Sri Lanka government mobilizes public field officials to monitor home quarantine

Sri Lanka government has designed a system of public field officials to monitor the home quarantine. 

So far, the home quarantine was monitored and administered by Public Health Inspectors and the police. People who undergo quarantine lack official support unless the neighbours help them. Previously, the society was afraid of the epidemic and the persons who were under home quarantine had to face harassment in some instances. However, now home quarantine is common and over 100,000 persons are undergoing it at the moment.  

The government has mobilised village-level field officers including Grama Niladhari, Samurdhi Development Officers, Agro Research and Production Officers, Economic Development Officers, Family Health Officers, Public Health Inspectors and police in the village level committees to monitor the home quarantine.

They will have to monitor home quarantine on a roaster basis, according to the government circular and attend to privacy, security and issues like special requirements of elders and persons with disabilities. 

A mentally-handicapped person committed suicide a few weeks ago when he was isolated in the house after his caretaker mother was taken to the hospital because of COVID-19. Public Health Inspectors were blamed for not caring for the requirements of the mentally handicapped person but the officials said they had been overloaded with work. 

The suicide of this mentally-handicapped person in Kahathuduwa and some of the deaths at home could be saved if such a mechanism was available.

Beware! Don't avoid PCRs - police media spokesman

Sri Lanka police media spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana warned today to the persons who ignore summons for PCR tests, especially in isolated areas. 

He said that police had reports about the persons who had avoided PCR tests which were prescribed to them by the health authorities.  

The police media spokesman said that persons who avoid prescribed PCR tests could be penalized under the quarantine regulations. 

Our sources from some isolated areas in Colombo city said that some people had run away from the health officials who came for random PCR tests.

Sarath Weerasekara sworn in as Minister of Public Security of Sri Lanka

Arch Sinhala nationalist politician, former senior naval officer Sarath Weerasekara was sworn in as the cabinet Minister of  Public Security of Sri Lanka. 

Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara, RSP, VSV, USP, MP holds the post of State Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government also. 

Under an extraordinary Gazette notification dated November 20, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa established two new cabinet Ministries and Public Security was one of them. The other is the Ministry of Technology. 

Ministry of Public Security will be responsible for four institutions, namely, Police department, Civil Security department, Police Training College and the Multi-Purpose Development Task Force.

Police were previously trusted to the state Ministry of Internal Security, Home Affairs and Disaster Management held by President's elder brother Chamal Rajapaksa. His State Ministry was renamed today as State Defence, Home Affairs and Disaster Management and he was also sworn in the new title.

Sarath Weerasekara was a leader of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's think tank Viyath Maga (The way of the Intellectuals). He elected to parliament in the 2020 August election achieving over 328,000 preferential votes, a number far ahead of the preferential votes gained by government and nationalist stalwart Wimal Weerawansa.

He first elected to parliament in 2010. In 2015, he was the only MP in the parliament to vote against the 19th amendment to the constitution.

Sarath Weerasekara is a film director too and directed Gamani in 2011. 

ADB grants loan to Sri Lanka to help SMEs

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Sri Lankan government signed a 165 million U.S. dollars loan agreement Wednesday to provide immediate financing support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This loan agreement will also provide long-term financing to underserved SMEs, including businesses led by women and tea smallholders, a statement from ADB in Sri Lanka said.

The agreement was signed by the Secretary of Ministry of Finance S. R. Attygalle, and ADB Sri Lanka Resident Mission Country Director Chen Chen.ars loan agreement Wednesday to provide immediate financing support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This loan agreement will also provide long-term financing to underserved SMEs, including businesses led by women and tea smallholders, a statement from ADB in Sri Lanka said.

The agreement was signed by the Secretary of Ministry of Finance S. R. Attygalle, and ADB Sri Lanka Resident Mission Country Director Chen Chen. (Xinhuanet - Read the full report here)

Exorbitant prices for COVID-19 coffins in Sri Lanka; protest the rackets behind COVID-19 funerals

Sri Lanka Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachchi said that the government would support the people who could not bear expenses for the cremation of COVID-19 deaths. She said that a family member of a deceased bears the cost for a coffin. 

Answering a question by Opposition MP Mujibar Rahuman regarding charging Rs. 58,000 at IDH hospital for a coffin, Minister Wanniarachchi said that the government would help the people who had no money to spend on the cremation via donors. 

However, Rs. 58,000 is an exorbitant charge for a simple funeral package in Sri Lanka and people suspect corruption related to COVID-19 cremations.

Meanwhile, spokesman of Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), Pubudu Jayagoda demanded the government to use the COVID-19 Fund for the cremation of the dead bodies of the COVID-19 deceased. He further urged people to protest the rackets behind COVID-19 funerals.

Sri Lanka police arrest the engineer of RDA who assaulted a female clerk

Sri Lanka police say that an engineer in public service has been arrested for assaulting a female junior officer. 

The arrested engineer works in the Provincial office of Road Development Authority in Udugampola. The victim of the violent act is a female Management Assistant who worked in his office. 

A video is going viral on social media in Sri Lanka that shows a person suspected to be an engineer of Udugampola office of Provincial Road Development Authority assaulting a female officer. The incident is suspected happened on 23 November 2020.

Still heavy taxes on sanitary napkins, Mangala Samaraweera exposes

Former Minister of Finance of Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraweera said that the taxes on sanitary napkins totalled 101.2%  when he removed 30% import tariffs in October 2018.

However, the present government says that they have restructured the taxes. Several Ministers said in social media that taxation on sanitary towels has not been increased. Accordingly, the pre-budget import tax on sanitary towels was 30% and there was no CESS tax on them. The government has reduced the custom import duty to 15% and added a new CESS tax of 15%. As a result, the tax amount remains the same.

However, state-owned Sunday Observer newspaper on 23 September 2018 outlined the tax structure on sanitary napkins as follows: