Prices of bread and all industrial products will be up

THURSDAY, 18 APRIL 2013 

All Ceylon Bakery Owners’ Association said yesterday that there was a ‘huge possibility’ of an increase in the prices of all bakery products due to the increase in electricity tariffs.

The chairman of the Association N.K. Jayawardena has told media that the bakers would have no alternative but to increase the prices of bread and other products or to reduce their weight when the cost of electricity goes up.

He had said the escalation of the electricity prices will affect the entire bakery industry pointing out prices of bakery products had to be increased when gas prices and diesel prices went up and now the prices will have to be increased in another round when new electricity tariffs come into effect.

Meanwhile, the Ceylon National Chamber of Industries (CNCI) states prices of all industrial products could go up in price as a result of the electricity tariff hike. The Batticloa District Chamber of Commerce CEO K. Kugadas said even the price of rice could go up as mill owners would be compelled to increase their charges to maintain their profit margins.He said the case would be the same with dairy products as the machinery used in this industry also ran on electricity.

UNP deplores unjust electricity tariff hike on low income households

April 17, 2013, 9:57 pm 

The latest electricity tariff hike was a heartless move and it would hit the low income households hard with medium to long term negative development consequences, the UNP said yesterday.

While it was true that the CEB losses must be reduced to ease the pressure on the Treasury and slow down the massive buildup of debt to maintain macro stability, the way in which it should have been done was certainly not to burden the low income households who were anyway struggling to consume even what they did now and the tariff hike would certainly increase and deepen electricity poverty in Sri Lanka, UNP parliamentarian Harsha de Silva said in a statement.

Dr. de Silva said: "It is saddening to note that the spineless PUCSL had met the President and compromised its independence in agreeing to increase the tariffs by over 50 percent on households considered ‘electricity poor’, that is those who use less than 48 units per month, while increasing the tariff by a mere one percent on the super rich who consume more than 900 units.

De Silva said that the UNP noted with serious concern that the avenues for corruption in generating, transmitting and distributing electricity have not been addressed by the PUCSL as there were no requirements to bring transparency into the costs of the CEB. "Neither has the PUCSL addressed the issue of procurement of coal by a private company that was outside the remit of the regulator. It has not addressed the issue of renegotiating heat rates in some generating units, particularly Kerawalapitiya either.

"All this means that corruption will continue to flourish at the CEB. The only positive requirement was to set up a software based merit order dispatch scheme to check on petty corruption at the CEB on a daily basis. The PUCSL has let the public down and in reflection the time spent by the hundreds of people’s representatives, consumer groups, engineers and civil society organizations in participating in the public consultations was a total waste."

The caliber of Rajapaksa loyalists

Thursday, 18 April 2013 

The Gampaha Mayor was arrested for obstructing the official duties of police personnel, Police Spokesperson SP BUddhika Siriwardena said.

The mayor had reprimanded and threatened two police personnel attached to the Gampaha Police who were on duty at the Yakkala junction on the 16th night.

Although many governing party members in the local government were accused of various nefarious activities, they have not yet faced any punishment for their actions.

Chairman of the Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha, Sampath Vidanapathirana, who was accused of killing British national tourist Khuram Sheikh and molesting his girl friend in Tangalle in 2011, was released recently.

Chairman of the Akuressa Pradeshiya Sabha Saruva Liyanage Sunil who was accused of molesting two under aged girls was also released.

Following are the number of members of the Rajapaksa government who were accused of various nefarious activities by January this year:

