News
‘Draft Constitution will be ready early next year’
Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando has said that as pledged by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in his presidential election manifesto in 2019, a committee of experts had been tasked with formulating a new draft Constitution and the draft Constitution would be presented to Parliament early next year.
“The making of the Constitution is a complicated process with the change of times and people’s needs. People voted for us to introduce new Constitution among many other things we had promised in our manifesto. During the past one and half years, our topmost priority was saving the lives of the people. Now the constitution making process is back on track,” Minister Fernando told journalists after a progress review meeting held at the Ministry auditorium to appraise the ongoing road development projects in Kandy and its suburbs on 18-10-2021.
Asked to explain the government’s position on holding provincial council elections the minister said: “Elections should be held on time. Elections are a democratic right of people. We are ready to hold elections and we saw recently the opposition leader too is suggesting that the government should be dissolved and an election should be held. We are ready and we are never afraid of elections.
Asked to comment on the ongoing forex crisis, the minister said that it was only a temporary situation which would change in the coming few weeks. “We cannot solve this problem by printing dollars, we either have to earn them or save them. That was why we had to impose limits that caused shortages and price increases. Now the problem is being solved and its subsequent problems too would be solved in time to come. The opposition is all out to make slogans out of this and win political advantage but they would not succeed. For example, the opposition made predictions of deaths and their estimates ranged from 20,000 to 200,000. They said that we would not be able to bring in vaccines. After we brought in vaccines they tried to sabotage it, but now the national vaccination drive is almost completed and we are among the top countries in the world in success charts. Similarly, the rice, sugar, gas and other problems too would last only a couple more days.”
Asked to comment on former minister Patali Champika Ranawaka’s statement that the government had placed the burden on people’s shoulders while it could have given fuel at Rs 121 a litre, the minister said: “Patali could speak of figures but people do not take his maths seriously. That is why he is in the opposition. They try to create a crisis and ride on that for survival. They got trade unionists to speak of a fuel shortage and create panic buying but people did not fall for that. People have trust in the president and our government because they know we have not cheated or robbed banks the way the Yahapalana government did.”
In a swift search and rescue (SAR) operation, the Sri Lanka Navy on 22 Jun 2026 rendered assistance to a one-day fishing trawler that had failed to return to its intended destination.
Reportedly, the fishing trawler and its 02 crew members ran into trouble due to adverse weather conditions off the north coast of the island. The rescue mission was launched
immediately following an alert from the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources regarding the overdue trawler.
Responding to the distress call, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) Colombo, coordinated the deployment of naval craft for the SAR operation.
During the operation, naval personnel located the distressed trawler and its 02 fishermen in the seas off the Analaitivu Island and they were brought to safety.
Maintaining a round-the-clock vigil, the Sri Lanka Navy, through the coordination of MRCC Colombo, remains constantly prepared to deploy assets and extend vital lifesaving assistance to the naval and fishing communities facing perils within the Sri
Lankan Search and Rescue Region.
The NPP government has not taken a final decision regarding filling of the vacancies in the judiciary.
A group of Opposition MPs, led by SJB leader Sajith Premadasa, on 12 June, requested Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickremeratne to take up the issue of judicial vacancies with President Dissanayake. Opposition sources said that there were four vacancies, each in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, and the inordinate delay had adversely affected the judiciary.
Government sources indicated that there was no change in the status quo as regards filling of vacancies. Referring to the government proposal to extend the retirement age of judges, authoritative sources said that no final decision had been taken yet.
SJB lawmaker Dayasiri Jayasekera told The Island that they would raise the issue in Parliament this week.
He said that the deliberate delay in making appointments to superior courts and the move to extend the retirement age couldn’t be taken separately.
The MP noted that the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, the Lawyers’ Collective, the Colombo High Court Lawyers’ Association, Colombo Magistrate’s Court Lawyers’ Association and the Bar Association of Badulla had opposed the government move.
There hadn’t been any public statements in support of the government move, MP Jayasekera said, urging the government to end uncertainty in the judiciary.
by Shamindra Ferdinando
SJB leader Sajith Premadasa has invited the UNP and other political parties to join his party. Premadasa, who is also the leader of the Opposition, has emphasised that the UNP and the SJB could reach a consensus on policies but his party wouldn’t, under any circumstances, accept whatever formula to share positions. Premadasa said so, speaking to the media over the weekend, after meeting the Mahanayaka Thera of the Malwatta Chapter of the Siyam Nikaya Most Venerable Thibbatuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera.
A statement issued by the Opposition Leader’s Office quoted MP Premadasa as having extended an invitation to all political parties to give up extremist policies and join the SJB.
The SJB leader alleged that the NPP government feared facing elections and that was the reason for the inordinate delay in holding Provincial Council polls. PC polls were last held in 2012, 2013 and 2014, on a staggered basis. Premadasa said that if PC polls were held his party would definitely win the majority of PCs.Premadasa also urged the government to reduce electricity tariffs and fuel prices.
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