Lanka News – Lanka Gazette – Sri Lanka News Portal

Minister of External Affairs Professor G.L. Peiris is to change the policy followed by his predecessor when dealing with Sri Lankan diplomats stationed around the world, in order to maximise efficiency and cut back unnecessary costs.

Speaking to The Nation, the Minister said, “It is a good idea from time to time to summon the envoys in a particular part of the world to a country in that region, instead of getting all of them down to Colombo at once. For one thing, when you ask all your representatives in the world to come down to Sri Lanka it’s very costly. Secondly, it does not have a very sharp focus because the priorities are different in different parts of the world.” He elaborated that bringing down diplomats from all the regions for one meeting in Sri Lanka is an ineffective and wasteful method to deal with the country’s foreign envoys. Continue Reading

UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who returned to the country on Thursday (13) after a four-day visit to India appears to have managed to keep opponents wanting his ouster at bay with a third reform group in the party coming up with a proposal to make Karu Jayasuriya the party leader, while retaining Wickremesinghe as the Leader of the Opposition.

Sources said under this scheme Wickremesinghe would contest for the leadership as earlier demanded by the rebels at the party convention in July. The thinking behind this strategy is that with there being several young bucks with ambitions of being the party leader, many of them would support him as the compromise choice, instead of allowing young Sajith Premadasa to grab the prized position. Continue Reading

The projected loss of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) for the year is three times bigger than what government is spending on 1.8 million Samurdhi recipient families, said newly appointed Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka.
Speaking to The Nation, Minister Ranawaka said that projected operational loss alone is expected to be Rs.159.9 billion. “Our entire projected income is Rs.127.8 billion. This means we are going to incur Rs.32 billion loss by the end of the year. Even the Rs.127 billion income will only be realistic if we sell a power unit at Rs.14. But at the moment we are selling it at Rs.13.11. So, the loss will be increased by another Rs. 9 billion or so. If we take Samurdhi recipients, the government is only spending Rs.10 billion for 1,800,000 families and the CEB loss is three times bigger than the Samurdhi expenditure.” Continue Reading

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will take over the chairmanship of Group of 15 countries (G-15) from his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the forthcoming summit in Tehran on Monday.
Rajapaksa will serve as the chairman of the grouping, of which India is also a member, for a two-year term.
The G-15 Summit to be held in Tehran on Monday will focus on cooperation among developing countries in the areas of investment, trade and technology.
The grouping accounts for one third of the global population and consists of some of the biggest economies of the world, an official release said here on Saturday. Continue Reading

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU Ravinatha Aryasinha said the LTTE’s initiative to forming a so called “Provisional Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam” (PTGTE), with “country working groups” at national and regional levels in Western countries was a ruse to perpetuate its terrorist struggle, and has urged the European governments not to provide any political or symbolic support towards these moves.
Ambassador Aryasinha observed that these bodies constituted through pseudo elections and comprising largely of known LTTE members/activists, was being used by many Tamils who have entered Western countries illegally, and who would in the normal course of events be sent back home given the restoration of normalcy in Sri Lanka, to keep the pot boiling and to seek to remain relevant in countries where they have sought asylum. Continue Reading

Responding to allegations by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) that the Sri Lankan Government was putting up a farce by appointing the Commission for Reconciliation and Lessons Learned, Minister of Media Keheliya Rambukwella said that Sri Lanka will follow the will of its people, and not back down to biassed international pressures.

Speaking to The Nation Rambukwella said, “Criticisms from foreign powers with personal agendas is not new to us. Over the past four years there have been many allegations raised against us. Despite all that we have moved forward. We won the war against the LTTE when everyone said that it was impossible. Continue Reading

The Transport Ministry is currently holding discussions with the Social Security Council of the Ministry of Finance to introduce a pension scheme for three wheel drivers, the Deputy Minister of Transport Rohana Dissanayake said.
The deputy minister said, “Three wheel drivers have not received the recognition they deserve. We take these people for granted but they provide an invaluable service to our society. We have held discussions with the Social Security Council to start a pension scheme for three wheel drivers. This is something that the drivers have been asking for from a long time. I think it is high time that we granted them this benefit”. Continue Reading

The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) led by the Norway-based Nediyavan is the real reincarnation of the LTTE, and not the US-based outfit led by Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, which is trying to establish a Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), says Prof. Rohan Gunaratna, the Singapore-based expert on terrorism.
Gunaratna, who heads the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism at Nanyang University in Singapore, told Express that Rudrakumaran has a better understanding of politics and is therefore more likely to negotiate a settlement with the Sri Lankan Government than Nediyavan, who is a hardcore LTTE. Continue Reading

Following is Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao’s address at the Inaugural Session of the International Conference on Sri Lanka organised by the Observer Research Foundation (May 10, 2010, New Delhi)

It is indeed a great pleasure to be in your midst this evening. When Ambassador Rasgotra asked me to inaugurate this International Conference on Sri Lanka, I had no hesitation in accepting his invitation since, after having had the good fortune to be posted twice to Sri Lanka the second time as High Commissioner, Sri Lanka has always been very special to me and indeed to my whole family. In fact, my recent visit to Sri Lanka in February this year brought back wonderful memories. Continue Reading

Retired Supreme Court Judge P. Edussuriya, who was a member of the Independent Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption, which wound up in March, breaks his silence on the grave shortcomings they had to work with, which resulted in the Commission failing to live up to its expectations. The other members of the Commission were retired Supreme Court Judge Ameer Ismail (Chairman) and retired Inspector General of Police Indra de Silva. Continue Reading