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Ranil claims he was against banning Niqab for fear of losing intelligence on Islamic extremists
Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, yesterday, told the PCoI probing the Easter Sunday attacks that he had been reluctant to ban Muslim women from wearing face covers because he felt it would stop the Muslim community from providing information about Islamist extremism.
Wickremesinghe said that because of the 1983 communal riots, the Tamil people had not provided information about the LTTE initially.
It had taken more than two years to get Tamil people to provide information to the government and security forces, he said. A similar situation would have arisen if Niqabs and other face-covering clothes of Muslim women had been banned, Wickremesinghe said.
The Commissioners then asked Wickremesinghe why Sri Lankan intelligence services had failed to uncover information about the terror attacks in April 2019 if the Muslim community had provided information about Islamist extremism.
Wickremesinghe said that the Muslims had provided a lot of information about extremism to security forces. It was up to the security forces to act on the information, he said. The inability to ascertain information about the attack was a weakness of the intelligence services, Wickremesinghe said.
The Additional Solicitor General, who led the evidence, asked Wickremesinghe if there had been serious conflicts between those who supported him and those who were with former President Maithripala Sirisena. Wickremesinghe said there had been no serious conflicts. There had been some problems that all governments generally faced, he added.
The Paddy Marketing Board has approximately 115,000 metric tonnes of paddy stocks purchased from farmers, which are currently stored in the Board’s warehouses, and it has been planned to retain a sufficient buffer stock from these reserves and sell the remaining quantity in order to provide the necessary storage space and financial resources for the purchase of paddy from farmers during the upcoming Yala season.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to sell the aforementioned paddy stocks
following a formal tender procedure.
The Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 provides the legal provisions for regulating and promoting the export agriculture sector in this country.
Taking into consideration administrative changes and sectoral developments that have taken place over time, approval was granted at the Cabinet Meetings held on 2023-09-04 and 2025-08-11 to amend the said Act, which has not been updated for over 30 years.
The proposed amendments are intended to amend the designations of the Head of the Department of Export Agriculture and other officials, and to provide a clearer definition of the term “the export agricultural crop.”
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to publish in the Government Gazette the Draft Export Agriculture Promotion (Amendment) Bill, prepared in all three languages by the Legal Draftsman to amend the Export Agriculture Promotion Act, No. 46 of 1992, and thereafter submit the same to Parliament for its concurrence
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Ms. M.K.D.N. Madampe, appointed as Director General of the Department of Management Services
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, to appoint Ms. M.K.D.N. Madampe, an officer of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service in the Special Grade who is currently serving as an Additional Director General of the Department of Management Services, to the post of Director General of the Department of Management Services with immediate effect.
Cabinet approves sale of Paddy stocks held by the Paddy Marketing Board
Amendment to the Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 to be gazatted
Ms. M.K.D.N. Madampe, appointed as Director General of the Department of Management Services
Cabinet approves collaboration agreement between Sri Lanka and Brazil for the implementation of the “Sugarcane Project in Sri Lanka”
Cabinet approval for Implementation of a Project for the Joint Exchange of Genetic Resources between Sri Lanka and Vietnam and the Development of High-Yielding and Salinity-resilient Rice Varieties.
Landslide Early Warnings issued to the Districts of Kalutara, Kegalle, Nuwara Eliya and Ratnapura extended till1600 hrs on Wednesday [27]
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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