Ministers – 8

Deputy Ministers – 5

Parliamentarians – 10

Provincial Councilors – 12

Mayors, Pradeshiya Sabha Chairmen and local government members – 40

Gampaha Mayor goes berserk

by Gihan Kamalesh Weerasinghe-2013-04-18 06 Gampaha Mayor, Erange Senanayake, who was arrested on the charge of forcing the Gampaha Police to release a suspect drunk driver from police custody, was released on two surety bails of Rs 150,000 and a cash bail of Rs 15,000 by the Gampaha Courts, yesterday. Mayor Senanayake was also charged for trying to run over a PC (Traffic Branch) and later assaulting him. According to Gampaha Police, Mayor Senanayake was asked to appear before Courts on 22 April. Gampaha Police had filed charges of obstructing police duty, influencing a government employee, assaulting and intimidating against Senanayake, and had requested the Courts to remand him for 14 days. However, the Courts released Mayor Senanayake on bail. A high ranking official in the Police Department said the police initiated an investigation to arrest Gampaha Mayor, Eranga Senanayake, in connection with a case where Mayor Senanayake had forcefully released a drunk driver, who was in police remand. The same sources said the incident had occurred near the Sanasa Bus Stand on Yakkala Road, Gampaha on Tuesday (16) around 6:30 p.m. The PC who was assaulted and the Police Sergeant who was on duty with him at that time had made complaints. When the police officers were on duty, a motorcyclist had come in front of them without a helmet. They had noticed the motorbike had no number plate. The motorcyclist was then asked for the relevant documents. The cyclist had given only the licence. The two police officers had found the cyclist was profusely drunk. The PC had again asked for the documents. Then he had dialled a number on his mobile phone and said, 'Here there's a call from the 'Mayor' for you,' and held out the mobile phone to the PC. But the PC had ignored the call, as the IGP had given them instructions through a circular saying not to respond to such calls even if they are from high ranking police officials. Thereafter, the PC had taken the motorcyclist into custody and tested to prove whether he was drunk. The PC and the motorcyclist had a heated argument whereby the Mayor had entered the scene in his black Defender. According to the PC, the Mayor was bare bodied and his goons had been seated in the Defender. The Mayor stopped his Defender slightly 'brushing' the vehicle on the PC's body. The Mayor had yelled out saying, 'Rascal, why didn't you reply me when I took the call?" and hit the PC dragging him by his uniform collar. The PC's helmet was damaged during the assault. The Mayor had then taken the motorcyclist's licence from the PC and given it back to the drunken motorcyclist. The Mayor and his goons had fled afterwards. The PC had made a complaint to the Gampaha Police. When contacted, Mayor Senanayake, said in a light mood, "That was not me. That was my secretary. I told the police, the problem is solved." A police team is making further investigations under the instructions of Amarasiri Senarathna, DIG Traffic Brach, Western Province.

2013-04-18 06

Lakshman Kadirgamar: Quite A Different Doubt Arises In My Mind

By Charles Sarvan -April 18, 2013 

Charles Sarvan

A friend sent me a copy of a recent panegyric and lament on the late Foreign Minister, as carried by you, together with his comment, extracts of which I reproduce below. (The LTTE, “the usual suspects” for all things dastardly, are thought to have killed Mr. Kadirgamar though, to my knowledge, there wasn’t a thorough investigation or an official report.) I quote:

“And this is perhaps the most dangerous kind of writing for the cause of justice for the minorities:  suave, liberal humanism, typical of the English speaking middle class, self-righteously “reasonable” and “balanced” and “idealistically concerned” with what matters, though flaunting also its self-professed “realism”. But the slips show. Sri Lanka as victim of the Channel 4 videos episode, with indignities heaped on it, subjected to moral opprobrium, damaged, never mind the innocents who paid the actual price of the victory that ended the war. And the terror and extremism are all on the side of the defeated (though it is conceded that some of the majority show extremism).  It’s exactly the message that it is [name omitted] role to express, though with none of this obfuscating “elegance”.  And the discomfort (we have encountered this so many times before, even from so -called decent, honourable and thoughtful people) with even the possibility of investigating honestly what actually happened is too, too evident.  If at all, it has to be done through ” effective, timely, sensible diplomacy” – presumably this would give more chance that it would be as useless as the kind of investigation that the committees of inquiry which are habitually appointed every time the innumerable criminal activities that are taking place become too difficult to ignore are supposed to carry out, but never actually do (except in the case of the former Chief Justice). The only consequence is that attitudes will be firmed up that will ensure that the real causes of the conflict will never either be recognised or addressed, particularly because none of these people who are putting themselves as spokespersons for the cause of justice and equality will accept responsibility not just for what happened, but for their own attitudes, which allowed it to happen, even ensured that it would.  [It is] dangerous because the “innocent” veneer could well help it claim and assume high moral ground and authority, guaranteeing the permanent institutionalisation of the Jathika Chintanaya ideology across the board, and the permanent transfer of the minority problem to the back burner.

[Lines omitted] Apart from helping conceal one’s own culpability, one can while pointing fingers set oneself up as the new elitist moral and intellectual leaders of the place, preaching justice and  celebrating for public consumption friends and others in the minorities whose positions are so vulnerable precisely because of the stances one has adopted on the issues involved along with all of the many whose responsibility for the tragedy of our land is clearly evident.  There seems to be a great deal of this kind of sanctimonious writing going on in the country at the moment by people whose records throughout the worst of the conflict have been patently dismal, and too many decent people seem to be buying into the whole deplorable hoax..” End of quote.

