Aug 23 (ST) A magnificent maiden double ton by skipper Kusal Mendis (200 in 300 balls) helped CCC record a first innings win over NCC in the Premier Tier A Super Eight inter-club cricket encounter concluded at P. Sara Stadium yesterday. Mendis was in sublime form hitting 24 boundaries and a six in his marathon knock as CCC amassed 480 for six in response to NCC’s first innings score of 467. This means, CCC is assured of the league title despite more..

Aug 23 (Island) Ninth Parliament was formally opened by Prez Rajapaksa on Thursday and all but handful of the 225 new MPs have now taken their oaths. UNP remains divided about who will take its single slot. Veteran senior John Amaratunga has staked a claim while others believe that the position should be reserved for the yet-to-be-appointed new leader. There is a very public tussle going on for the prize between two well known Buddhist monks of the Apey Janabala Pakshaya more..

Aug 23 (Island) It has now been officially announced by the govt that parts of the 19th Amendment are to be repealed even before a new Constitution is introduced. Our present Constitution has been amended on 18 occasions and not on 19 occasions as the numbering system may lead us to believe. 12th Amendment is a dud entry and there is no such Amendment in the Constitution. Among the 18 actual amendments that we have had, some are useless like the 6th Amendment which was supposed more..

Aug 23 (ST) Insufficient inbound tours – and none against India, England and Australia on home soil – has caused Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to lose revenue from int'l cricket in 2019, leading to a net deficit of Rs 471mn at the end of the financial year. This is still better than what SLC had expected as it had budgeted for a deficit of Rs 2.7bn for 2019. SL had a heavy international calendar last year but there weren’t enough inbound tours. more..

Aug 23 (SO) The cultivation of oil palm in the country will be brought to a halt completely while giving assistance to grow coconut in new areas, Prez Rajapaksa said in his address to the newly elected parliament on Thursday. The cultivation of the crop had come under severe criticism from eco activists due to its alleged adverse impacts on the environment. However, the plantation industry notes that the industry needs a clear and consistent policy direction to develop the perennial and more..

Aug 23 (ST) Notwithstanding the risk of infections, tourism authorities are seeking approvals for the reopening of the country’s international airport in a bid to kick-start the industry for the winter season. Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga told the Business Times on Friday that while there will be a small risk they will be seeking approval from the health authorities for which they will be submitting a proposal next week to reopen the BIA for foreign travellers. more..

Aug 23 (ST) Finance Ministry is now making preliminary arrangements in the challenging process of preparing Budget 2021 in accordance with the govt’s National Policy Framework Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour. Appropriation Bill will be presented in Parliament in October in line with general practice and the comprehensive budget 2021 will be presented, the following month, in November. more..

Aug 23 (ST) One struggling tenant is a pain. All struggling tenants are a disaster. This has now become truer for more commercial/retail space owners who are trying to keep their head above the water. The coronavirus pandemic which has literally messed the economy has seen downsizing becoming the new mantra for corporates. With the country’s strict labour laws, the property portfolios look like good places for them to start shedding excess over-spending & exercise prudence. more..

Aug 23 (Island) By now it was clear Gower and the selectors had grievously erred in under estimating the visitors, while over-estimating themselves. Far from being overawed, Sri Lanka had risen to the occasion and set in motion a prolonged leather hunt, that was fast becoming an embarrassment to England. As they drearily dragged themselves on to the field for the third successive day at Lord’s, the truth slowly dawned upon all, that England hadn’t seen off even half the visiting side yet. more..

Aug 23 (Island) Plantation companies will sustain a cumulative loss of more than Rs 500 million within months due to policy inconsistencies and vacillation by the govt on a well-regulated expansion of SL’s oil palm cultivation, the sector’s apex industry association has warned. The Palm Oil Industry Association (POIA) said 356,000 oil palm plants imported on the strength of a govt decision to expand cultivation have been maturing more..

Aug 23 (ST) The countrywide power failure this week lasted between six and nine hours because every time engineers attempted to rig various generators to the system, they kept tripping or disconnecting from the grid, a senior engineer said. “The simple answer is that we tried every protocol we had in place but it kept tripping at some point, many times,” said Susantha Perera, Deputy General Manager at the CEB. The reason for why this happened is yet to be determined. more..

Aug 23 (Island) Expolanka Freight (EFL) Friday announced the successful completion of two shipments of general and perishable goods out of Mattala Rajapakse International Airport (MRIA) utilising converted incoming passenger repatriation flights last week. “Given the company’s role as the first to move cargo out of MRIA in 2013 and first to start operating during the pandemic, EFL worked in alignment with national objectives to help secure a rapid post-COVID economic resurgence,” more..

Aug 23 (ST) As an urgent cost-cutting measure, the Labour Ministry has decided to shut down labour and welfare sections in Sri Lankan missions overseas, including the West Asian region, and recall the staff. Labour Ministry Secretary Mapa Pathirana said the Labour sections were being shut down on a govt directive to cut down expenses. “Maintaining these labour sections in overseas missions is not profitable to govt” he said. more..

