE leg of IPL 2021. Hasaranga replaced Adam Zampa while Chameera came in place of Daniel Sams for the resumption of IPL 2021. "Adam Zampa and Richardson were with us in the first leg but they decided to not play in the second essay for the reasons absolutely understandable," said Kohli in a virtual press conference on Saturday. more..

Sep 20 (TM) Treasury Dept�s newly formed special purpose vehicle (SPV), Siyolit (Pvt) Ltd, is set to impact the state-run Litro Gas Lanka Ltd. negatively whilst boosting the prospects of privately owned Laugfs Gas PLC, by making Litro heavily reliant on Laugfs for its operations. High-level officials told us that the current developments would pose a direct threat to the country�s energy security as Litro, which is a strategic investment, would be placed at the mercy of Laugfs. more..

Sep 20 (FT) Sustainability is at the core of GRI; as such, green manufacturing is a priority for the company. Here, GRI Executive Director Ananda Caldera speaks about the many initiatives taken by GRI to ensure green processes in manufacturing, where waste materials are recycled and used productively. �The tyre industry is one of the highest energy-consuming industries as we use both electrical and thermal energy in tyre production processes,� explained Caldera. �For many years, GRI has used biomass boilers to more..

Sep 20 (MFA) SL Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris reaffirmed SL�s active commitment to dialogue and engagement with the Commonwealth at a virtual meeting with the Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland in New York. Minister Peiris recalled that Sri Lanka as a founding member of the Commonwealth remains proactive and committed to the values, principles and objectives of the Organization. Sri Lanka looks forward to further collaboration with the Commonwealth in a number of areas more..

Sep 20 (EN) SL�s Consumer Affairs Authority has been blocking the entry of milk powder to the market through its price control power is expected to relax the restriction next week, which may allow imported supplies to reach the market, reports said. Sri Lanka�s State Minister for Consumer Affairs Lasantha Alagiyawanna had met milk powder importers on Saturday to discuss a new price control and had agreed to a 200 rupee increase per kilogram compared to 350 requested, Derana TV reported. more..

Sep 20 (CT) National Chess Champions, Ranindu Liyanage and FIDE Master, Sasith Piyumantha left SL on Saturday to participate in the Joytu Sheikh Hasina Int'l Grandmasters Chess Tournament in Dhaka Bangladesh. The Event is held to celebrate the birthday of Sheikh Hasina, PM of Bangladesh. The organisers have offered an attractive cash award of USD 15,000 for the event. They are expecting around 20 grandmasters and 20 International Masters to play in the event where the Grandmasters norms are possible. more..

Sep 20 (TM) Keeping a full stop for customer complaints on telecommunication service providers activating value-added services (VAS) on their connections without the consent of the customer and making it difficult for them to deactivate them, Telecom Regulatory Commission of SL (TRCSL) issued a set of guidelines for telecom service providers to follow when providing VAS, yesterday. TRCSL noted that it has been informed that a significant number of customers complain more..

Sep 20 (TM) Sri Lanka is to participate in Expo 2020 Dubai, to be commenced from 1 Oct 2021 to 31 March 2022 and is expected to attract over 25 million visitors to Dubai during its six-month run. Expo 2020 Dubai is the latest edition of World Expos held around the world since 1851, and will be the first ever to be held in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Speaking about this landmark event, SL Tourism Chairperson and Expo Commissioner General � SL Kimarli Fernando stated: more..

Sep 20 (EN) SL�s so-called cronies who benefit from customers trapped under state controls are raking even more profits from current import controls, while smaller firms are getting wiped out, a policy specialist and liberator of poorer consumers said. Many domestic businesses also needed inputs. �Import controls are creating a lot of opportunities for permit holders and cronies to make money,� Rohan Samarajiva, founder of LirneAsia, a regional policy advisory group told a forum organized by Advocata Institute, more..

Sep 20 (TM) Minister of Agriculture Mahindananda Aluthgamage has stated that he hopes to request the CID to conduct an investigation following the discovery of harmful microorganisms in the samples of organic fertiliser made in China, which are to be imported to SL. He said that the relevant samples were brought into SL on an unofficial level and that Agriculture Ministry has some concerns with the process of bringing the samples into the country and distributing them for testing. more..

Sep 20 (PMD) President Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrived in New York to attend the 76th United Nations� General Assembly (UNGA) Session. The delegation headed by the President arrived at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York at 2.30 p.m., New York time, on Sept 18. The President and the delegation were warmly welcomed by Mr. Mohan Peiris, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations. The 76th Session of the UNGA begins on Tuesday, 21 September under the theme more..

Sep 20 (DN) Eric Rajapakse Opticians, Sri Lanka�s leading eyecare specialist with over 100 years of expertise, is marking the Literary Month by highlighting how reading is a healthy habit that should be continued for life. In order to keep reading for life, it is important to keep your eyes healthy. As you grow older, you are likely to develop an eye condition known as Presbyopia which is a natural part of aging. It is where your eyes find it increasingly difficult to shift focus from near to far objects. more..

Sep 20 (TM) The National Operations Centre for the Prevention of the Covid-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) has instructed all ground-level authorities islandwide not to implement an earlier announced decision to prevent the entry of those above the age of 30 years who are unvaccinated against Covid-19 to public places. This instruction comes in the wake of police and security forces personnel in Bandarawela in the Badulla District of the Uva Province and Mannar in the north, last week, more..

