Posted on June 29th, 2021
The Editorial Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The row between the authorities and the farmers over the ban on chemical fertilizer reminds us the Sinhala folktale Hathara Beeri Kathawa” in which a deaf man askes another deaf man a question to which the latter gives an answer which is nothing to do with the question. Here, farmers across the country demonstrate demanding fertilizer – chemical or organic – for their crops which have been severely affected by the government’s decision to ban import of chemical fertilizer, but the authorities deliver sermons on the effectiveness of organic fertilizer.
Despite some experts having expressed their reservations on the efficacy of organic fertilizer in paddy, tea, and vegetable cultivations, farmers do not seem to insist on chemical fertilizer alone; they demand any fertilizer for their crops which they have made it clear during their demonstrations. However, State media and media suppor
Posted on April 10th, 2021
by Rohana R. Wasala
The report of the ministerial subcommittee appointed by the president on February 19, 2021 to study the Final Report of the PCoI on the Easter Sunday Attacks and to suggest how its recommendations should be carried out was handed over to the president on April 5 by its secretary Harigupta Rohanadheera, the director general of legal affairs at the presidential secretariat. The sectoral oversight committee comprised minister Chamal Rajapaksa (chairman), and ministers Udaya Gammanpila, Prasanne Ranatunga, Romesh Pathirana, Johnston Fernando and Rohitha Abeygunawardane. Two days later (April 7), the media reported that the Attorney General authorized the proscription of some eleven Islamic organizations including all Thawheed groups, Sri Lanka Jamate Islam, and affiliated student movements, of which those directly or indirectly involved in the April attacks held membership.The international organizations ISIS and
Sri Lankans are desperate as others the world over and keep their fingers crossed as native medicine practitioner Dhammika Bandara awaits the authorities to approve a concoction he made to combat COVID-19.
Sri Lankans are quick to celebrate any achievement. But here ‘this medic’ is negotiating a challenging time with lives of patients in one hand a local product he made on the other.
In laymen’s term he could hit the jackpot if this native medicine is approved by the government medical authorities. But from another perspective we hear that money making is not his motive because he has already given it free to 5000 people who visited his shrine on Kegalle.