Quite a different doubt arises in my mind (though I’m conscious that a question in Logic is whether it’s possible to prove or disprove negatives, for example, that unicorns don’t exist). I doubt that, for all the encomiums heaped on the now safely dead Foreign Minister, Mr. Kadirgamar would have won an election had he stood against a Sinhalese Buddhist candidate.  One recalls that Ponnambalam Arunachchalam, the driving force behind the formation of the Ceylon National Congress, left the organization feeling betrayed and disillusioned. (Of his brother, President J. R. Jayewardene, in his Address delivered on the life and work of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan at the Vivekananda Society, Colombo, November 30, 1991, reminded the audience that Sir Ponnambalam was even called the Tamil who was the foster parent of the Sinhalese. In the aftermath of the riots of 1915, the President said, one voice and one alone was heard within and outside the Legislature: that of Ponnambalam Ramanathan. He saved the Sinhala race from destruction, taking on single-handed “the worst exhibition of British imperialism as displayed by the 1915 Martial Law atrocities directed solely against the Sinhalese.”) According to a survey published in the Washington Post, 8 November 2012, as many whites voted for Obama as had for Bill Clinton when the latter was elected. But, given the entrenched majoritarian, as distinct from ‘democratic’, nature of the Island’s politics, and mindful of what I suggested about ‘the silent majority’ (Colombo Telegraph, 6^th April 2013), would Sinhalese voters have chosen Kadirgamar as against a fellow Sinhalese Buddhist? Is that why he didn’t try to get his post a more authentic, electoral-based, foundation? We are back with the unicorn, unable either to prove or disprove.

I leave with extracts from an ‘open letter’ (Sunday Leader, Colombo, Oct.26, 1997)  written to the Foreign Minister by yet another victim whose murder remains unsolved, namely, Kumar Ponnambalam (Unfortunately, Mr Kadirgamar didn’t deign to reply, at least, not publicly.)

“Minister Sir,

Congratulations […] for having been voted ‘The Sri Lankan of the Year’ by the Lanka Monthly Digest!

[…] But first, can you recall the day I invited you to attend a meeting of Tamils at the BMICH on March 26, 1994 before the general elections? Your immediate reaction, which still rings in my ears, was “What politics for me, Kumar?”

Tell me, minister Sir, did you go into the Cabinet because, within four months you understood what politics was all about, or was it that this government sought to make use of your name, which happens to be a Tamil name, only to show the world that they also have a Tamil in the Cabinet? Having only lent your Tamil name to the machinations of this government, you described yourself as a representative of the Tamil at the General Assembly of the United Nations in September 1994. Were you being honest in so describing yourself, having gone into parliament through the back door?

Do you remember July 1995, minister Sir, when your dishonesty was shown when you took the ICRCto task for having made public, the bombing of the Navaly church which killed so many innocent Tamil civilians after your government asked the Tamils to go there for refuge? Do you also remember the September of that year when you tried dishonestly to hide the cruel bombing of a school in Nagar Kovil, when so many children were killed during the lunch break?

It is one of the greater tragedies that the countries that have branded the LTTE as terrorists have done so knowing full well that the free media of the world have been prevented by your government from going to the war zone to see for themselves […] What is terrorism?  Cannot political parties and, indeed, governments be terrorists? Is it not the fact that it is common knowledge in Sri Lanka that various Sri Lankan governments have been guilty of terrorism? Is it not a fact that political parties in Sri Lanka are and have been guilty of terrorism?”

FBI officers in Sri Lanka to meet the Divaina Defence Secretary

Thursday, 18 April 2013 

Officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US investigating into the Boston bomb blast are to visit Sri Lanka to meet Divaina journalist Keerthi Warnakulasuriya, who is known as the Defence Secretary of the Divaina newspaper, sources from the newspaper said.

The FBI officers are to visit the country to meet him following a story published by him in the Divaina newspaper today (18) that it is 'Al Qaeda that is responsible for the Boston bomb blast'. Investigations into the bomb blast has revealed that it was a low quality domestically manufactured explosive. However, Keerthi Warnakulasuriya alias ‘Geneva Jagath’ has confirmed that it is Al Qaeda that is responsible for the bomb blast . Since Keerthi Warnakulasruiya has shown great competence in investigating the bomb blast from Sri Lanka than the FBI, it is learnt that FBO officers have requested for permission to meet with Warnakulasuirya to get more information about the blast.