Aug 23 (ST) Among the 156 applications for the registration of political parties, at least 40 were rejected this week at the initial preliminary level conducted after three years. They were rejected due to documentation errors and failing to meet basic criteria, the sources said. Already 70 political parties are on the list of recognised parties. Since 2017, Election Commission has refused to accept new applications to register new political parties citing pending elections. more..

Aug 23 (AD) Sri Lanka reported its tenth death from the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, a short while ago, confirmed Ministry of Health. A 47-year-old female from Mawathagama, Weuda, who had recently arrived from India has succumbed to the virus in this manner. Upon being tested positive for COVID-19 she had been treated at the Iranawila Treatment Center before being transferred to the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) in Angoda last night (22) for further treatment. more..

Aug 23 (ST) With Provincial Council elections likely to be held in the coming months, the Public Services, Provincial Councils and Local Govt Ministry will get a huge share of the funds in the Govt’s Vote on Account (VoA) which was placed on Parliament’s order book on Friday and will be debated on next Thursday and Friday. In the Vote on Account, this ministry has been allocated Rs 194 billion. more..

Aug 23 (ST) National Joint Committee (NJC) has urged the govt to scrap the provincial council system and do away with the existing proportional representation system of elections. NJC, while expressing confidence that the Govt would fulfil its pledge to remove numerous provisions introduced to the Constitution through many amendments, expressed concern about a reported statement made by Justice Minister Ali Sabry that the provincial councils would not be abolished. more..

Aug 23 (AD) An accomplice of underworld gang member Angoda Lokka, Chaminda Sandamal alias Chamiya has died in Police gunfire. The suspect, who was arrested by officers of Western Province North Crimes Division, was being escorted to Gampaha when he attempted to grab the firearm of a Police officer last night adjacent to Oruthota Road. Police officers at the scene had subsequently opened fire at the suspect. Chamiya is a resident of Gampaha. Chamiya carries out shootings more..

Aug 23 (ST) Riding on the high waves of a landslide victory, it was another historic week that saw the launch of the SLPP-led Govt’s plans to consolidate power, define policies and forge ahead for the coming five years. It began with the first meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on Wednesday. In the cabinet room, once the well of the house in the former Parliament overlooking the Indian Ocean, new faces mingled with old faces. more..

Aug 24 (TM) Asia has been projected as the world’s engine of growth in the decade ahead. It has been forecasted that China and India will lead the way followed by the likes of Vietnam, Cambodia, and the established economic powerhouses of Singapore, Malaysia, etc. It is unfortunate that although SL has had a head start over all these countries in the race for economic prosperity in this part of the world, it has not been able to attract the kind of investment needed to supercharge growth and propel it more..

Aug 24 (ST) Inexplicably and not without heavy irony, former Prez Sirisena chose to dwell on crop devastation caused by monkeys in SL when contributing to the opening debate on the Govt’s Policy Statement as Parliament met this week, fresh after a sparkling polls victory by the Rajapaksa headed SLPP (pohottuwa) alliance. Led by the alliance of which Sirisena is an unremarkable part, the House includes two parliamentarians on death row, several indicted for criminal more..

Aug 24 (GV) The Rajapaksas are in a hurry. They have a constitution to make and a country to remake. Currently, the road to both destination seems as wide and as clear as a super-highway. Yet lurking beneath that conjunctural smoothness are structural ruts, with the potential to slow down and eventually unravel the Rajapaksa project. The fissuring of the UNP was the earthquake that caused SLPP’s tidal wave more..

Aug 24 (CT) One of the most inane and ludicrous proclamations made at the end of a general election anywhere in the world is the oft repeated simplistic exclamation The people have spoken! The platitude is uttered with a certain pragmatic resignation as if it is the last word. As if the people having spoken, the rest of them who thought differently must surely be wrong. The election campaign may have been marked by bitter conflict and controversy. There may have been unrelenting disagreement more..

Aug 24 (ST) The total eclipse of the UNP sun in Lanka’s political firmament was made dramatically visible on Thursday morn when it was conspicuously absent from Parliament, where it had dominated the august chamber with its stately presence as a national institution since the grant of independence 72 years ago. The extent to which the people had clearly shown its gross displeasure toward the UNP in the Lankan electorate was self-evident when translated into numbers in Parliament more..

Aug 24 (CT) Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella has been appointed as Chief Opposition Whip. Lakshman Bandara Kiriella has represented Parliament for over 30 years. He hails from the Central Hills and is married to C. Jayawardena who also hails from the same area. He was educated at Royal College, Colombo and is a schoolmate of UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. more..

Aug 24 (DM) The number of coronavirus disease across the world has crossed 23,383,472 mark according to Worldometre, and 808,715 succumbed to the disease as of August 23, 2020. In Sri Lanka, due to a timely and strict enforcement of lockdown and other related measures, the country was able to keep numbers down to a minimum. Strangely, the professional who led the country’s battle to successfully control the virus has now been stripped of that post and kicked upstairs. more..

Aug 24 (CT) Minister of Education Prof. G.L. Peiris has requested newly elected Northern and Eastern Provinces MPs to join hands with the SLPP Govt to focus on developing the North and East Provinces. Prof. G.L. Peiris was the student of second Chancellor of the Jaffna University Prof. T. Nadaraja and another eminent academic Prof. S. Swarnaraj at the Law Faculty of Colombo University where Prof. G.L. Peiris later became the Vice Chancellor before entering politics in the early nineties. more..

