News

Govt. has lost control of country – SJB

Published

5 years ago

2020/12/23

By Saman Indrajith

The Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) says the government has given up the fight against the pandemic and was leaving the infected persons to their fate.

Addressing the media at the Opposition Leader’s office in Colombo, Chief Opposition Whip and Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella said: “It is clear that the government has given up its fight against the pandemic. The number of infections is increasing rapidly, but the government does not care to conduct enough tests. It imposed laws limiting the number of participants for weddings, funerals and religious ceremonies and it violates them by holding political meeting. For example the number of persons allowed for a wedding is 50 but the ministers attending political meetings attended by minsiters are allowed to have over crowds of over 500.The leading ministers are conducting a series of events in provinces under the title Gama Samaga Pilisandarak (Dialogue with the Village). Its Matara event was attended by over 500 persons. On Dec 17 the Kandy District event was held at Polgolla with the participation of all heads of public institutions, police officers, Pradeshiya Sabha members, heads of department, and they were hosted to a lunch. Later, an infected Pradeshiya Sabha chairman was found to have attended that event. Now, all leading public officials in the district are under quarantine.

“Two months ago there was no COVID-19 cases in the Kandy District. But the government put COVID-19 infected persons in the Bomgambara Prison. Today Kandy is the district from where the second most number of cases has been reported. Many institutions in the city have been shut down. The Governor’s Office, provincial and zonal education offices are all closed. But the Gama Samaga Pilisandarak event was held with the participation of over 500 persons. This shows that the government has given up its anti-COVID-19 campaign.

“There is still no final decision with regard to the burial of Muslim COVID-19 victims. The government is quite capable for taking the internal problem to the international level. It conducted secret talks with the Maldives to see whether it could find places there to bury Lankan Muslims dying from COVID-19. The secret came out after the government of the Maldives made a statement that the Sri Lankan government had made a request to the effect. It is a shameful act to try to bury our citizens in a foreign country. The government should solve this problem urgently.

“The government has also lost control over the country as well. It has failed to control the prices of essential commodities. There were some shortcomings in the yahapalana government, but we never lost the control over prices of essential items. We had a committee on cost of living affairs and it met fortnightly to keep the prices under control. Today, there is no such control of prices and the consumers are at the mercy of traders.”

SJB Colombo District MP Mano Ganesan also addressed the media.

All News Advertisement

News

Cabinet approves construction of new 300 bed Base Hospital in Deniyaya

Published

5 hours ago

2026/02/18

Priyan

The Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution forwarded by the Minister of Health and Mass Media to relocate the Deniyaya Base Hospital after constructing a new hospital with a capacity of 300 beds at an estimated cost of Rupees 6,000 million.

The Southern Provincial Department of Health has acquired a plot of land in Handford estate which is approximately 03 kilometres away from the town for this purpose.

News

Cabinet nod to legally empower methodology for implementing the ‘Praja Shakthi’ poverty alleviation national movement

Published

6 hours ago

2026/02/18

Priyan

The Cabinet of Ministers granted approval for the resolution furnished by the Minister of Rural Development, Social Security and Community Empowerment to instruct the Legal Draftsman to draft a bill to legally empower the implementation of ‘Praja Shakthi’ (Strength of the Community) poverty alleviation national movement

News

NPP not under Indian pressure to hold PC polls – JVP

Published

6 hours ago

2026/02/18

Sahan Weerasooriya

Tilvin Silva

…preliminary work started on new Constitution

JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva yesterday (17) maintained that the NPP government was not under Indian pressure to hold the long delayed Provincial Council elections.

The top JVP official said so appearing on Sirasa Pathikada, anchored by Asoka Dias. Tilvin Silva said that neither the devolution nor terrorism issues had been discussed during his meeting with External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar and Deputy National Security Advisor Pavan Kapoor, in New Delhi. This was Tilvin Silva’s first visit to India.

Declaring that politics hadn’t been on the agenda, the JVPer said that the Indian focus was entirely on economic development and technology.

The JVP General Secretary visited India under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations’ (ICCR) Distinguished Visitors Programme from 5-12 February 2026. General Secretary Silva was accompanied by Kitnan Selvaraj, MP, Ilankumaran Karunanathan, MP, JVP Central Committee Member Janaka Adhikari, JVP’s Media Unit Head Hemathilaka Gamage and Member of JVP’s International Relations Department Kalpana Madhubhashini. The delegation visited New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Thiruvananthapuram.

Responding to another query, Tilvin Silva said that Dr. S. Jaishankar had reiterated that India would always remain a true and trusted partner for Sri Lanka, in accordance with its ‘Neighbourhood First Policy’ and Vision ‘MAHASAGAR.’

Referring to the second JVP insurrection in the late 1980s, the JVPer claimed that they had not been against India but responded to the actions of the then Indian government.

Sri Lanka enacted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in the wake of the Indo-Lanka peace accord of July 1987 to pave the way for Provincial Councils.

Tilvin Silva said that since they came to power, Indo-Sri Lanka relations had changed. “India has realised we could work together,” he said.

The JVP official said that preliminary work was underway, regarding the formulation of a new Constitution. The abolition of executive presidency and creation of an Office of President sans executive powers, too, would be addressed, he said, adding that the strengthening of the legislature was the other issue at hand.

Pointing out that the NPP had 2/3 majority in Parliament and could introduce a new Constitution on their own, Tilvin Silva said that they intended to obtain views of all and study the past processes in a bid to secure consensus. The JVP, as the party that campaigned against the introduction of executive presidency, way back in 1978, would lead the current effort to do away with the existing Constitution, he said.

Tilvin promised that they would implement what was in their manifesto.

The interviewer also raised the issue of abolishing the pensions for ex-Presidents. Tilvin Silva said that the Supreme Court, too, had approved the move to abolish pensions to ex-MPs. Therefore there was no issue with that, however, the ex-Presidents pensions couldn’t be done away with as they were made through the Constitution. That would be addressed when the government introduced a new Constitution in consultation with other stakeholders.

By Shamindra Ferdinando