The Divaina editorial member who spoke to us about this matter said that the newspaper staff had promoted him as the Defence Secretary of the newspaper from the post of defence correspondent due to the greatness of his work. One of the reasons for this promotion is the fact that he uses the name of the Defence Secretary to belittle the Chairman and administration of Upali Newspaper.

Private detectives spying on activists against IPL matches: lawyer

S. VIJAY KUMAR-April 17, 2013

The State police are investigating allegations that private detectives were hired to spy on the activities of pro-Eelam Tamil activists, including students, in an attempt to prevent them from disrupting the ongoing IPL cricket matches, sources in intelligence agencies said on Tuesday.

Even as a city-based advocate P. Pugalenthi claimed that he sent a complaint by fax, email and Speed Post to the Police Commissioner stating that he received credible information on how a private security agency was hired to monitor the phone conversations of Tamil activists, student leaders, politicians, advocates, journalists and some police officers, the Chennai police maintained that no such complaint was received.

In his complaint, Mr. Pugalenthi, who is also secretary of Tamil Nadu People’s Rights Forum, named an individual, who, he alleged, was using special monitoring equipment to keep a tab on phone conversations.

“We have information that monitoring equipment is being used to intercept the mobile phone conversations of these activists. This is an offence punishable under the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933. Some student activists were even threatened not to indulge in any protest against IPL,” he said.

When contacted, Students Federation for Free Eelam coordinator V. Prabhakaran said some unidentified persons did call him on his mobile phone and warned them against any attempt to disrupt the IPL matches.

Not ruling out the possibility of unauthorised persons intercepting mobile phone conversations, an official in the State intelligence said such activity required expensive equipment that could not be imported easily.

“It is possible that some persons might have called the activists and asked them not to interfere with the IPL. But allegations that mobile phone conversations were being monitored are yet to be established,” he said.

Claiming that law-enforcing agencies had a standard procedure to follow when it came to monitoring the mobile phones of suspects, the official said service providers (telecom operators) were an essential part of such operations.

“It is not that we have some equipment to independently track the calls of somebody…the activity is registered at different levels and cannot be erased,” he said.

Indian Naval ships INS Sujata, INS Tarangini welcomed in Colombo

By PTI | 17 Apr, 2013

COLOMBO: Three Indian Naval ships today berthed at the Colombo port as part of efforts to enhance the mutual cooperation between the navies of Sri Lanka and India. 

'INS Sujata, 'INS Tarangini' and the coast guard ship 'ICGS Varuna' were welcomed in accordance with naval traditions on arrival. 

They are on a training visit, the Sri Lanka Navy said. INS Sujata is an offshore patrol vessel with a Chetak helicopter and 192 naval personnel onboard. 

INS Tarangini, a sailBSE -1.05 % training ship, has carried 80 personnel, while ICGS Varuna, an advanced offshore patrol vessel also having a Chetak helicopter, has 187 personnel onboard. 

The ships' crews will be in Colombo until April 21 and participate in a special programme to enhance the mutual cooperation, the Navy said.

Sir, This Is Colombo, Larger Than Ceylon

By S.Sivathasan -April 18, 2013 

S. Sivathasan

Urbanization and Urban Renewal in Colombo

It took geological ages for humanity to found the first city of a million citizens in Rome in the first century AD. The second in London had developed into such a city in 1800 AD. At that time 3% of the world’s population was urban. It rose to 13% in1900 and 49% in2005. By 2030, the % will be 60 and the urban population will total 4.9 billion is the UN forecast. It is striking that the pace of urbanization is as astounding as its scale. What is highlighted by the above data is the relentlessness of the change and the inexorability of the phenomenon.

Cities and Mega Cities

Cities with a population of one million plus were 83 in 1950. They had increased to 468 by 2007. Mega cities of over 10 million were two in 1970 – Tokyo and New York. Mega cities in 2011 were 23 and are forecast to increase to 37 by 2025. At that time 1 in 8 of the urban population will be living in mega cities. UN forecasts that by 2050 while world population increases by 2.3 billion, the total would reach 9.3 billion and the urban component would touch 67%. By then Asia, Africa and Latin America will add 2.5 billion to their urban citizenry.