Sep 20 (Island) SL was now dependent on the US to supply LNG to SL power stations thanks to an agreement it had entered into with a US-based energy company, New Fortress Energy, on Friday night, the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) alleged. FSP Education Secretary Pubudu Jayagoda said that the agreement between the govt and US-based energy company New Fortress Energy to construct a new offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving, storage and regasification terminal at Kerawalapitiya more..

Sep 20 (Island) Highways Minister Johnston Fernando says the govt has enough funds to continue its development work while paying the salaries of public servants. Responding to journalists� questions during a ceremony at Pamankada to plant saplings along the stretch of road from the W.A. Silva Mawatha to the Pamankada Bridge as a part of a project to plant two million saplings along the roads and highways, the Minister said that the Opposition was spreading a lie that the govt had no funds. more..

Sep 20 (Island) SJB has sought an explanation from the govt over the sudden removal of the Secretary to the Monetary Board of the Central Bank, K.M.A.N. Daulagala on16 Sept. SJB MP Rohini Kaviratne questioned the rationale behind Assistant Governor Daulagala�s removal. The former UNP MP emphasised that Daulagala had played a critically important role in the CB�s response in the wake of Treasury bond scams perpetrated in 2015 and 2016. Therefore, her removal was quite suspicious and more..

Sep 20 (AD) The total number people who fell victim to COVID-19 infection in Sri Lanka moved up as 103 more fatalities were confirmed by the Director-General of Health Services on Saturday (18). The new development has pushed the official death toll from the virus outbreak in SL to 12,125. As per the data released by the Department of Govt Information, the latest victims include 56 males and 47 females. As many as 77 deaths were reported among the elderly people aged above 60 years. more..

Sep 20 (DM) There is a sharp decrease in COVID-19 cases being reported daily and also the number of hospitalization has also vastly gone down, Health officials pointed out today. According to Senior Consultant Physician at IDH, Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama, the recent travel restrictions and preventive measures had contributed to the drop. �It is imperative to maintain the momentum in the future too,� he said. Dr. Wijewickrama also stressed the importance of getting immunized in order to reduce the number of deaths, more..

Sep 20 (TM) National Hospital of SL (NHSL) Consultant Endocrinologist and Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) Vice President Dr. Manilka Sumanatilleke said that the number of patients admitted due to the Covid-19 virus to the NHSL has reduced by approximately 75% since the lockdown began on 21 Aug. �We have seen admissions reduce by about 75% since the lockdown began. In my ward, I had around 45 patients in mid-August. It has now reduced to about 5-10%. more..

Sep 21 (CT) Professor GL Peiris�s statement on ethnic or religious political parties need comment. He said in Bologna that ethnic or religious political parties in a Country do great damage. He referred to Muslims and Tamils in SL saying they reached the pinnacle of political power and authority as members of (so called) National Political Parties. He said �So there is no need for them to detach themselves from the national polity, to segregate, to compartmentalize the national polity by the formation more..

Sep 21 (CT) Strategically located at the centre of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), SL appears to be flooded with Covid-19 vaccines at this time. Many vaccine producing countries are keen to gain a larger geopolitical foothold and influence in the island nation, now, through vaccine diplomacy due to its geostrategic location on one of the busiest trade, energy, and most important at this time, Submarine or Undersea Data Cable, routes that are vital for data, economic, cybersecurity. more..

Sep 21 (DM) Director General and Registrar of the National Secretariat for NGOs Raja Goonaratne spelt out moves for the introduction of a new law to monitor the operations of NGOs and INGOs in SL. During an email interview with the Daily Mirror he said that there will be a broad consultative process before the enactment of the new bill. Q: Earlier you said that you were working out a new piece of legislation to oversee the activities more..

Sep 21 (DM) The state minister of prisons and prisoner rehabilitation, Lohan Ratwatte storms the Anuradhapura prisons under influence of alcohol, summons eight prisoners, who are being held under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act, forces two of them on their knees and threatens them at the gunpoint. He was allegedly trying to extract a confession of their complicity in the LTTE crimes. Following day, spokesman for dept prisons denied that such an incident had occurred, more..

Sep 21 (CT) COVID terror is too serious a business to be left in the hands of Generals. The total death toll caused by COVID-19 terror was at 12,125 by Saturday (18) and moved a step closer to the unenviable position of being the fourth highest cause of terror deaths in the not too distant future post independence, where currently this record of 13,000 deaths is being held by the April 1971 JVP Insurgency, according to latest official figures available at the time of writing. more..

Sep 21 (TM) UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet last week presented an oral update to the UNHRC on a variety of human rights (HR) issues in SL, including the Govt�s controversial de-radicalisation regulations, militarisation of the civilian administration, and the continued use of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act (PTA) to arrest and detain people such as more..

Sep 21 (Island) Drinking is one of the many things Sri Lankans do not know how to do properly. They do not drink tea with sugar; instead, they drink sugar with tea, as it were, and religiously keep their blood sugar levels extremely high much to the benefit of Big Pharma. They are supposed to drink a lot of clean water daily, but they take in only a little of it, and ask for kidney problems. They prefer sugary drinks saturated with kidney-busting dyes and high levels of sugar to healthy, tasty thambili or more..

Sep 21 (DM) After so many years of exploitation of customers by the telecommunication service providers and some unscrupulous elements in the guise of Value Added Services (VAS), Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of SL (TRCSL) has finally woken up and come up with a set of guidelines for the service providers in a bid to prevent them and third parties from pillaging the unsuspecting customers. The purpose of the guidelines seems to be to prevent more..