Feb 22, Colombo: Employees of Sri Lanka public sector demonstrated in capital Colombo today demanding relief from the economic hardships.

A section of the employees of the Government Press led by the Trade Union Alliance of the Government Press held a protest demonstration today in front of the Government Press during the lunch hour.

The employees demanded the government to increase the cost of living allowance to Rs. 3,000 and reduce the petroleum prices.

The members of the All Sri Lanka Health Employees Union held a protest outside the Colombo National Hospital today demanding increase of uniform allowance and making casual employees permanent.

Meanwhile the Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) today launched a petition singing campaign in front of the Fort Railway Station, urging the government to reduce fuel prices. JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva, MPs Sunil Handunneththi and Vijitha Herath participated at the event.

Feb 22, Colombo: Sri Lanka opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian and President’s Counsel Wijedasa Rajapakse has been elected president of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka at its annual election of office-bearers held Wednesday (22).

Rajapakse, who contested against President Counsel Tirantha Walaliyadda and senior lawyer R.R. Thangaraja in a heated race for the position, won the election with a wide margin.

Rajapakse received 1,297 votes while his nearest opponent Waraliyadde received 676 votes at today’s election.

The election has become highly competitive with six senior lawyers including two President’s Councils are contesting for the posts of secretary and president of the Bar Association.

Around 11,000 members of the Bar Association are eligible to vote at the election that is to be held at 66 polling centers.

The general assembly of the Bar Association will take place on March 31 following the election.

Feb 22, Colombo: The Sri Lanka Police say measures are being taken to use maximum restraint in future to control demonstrations.

Deputy Inspector General of Police for Colombo, Anura Senanayake has told the media that the police first warn verbally to demonstrators not to march towards high security zones.

He has said that water cannons and tear gas are used only if the demonstrators ignore the warnings.

The DIG has explained that tear gas had to be fired at the main opposition United National Party (UNP) protest last week when the demonstrators tried to march towards the President’s House and pelleted stones at the police when police set up barricades.

In the case of the Marxist JVP protest march the previous day, Senanayake has said, the demonstrators had tried to march into an area where there was a pro-government demonstration taking place and there was a possibility for a confrontation.

Therefore, he has observed that the police would maintain maximum restraint in controlling demonstration in future.

Feb 22, Colombo: Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Rajitha Senaratne says that a delegation will leave for Somalia next week to discuss the release of six Sri Lankan fishermen with the Somali sea pirates.

The Minister said that several members of the families of the abducted fishermen would also be in the delegation.

The six fishermen had left the Negombo harbor six months ago in a trawler belonging to a businessman named Anthony Nihal Fernando and they were abducted by the Somali pirates as they had inadvertently trespassed into Somalia territorial waters.

The owner of the trawler and the family members of the fishermen say that the pirates have demanded a sum of US$6 million as ransom money to release the fishermen.

Minister Senaratne has said earlier that his Ministry is working with an unnamed Somali person to save the six fishermen.

Feb 21, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government says it has allocated over 3 billion rupees annually to provide concessions for the fishermen to engage in their livelihood.

The Ministry of Fisheries has given 80 percent of fuel concession although the fisher committees have demanded for 50 percent, the Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Development has said.

Meanwhile Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa during a sudden visit to the Tangalle fisheries harbor yesterday said his government has taken several measures to alleviate the problems the fishing community is facing and to provide expeditious concessions.

The fuel concession granted for the fishing industry will come into effect retroactively from February 13th for fishing 25,318 vessels in four categories, the Director General of the Department of fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Nimal has said.

The official has told the state-run TV ITN that the government is providing a 40 percent concession for diesel and 80 percent concession for kerosene oil. The concessions will cost the government 256.8 million rupees.

According to Hettiarachchi, the multi day fishing vessels will receive a monthly concession of 2,500 liters of diesel worth 30,000 rupees and one-day vessels 1,500 liters of diesel worth 18,000 rupees.

For fiberglass, OFRP and traditional boats with outboard engines a concession of 250 liters of kerosene worth 6,250 rupees will be provided.

Applications for this concession can be obtained from the Assistant Fisheries Directors of the 15 districts in which the fishing industry is being carried out.