“Sir this is Colombo, larger than Ceylon”; This thinking was dominant in the twentieth century among the higher echelons.

How we are drawn into the urban vortex is besides the point. The trend can neither be stopped nor stalled. Neither can it be reversed. These imperatives have to be factored in our thought process. Once rural existence ceases, the boats are burned and prospects of a relapse are closed. So forgetting the antecedents to change, it may be realized that the polity profits by evolving strategies to reduce the dissonant and to enhance the vibrant.

China

Even in urbanization China’s progress is phenomenal. Visuals are astounding. Statistics are incredible. In 1950 China had an urban population of 11.8% which grew to 49.2% in 2010. By 2025 as much as 65.4% will be urban. To meet the situation, the investment on urban infrastructure is an estimated $ 6.5 trillion till 2020. By 2025 there will be 221 cities having a million plus citizens. Mega cities too will proliferate. Nearly a billion people in a single nation will live in an environment adequately built up with modern amenities by 2030. The miracle of the world already visible will assume gigantic proportions.

India

The development of the capital, its renewal and redevelopment constitute an onerous task for any country. The impossibility of rehashing Old Delhi forced the British to build New Delhi upon a clean slate in the nineteen thirties. The old one yet remains a conglomerate of chaos even after eighty years. Chandigarh in Punjab is voted often as the best in India and the most livable. It was built anew to signify independent India’s emerging modernity. Planning and execution were not constricted by an existing situation. Mumbai and Kolkata demonstrate an aversion for the surgeon’s knife. The old and the new grow apace. Made up beauty and abscess co-exist. Bangalore exhibits urban sprawl and congestion in a beautiful city adored just a few decades earlier. Unabated centripetal factors will take the population to 13.2 million in 2025. Chennai pulsates with the old being renewed together with significant dispersal to a greater metropolis. By 2025, India will have 5 mega cities including Chennai.

South East Asia

In this region Singapore is a model. She was blessed with the vision of Lee Kwan Yew. His unrelenting pursuit of perfection together with rigorous political leadership transformed a country of modest development into a vigorous city state. Kuala Lumpur is another example of an iron hand delivering to its citizens a world class capital. City development in Vietnam has shown a burst of energy manifesting in Hanoi and Saigon. Both the drag of past dilapidation as well as weight of the communist baggage have been thrown aside remorselessly.

Sri Lanka

In a land where time has stood still for half a century and more a beginning is being made at urban renewal. The process of urbanization itself has been stagnant since independence. The urban population % for 4 countries in 1950 and 2010 were: China 11.8 and 49.2, India 17.0 and 30.9, Malaysia 20.4 and 72.0 and Sri Lanka 15.3 and 15.0. Those who challenge the statistics can seek clarification from Population Division of the UN. Having lost out, one may be inclined to expatiate on the mystique of rural existence. To Karl Marx it is “Idiocy of rural life”.

In the capital city, is urban renewal the need of the hour? No. It is overdue by more than sixty years. It is unfortunate that when the nation had financial resources and exchange aplenty from independence to 1960, profligacy overtook thrift and prudent investment. When land availability lent itself to flexibility and spatial expansion, the advantage was not seized. The thinking of officialdom did not get grafted to political priorities. Conversely the powers that be never pushed the officials towards city modernization. In the last half a century pecuniary embarrassment contracepted any thought on urban renewal in the capital city or in provincial and district capitals.

Colombo

The result particularly in the principal city was galloping degeneration. The nation’s population more than trebled since independence and with urban migration the city experienced explosive pressure. Yet the response to accommodating the changes was only a little more than paralytic. The pace was pedestrian and slums became iconic in a city reputed to be a ‘garden city’ six decades earlier. Whatever the current situation, redeveloping a city of 7 lakhs should not be difficult when Chennai is managing a city of 8.8 million projected to reach 12.8 million by 2025.

With urban sprawl and encroachments without penal action, large areas were swallowed up leaving no space for lateral expansion or vertical growth. In this situation the city was faced with two options. The choices were to live with slums till eternity or to maximize land utilization creatively and realistically. The latter became compulsive and the response was appropriate to demand.