Aug 24 (CT) Coming out of some Commission, Mangala Samaraweera actually said that “unfortunately, Ranil Wickremesinghe never became the Prez”. I would say that was fortunate, not for the usual ideological reasons, but for a more important one. We already have the second nationalist backlash after 2nd Wickremesinghe premiership (2001-2003 produced the first). This backlash may result disastrously in a Sinhala-Buddhist state as so defined by a new Constitution. more..

Aug 24 (SO) Why should there be great prospects for an economy, when the general circumstances are extremely bad, and there are job losses and a huge negative disruption of markets — such as what obtains now during the pandemic? Positive economic prospects seem virtually impossible in times of a raging worldwide calamity such as the spread of Covid-19. But long term economic prospects from the current downturn in this country, look better in contrast to the economy more..

Aug 24 (MO) Scott Morrison has again sparked controversy with an innocent photo of his Saturday night kitchen creations. The Prime Minister shared a series of snaps of a Sri Lankan lamb baduma with godamba rotis he cooked up at The Lodge in Canberra. 'Girls and Jen loved it,' he wrote of his wife Jennifer and daughters Abbey, 12, and Lily, 10, whom he cooks curries for every weekend. 'Still thinking of everyone in Melbourne. more..

Aug 24 (Island) Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella has demanded to know how come those who supported the 19th Amendment are now trying to scrap it. His reference is obviously to his political opponents in the SLPP govt bent on getting rid of the 19th Amendment. The answer to his question is that they are doing so because politicians act out of expediency rather than principle. 17th Amendment, which was a progressive legislation regardless of its flaws was passed without a division in 2001. more..

Aug 24 (DM) A year ago, on August 22, 2019, the then Cabinet approved a set of reform recommendations to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA), tabled by the then Ministry of Muslim Affairs in coordination with Muslim MPs. However, a year later there has been no progress on reforms. It has been another year during which Muslim women have endured the discrimination and injustice and sometimes violence perpetuated under the MMDA. more..

Aug 24 (TM) The new Central Bank Act, which was proposed to replace the existing Monetary Law Act with the aim of depoliticising the Central Bank of SL, has been abandoned by the Govt. When contacted for confirmation, Central Bank Governor Prof. W.D. Lakshman stated that the new Act will not be proceeded by the new Govt. “I do not think it will be passed and I do not think the Govt will proceed with it,” Prof. Lakshman added. more..

Aug 24 (Island) The story of this match will serve as a testament not only to the abilities of the 1984 SL team, but also to the long cricketing tradition established through the commitment of many generations of past Ceylon cricketers, the country’s wonderful nurseries – the schools, the indefatigable coaches and the clubs that dot the island. All of them played an unseen hand in moulding the Sri Lankan sporting pedigree; an outpouring of which was seen on the first two days at Lord’s. more..

Aug 24 (FT) The Advocata Institute has commended the decision taken by the Dept of Census and Statistics (DCS) to launch an e-registry portal to register unregistered and registered businesses in SL. Advocata Institute said it looks forward to the fruition of this proposal and calls upon Cabinet to support this reform. “This will allow thousands of SL entrepreneurs, unregistered micro, small and medium businesses to formalise their ventures and gain access to formal sources of finance,” more..

Aug 24 (FT) Concessionary financial support for COVID-hit businesses and entrepreneurs from the banking sector has topped the Rs. 100 billion mark, Central Bank revealed has revealed. It described the Rs. 100 billion mark as a milestone and said that this was the amount as at 18 August. Banking sector has submitted 36,489 applications requesting for Rs. 100.017 billion worth of financial support to the Central Bank. more..

Aug 24 (FT) The influential industry magazine Campaign Asia-Pacific, has selected SL’s Jayomi Lokuliyana among 40 outstanding women across marketing, media, technology and communications. She is the only Sri Lankan to be featured in the ‘Women to Watch class of 2020’ by the magazine which provides insights and intelligence into the ideas, work and personalities shaping Asia Pacific’s marketing-communications industry. Campaign Asia describes Jayomi, who is Co-founder/CEO more..

Aug 24 (CT) Java Lane SC upset Defenders SC 3-1 on penalties thanks to brilliant goalkeeping by M. Ayub as they reached the semi-final of the Vantage FFSL President’s Cup in dramatic fashion at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday. Defenders fielded the best team, but with the ground empty and the title almost within touching distance, there was a lack of edge to the Servicemen’s play. On the other hand, Java Lane were solid and organised and could even have gone ahead in 32nd minute more..

Aug 24 (FT) Ministry of Public Services, Provincial Council & Local Govt will get the highest allocation of close to Rs. 200 billion, under the Rs. 1.7 trillion worth Vote on Account (VoA) for which the Government will seek parliamentary approval this week. Around Rs. 180 billion will go towards recurrent expenditure in the public sector with around Rs. 83 billion going to the Dept of Pensions. Ministry of Defence has got second highest more..