However, the fishermen who use prohibited fishing gear will not get this concession, the Official has emphasized. The Petroleum Corporation has made arrangements to provide this concession under a coupon system.

A survey conducted today has shown that the despite the strike by the Negombo fishermen, the fish prices is low in the market since large stocks of fish are being received in the market from other areas.

(Photos by Chandana Perera)

Feb 21, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has allocated Rs.1 billion to purchase paddy from farmers from the Maha harvest.

The monies have been allocated through the Cooperatives and Internal Trade Ministry to commence purchasing paddy from now on.

Cooperatives and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando has said that the monies would be utilized to purchase a kilo of Samba paddy at Rs. 30 and Nadu paddy at Rs. 28 from the farmers.

Farmers in some areas in the Polonnaruwa and Matale districts have already commenced harvesting paddy for the Maha harvest.

Monkeys may soon pluck coconuts in Kerala as they do in Sri Lanka or South East Asia.

A proposal for using monkeys to pluck coconuts will soon be presented to the state government by two agriculture officers.

This will be part of the steps being initiated or contemplated by the Coconut Development Board (CDB) that has already introduced mechanised climbing of the trees, and has even formed collective workforces called Chengathikootam (Group of friends).

As the state is facing a serious shortage of coconut tree climbers, many farmers are now showing a disinterest in the cultivation of coconut. Hence, the initiatives.

Agriculture deputy director K. R. Vijayakumar and principal agriculture officer V.K. Raju have mooted the ‘monkey plan’, as also the proposal for the setting up of a training centre for monkeys with the help of the faculty from Indonesia or Thailand.

“It is like the training that’s given to wild elephants for picking logs,” says Vijayakumar.

Instructions begin with simple tasks such as spinning a coconut on its stem and learning to pluck it. They can be trained to distinguish the ripe ones from the unripe and how to retrieve coconuts from the ground and load them onto trucks.

A competent monkey can climb up to 500 coconut trees a day, when a human being can do no more than 40-50, he says.

The government and the board have been looking at alternatives like mechanised climbing equipment, including robots, for plucking coconuts, to overcome the scarcity of tree climbers.

Even a college was established in Kozhikode to train men climb coconut trees, but it also failed to
achieve its goal.

Feb 20, Colombo: Sri Lanka Ministry of Agriculture sources say the government has decided to impose restrictions on import of five varieties of fruit.

The five fruit varieties are papaya, mango, pineapple, grapes and orange.

The government says these fruits can be grown in Sri Lanka very well and it is to initiate a programme to encourage cultivation of these crops through its livelihood development programme.

Ministry sources say that Sri Lanka imported 478,177 kilos of grapes, 2,144,067 kilos of apple and 4,938,285 kilos of orange in November last year alone.

Sri Lanka can be self-sufficient agriculturally and should not waste money on unwanted expenditure, the government noted.

Feb 21, Colombo: The Director of Sports of the Ministry of Education Rohana Karunaratne has informed the school sports associations attached to the National School Sports Council to hold election of office bearers before February 28.

There are 35 schools sports associations attached to the National School Sports Council.

The Ministry has decided not to give permission to any official who has held positions for two years to contest for the positions again.

The director further said that the Ministry has decided to form a school association for scrabble also from this year.

Feb 21, Colombo: Private bus owners in Sri Lanka have warned of another increase in bus fares according to the bus fare formula agreed by the government and the private bus operators.

Private bus operators last week increased fares by 20% following the fuel price hike.

However, the private bus operators have now said fares would have to be increased by another 2% according to the bus fare formula.

Head of the Private Bud Operators’ Association (PBOA), Gemunu Wijerathna says the Association has

already written to the transport authorities requesting for a further 2% fare hike.

He has explained that the 20% fare hike last week was due to the fuel price increase and had not been calculated according to the 12 areas considered when increasing bus fares according to the bus fare formula.

According to Wijerathna, a further bus fare hike is required due to the failure of the authorities to properly calculate the fare hike last week.

Head of the All Ceylon Bus Operators’ Federation, A. Ruban Silva has also said that bus fares would have to be increased by June according to the bus fare formula.