by Norman Palihawadane

Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera’s whereabouts have remained unknown since the Supreme Court, on Monday, annulled a presidential pardon granted to him in 2019.

Prison officers visited the Thera’s temple in Nawala, Rajagiriya, to take steps to return him to prison to serve the unexpired portion of his six-year sentence. However, monks at the temple had reportedly informed the officials that they were unaware of his whereabouts.

Police spokesman ASP F.U. Wootler said a separate court order was required for the police to trace the Thera, or assist in taking him into prison custody. No such order had been issued so far, he claimed.

Meanwhile, sources close to Gnanasara Thera said he was expected to attend a book launch in Colombo tomorrow (17),

The development follows the Supreme Court declaring the 2019 presidential pardon granted to Gnanasara Thera, by then President Maithripala Sirisena, null and void.

A three-member Supreme Court bench held that the pardon had been granted arbitrarily and violated public trust and principles of natural justice.

Gnanasara Thera had been serving a six-year prison sentence for contempt of court when the then President Sirisena granted him the pardon, in May, 2019. He had served only about nine months of the sentence at the time.

With the pardon annulled, the original sentence remains in force and the Thera is now required to serve the balance of his six-year term.

The Supreme Court ruling has raised questions over the procedure to be followed to return him to prison, with police and prison authorities yet to take custody of him.

Russian citizens residing or temporarily visiting Sri Lanka will have the opportunity to cast their ballots in the elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on September 20.

The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Sri Lanka said polling would be held at polling station No. 8338 at the Russian Embassy, 404, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 07.

The polling station will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on September 20, according to the Embassy.

Russian citizens aged 18 and above, including those permanently residing in Sri Lanka and those temporarily visiting the country, are eligible to vote, the Embassy said.

Voters are required to visit the polling station during its operating hours and produce documents certifying their Russian citizenship.

The Embassy said prior registration was not required to participate in the voting.

The election will be held to elect deputies to the ninth convocation of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly.

Plastic waste is a growing challenge for Sri Lanka’s food sector, yet important gaps remain in understanding where and how single-use plastics are used, how they move through food value chains, and where interventions could have the greatest impact.

Through the European Union-funded CIRCULAR project, new research will help address these gaps by generating evidence to inform policy, business practices and more sustainable choices. Three research grants, totalling €Euro 110,000, will support university-led studies by research teams from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Ruhuna, and the Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Computing at the University of Kelaniya.

Together, the studies will examine the use, flow and impacts of single-use plastics (SUPs) across selected food and beverage value chains in the Colombo and Galle Districts. The research will also seek to identify practical opportunities to reduce plastic use, promote more sustainable alternatives and strengthen circular economy practices.

At present, available data on plastic waste in Sri Lanka, particularly single-use plastics, do not provide sufficient detail on the sectors, sources and types of plastics involved. This limits the ability of policymakers, businesses and other stakeholders to pinpoint where plastic use can be reduced most effectively and to assess which interventions could deliver the greatest impact. The new research will help provide a more detailed understanding of these patterns, supporting more targeted and evidence-based action.

The three research teams will use a combination of data collection, waste-flow mapping, environmental and public health assessments, and life-cycle approaches to examine these challenges from different perspectives. The findings are expected to help identify opportunities to reduce plastic use, improve resource efficiency and promote more sustainable packaging and waste management practices.

The research grants are part of the CIRCULAR project’s broader efforts to support Sri Lanka’s transition towards more sustainable production and consumption in the food sector. Alongside research and evidence generation, the project works to raise awareness, encourage behaviour change and support approaches that move away from the traditional “take, make and dispose” model towards a more circular economy.

Circular Economy in the Food Sector (CIRCULAR) project is a three-year initiative focused on reducing food loss and food waste (FLW) and Single-use plastic (SUP) waste in the Food Sector in Sri Lanka. Funded by the European Union, and partially co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the project is jointly implemented by Expertise France (EF), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

By strengthening the evidence base on single-use plastics, the research is expected to provide a stronger foundation for practical action, helping decision-makers, businesses and other stakeholders better understand where change is needed and how more sustainable solutions can be put into practice.