Why select Slave Island for primary honour? What is Slave Island? A microcosm of Colombo’s slum world, displaying all the unsavoury features of unhealthy living. Above it, is its rotten ripeness for demolition. Centrality to the metropolis that is envisaged and proximity to better areas of residence perhaps influenced the selection. Once it gets on to the highroad to development it is sure to become a precursor for other areas of sterilized land. Panchikawatte, Mutwal, Grandpass, Kotahena and a few more places of extreme congestion will be in line. This short list will need half a century and billions in dollars to see planned development. The clean slate model for Slave Island provides the flexibility ideal for comprehensive planning and execution not to mention foreign investment.

Dweller Relocation

Any worthwhile development of commendable proportions in any city at any time would mandate relocation of residents. A major surgical operation is inevitably painful and painkillers will be needed. Humanitarian considerations demand it. So it is with Slave Island. The cost of relocation is reportedly high. Decades of default by the administration both central and municipal brought this about. The price to be paid may be deemed as for new housing. At a price the untouchable has been touched. A kinetic dimension is added to the immovable. A harbinger of change is in place.

Provincial and District Capitals

In decades past the rickshaw puller was an essential part in a foreigner’s city tour. When a round is over he will tell the tourist “Sir this is Colombo, larger than Ceylon”. This thinking was dominant in the twentieth century among the higher echelons. In this Colombo centric obsession may be seen the unbalanced growth of Colombo vis a vis District capitals. Veering from such thinking, resources need to be spread across the country evenly. Having said that, it needs to be mentioned that there is a compulsion to treat the capital differently.

Attractive Capital

The state of the capital plays its part in the development of a nation. Lee Kwan Yew says that a visitor’s impression from the airport to the city is important. Well manicured golf courses and tree lined roads will present a picture of discipline. Colombo as a garden city will do good to the country in many ways. But it is wise to recognize that no amount of beautification will change perceptions if fundamentals are flawed or non-existent. This is particularly so with regard to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the crucial importance of which needs little emphasis.

FDI

UNCTAD having researched the factors promoting FDI, spells out 11 core principles quite succinctly. Three of them of crucial relevance to Sri Lanka’s investment climate are as below:

Policy Coherence:

“Investment policies should be grounded in a country’s overall development strategy. All policies that impact on investment should be coherent and synergetic at both the national and international levels”.

Public Governance and Institutions:

“Investment policies should be developed involving all stakeholders, and embedded in an    institutional framework based on the rule of law that adheres to high standards of public governance and ensures predictable, efficient and transparent procedures for investors”.

Openness to Investment:

“In line with each country’s development strategy, investment policy should establish open,   stable and predictable entry conditions for investment”.

Sri Lanka can either follow them or forget about FDI. Global FDI which stood at a modest $ 13.34 billion in 1970, grew to a cumulative $ 20.66 trillion by end 2011. A total of $ 40 trillion is expected by 2020. If these be the magnitudes can SL afford not to partake of it?

Infrastructure

The indispensables of city infrastructure are clearly known. The astronomical figure needed annually to meet the cost is known to those conversant with the subject. It may also be realised that neither the state nor the private sector command even a fraction of the resources needed for transformational projects of high investment magnitudes. Foreign loans are mobilized and FDI is attracted or the nation stagnates and the city withers away.

Prospects

Hope springs and life goes on like Tennyson’s brook. Our wisest poetess Auvaiyaar points out that even as a tree on the bank of a river can crash any time, a life of power and pelf will certainly crumble. The reality of impermanence is dinned into us. Thiruvalluvar in his wisdom says that prudent words make no impression on the obtuse. To the unwise, his own one dimensional perception is supreme. Ilanko Adikal asserts in Silappadikaaram, aram (dharma) will deliver us from evil rule. Whatever the backdrop, on what has been initiated towards urban renewal in Colombo, a worthwhile edifice can be built. Eternal optimism is certainly never unrealism.

Israel woman sexually abused at Mirisa beach

[ Thursday, 18 April 2013, 07:58.23 AM GMT +05:30 ]

Israel woman visited SriLanka to spend a holidays was sexually abused at Mirisa beach.

Woman blamed she was sexually abused by a man while taking sun bath at the beach. She lodged complaint at the Mirisa police station. This woman was accompanied by her husband.

Colombo revives colonial rule to monitor foreign tourists

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 April 2013, 20:26 GMT]
Citing an obscure 1886 ordinance of the colonial times of British Ceylon, that has been largely ignored for decades, the Sri Lankan Police now says that it will monitor foreign tourists’ whereabouts in the entire island, a report by the International Business Times said Wednesday. The news report in the IBT has come while Eezham Tamils world over have been campaigning against tourists visiting the Sri Lankan ‘killing fields’. 

