News

Harsha incurs wrath of ministers for taking up issue of road building in Sinharaja

Published

5 years ago

2021/01/21

By Saman Indrajith

Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera told parliament on Tuesday (19) that no harm had been inflicted on the environment when a road was renovated in the village known as Lankagama close to the Sinharaja Forest which was a sensitive eco-system and world heritage.

Responding to a question raised by SJB Colombo District MP Dr. Harsha de Silva, the Minister said that an environmental impact assessment should be conducted when a road is constructed, “But we have not constructed a new road. It is only a renovation of an existing road. Therefore, the need for a new report does not arise. Not a single tree has been cut down for this renovation of a 1.8 km long road. It was a tar road and we had it concreted over.”

Dr de Silva said that there were news reports of trees being felled in the forest for the road construction project.

Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando: You are misleading the House with baseless statements. You have not seen Lankagama. You are in Colombo and telling lies without seeing what actually is there in Lankagama. I asked you to come and visit and promised to take you down there. You did not come and now you are telling lies in this House. We have already renovated the road and now we are renovating the drains on either side of it.

Minister Amaraweera said that the media reports were false. “I visited the area and met the people there. There are some 120 families in Lankagama. They did not have proper a road.”

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said that the road to Lankagama had been originally built 22 years before.

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News

Cabinet approves import of Maize to meet shortfall

Published

19 mins ago

2026/03/4

Priyan

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land, and Irrigation to determine the price of the maize by a committee appointed by the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Land, and Irrigation in the future and to import only the quantity of maize that could not be supplied locally for the production of animal feed, under the supervision of the Department of Animal Production and Health.

Business

Cabinet nod for the removal of Cess tax imposed on imported good

Published

25 mins ago

2026/03/4

Priyan

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the joint resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development and the Minister of Industries and Entrepreneurship Development to phase the removal of Cess tax imposed on imported goods under 2,634 combined classification codes identified over 4 years [from 2026 to 2029\.

Latest News

Around 140 people missing after Iranian navy ship sinks off coast of Sri Lanka

Published

39 mins ago

2026/03/4

Priyan

A vessel seen near Galle earlier - the Iranian ship went down around 40 nautical miles off the coast, officials say [BBC]

Around 140 people are missing after an Iranian navy ship sank off the coast of Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan navy says around 180 people were on board, with 32 rescued. A spokesman tells the BBC the cause of the sinking is not known

Sri Lanka’s navy has confirmed that it’s rescued 32 people after it received a distress call from Iranian navy ship ‘IRIS Dena’ early this morning.

Budhika Sampath, the spokesman of Sri Lanka’s navy says: “Though it was beyond our waters, it was within our search and rescue region. So we were obliged to respond as per international obligations.”

He adds: “We found people floating on the water, rescued them, and later when we inquired we found that those people are from an Iranian ship.”

He also says that according to the documentation of the ship 180 people are believed to have been on board, although the exact number of missing is unknown.

The spokesman says at the time of launching the rescue operations they did not see the vessel but saw oil patches on the water and floating life rafts.

He also tells the BBC that he rejects the reports of a submarine attack causing the sinking, and that the cause is unknown.

Earlier the secretary of the country’s defence ministry Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuiyakontha told BBC Sinhala that around 140 people are thought to be missing.

So far, Sri Lanka’s military has not been able to confirm what might have caused the ship to sink.

[BBC]