The IBT report by the AFP, noting that Sri Lanka has always been wary of foreigners travelling to the “once-forbidden far north”, also observed that the visiting foreigners to the northeastern shores must still sign in with their passports at military checkpoints, 

In the meantime, news sources in Vavuniyaa told TamilNet that all the buses travelling north are instructed by the occupying SL military to provide details, including photo copies of the passports of the foreigners. 

Before the passenger reaches the destination, the local SL military camp and attached intelligence officers of the SL military receive details by fax from the entry point, bus operators told TamilNet.

Sri Lanka banks on return of British Airways

By John O’ Ceallaigh-17 Apr 2013

 The journalists with me have never seen members of a country’s travel industry so enthused by their arrival

John O' Ceallaigh, in Sri Lanka, reports on how important the return of British Airways is to the country's burgeoning tourist industry.

Prospective visitors to Sri Lanka may be perturbed by recent revelations that the country’s hotels are being asked to provide police with the passport numbers and visa details of foreign guests.

The move might sound Orwellian, but should be seen as a – perhaps overcautious – response to crimes targeting travellers. Khuram Shaikh, a British national, was fatally attacked at the resort of Tangalle on Christmas Day in 2011, while two European tourists were beaten up in central Sri Lanka last month. It also illustrates just how important the Sri Lankan government regards the continued success of its burgeoning tourism industry.

I’m currently in the country as part of a press trip organised by British Airways. Following a 15-year hiatus, the carrier resumed services to Colombo this week, emboldened by the cessation of hostilities and a subsequent rise in overseas visitors - a million tourists came here in 2012, more than double the number that arrived in the final year of the civil war.

The journalists with me have never seen members of a country’s travel industry so enthused by their arrival. In beautiful but economically deprived Sri Lanka peace has provided a major opportunity for growth, and the return of BA has been front-page news. To our surprise, photographers and TV crews have followed us around the country, and one local guide, who went to the airport to welcome the inaugural BA flight, told me he wept when the plane touched down.

Our own run-in with the police happened moments after our arrival. We reached Colombo on a bank holiday, but our tour bus was still provided with a police escort to smooth our path from the airport to our hotel. The unexpected gesture was, of course, completely unwarranted and in any case unnecessary (the roads were practically deserted), but the significance of these returning markets is perhaps difficult for visitors from Britain to fully appreciate.

The tourism drive hasn’t come without controversy. Some human rights groups have criticised what they describe as “tasteless war tourism”, including holiday accommodation built on the site of Sri Lanka’s “killing fields”.

The government has also come under fire for allegedly bulldozing independent guesthouses to make way for new holiday resorts, and for pressing ahead with “morally dubious” tourism projects in Hambantota and Kalpitiya, on the south and north-west coasts.

In the three days we’ve been here we’ve found locals hospitable, exceptionally friendly and laidback - the country appears safe and I’ve felt comfortable and sincerely welcomed at all of the attractions I’ve visited.

While I’m unsure that providing tourists’ passport and visa details to police will make any significant difference to security, it has been plain to see from our brief stay here that the authorities are doing all they can to make the country more attractive to foreigners.

But given how fledgling the country’s tourism industry is, and the pressure it seems to be placing itself under to get everything right, it is not guaranteed to be a smooth ride.

Thinking of visiting Sri Lanka?Think again.

By John O' Ceallaigh

Tracking down tourists a safety measure-SL

THURSDAY, 18 APRIL 2013 

A police directive to track down foreign tourists and long-time overseas residents in Sri Lanka is a security measure, the government said today.

"In the guise of tourists, there are certain elements which are adverse to the country. That is why we need to keep a track of them," Keheliya Rambukwella, minister of information and government spokesman told reporters.

Last week, the police headquarters had told local police stations to gather information on tourists lodged at hotels and guest houses within the respective police areas.

The police said the measure was taken for the safety of tourists.

A British tourist was killed in an attack at a southern tourist resort in December 2011.

The British Foreign Office travel advisory noted violent crime against foreigners is "infrequent" in Sri Lanka but states an "increasing number of reports of sexual offences, including against minors".

The government has lodged its protest against the British travel advisory saying Sri Lanka saw the arrival of over a million tourists in 2012.(PTI)