“It is the duty of all parties in the country to solve problems according to the people’s wishes by participating in this Parliamentary Select Committee rather than relying on imported solutions and utilising foreign influences,” Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said.

Addressing the nation at Anuradhapura, on the occasion of the Sri Lankan Independence Day, he said that Sri Lanka believed that the mechanism for solving the National Question is the Parliamentary Select Committee. “We are engaged in [...]

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has a message for Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa: “Take care of our people who go there. Ministers, our relations etc.”

Commenting on the attack on his relative and industrialist, Thirukumar Nadesan, he said that he was attacked only because he was married to Deputy Minister Nirupama Rajapaksa.

“He is a Hindu, he is a Tamil from north not from south…Even the Indian fishermen are protesting [against the attack on him],” the President said, at an [...]

Denies that he ever told India he would go beyond the 13th Amendment

After promising to go beyond the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution to find a solution to the Tamil ethnic problem, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has done a U-turn and said the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) would now have to suggest a solution.

At an interaction on Monday with the country’s editors at Temple Trees, the President’s official residence, Mr. Rajapaksa “denied that he ever told India [...]

The outline of a sustainable development system to empower villagers.

The process of evolution of human beings has been greatly accelerated by the application of science and technology in several fields. With the expansion of ideas, the geopolitical situation changed and many new independent nations were born in the era of the Second World War. Most of the nations had a great civilisational heritage, but suffered under colonial rule for centuries. After the end of colonial rule, independent nations formed [...]

ITC is planning to go overseas with its hotel business and is planning to set up a premium, green, luxury property in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.

Confirming the development, an ITC spokesman said “At the moment, it is ITC’s first proposed overseas foray to build and manage a hotel. The company said that Sri Lanka was strategically important to the company’s investment plans for hotels, given the vibrant tourism potential that the country offers.

The hotel is [...]

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa launched a tri-lingual initiative here on Saturday, aimed at making sure that all in Sri Lanka learn the three main languages in use here – Sinhalese, Tamil and English. The initiative was launched in the presence of former Indian President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam.

As part of the initiative, 2012 has been declared as the year for a Trilingual Sri Lanka, and a 10-year plan for a Trilingual Sri Lanka was also launched.

Addressing an invited audience [...]

The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, will embark on a mission to promote peace, harmony and prosperity for all societal constituents in Sri Lanka and propagate an agenda for an inclusively developed nation.

On the eve of his four-day visit to the island nation, Mr. Kalam gave an e-mail interview to The Hindu, explaining how he plans to meet leaders of “both sides” to convey a mission of building an environment for harmony and mutual trust.

He has asked [...]

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s reiteration — in his recent meeting with External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna — of his commitment to the “13th Amendment plus” approach to solving the nation’s Tamil question is to be welcomed, although it is only from Mr. Krishna that we know about this in the present instance. Of course, the President has articulated this commitment several times before, including in an interview to The Hindu in 2009. But what proponents of an early political settlement, including [...]

As part of an India-assisted plan to revive the south coastal Railway in Sri Lanka, the completed section of the Galle-Hikkaduwa railway track was on Thursday handed over to Sri Lanka.

Phase-One of this Project, comprising the 42-km Galle-Matara Section, was completed in February 2011. Phase Two of the project, which involves the section from Galle to Kaluthara, will be completed by April this year.

IRCON International Ltd, a public sector Indian company-involved railway infrastructure, had completed the 19-km [...]

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna on Wednesday handed over houses built for the Internally Displaced Persons at a function organised at Ariviyal Nagar, Kilinochi.

“The houses that you see across the school compound have been constructed in the pilot phase for 1,000 houses under our Housing Project which was launched during my visit in November 2010. I am happy to hand over these houses to beneficiaries of Ariviyal Nagar here and at Ariyalai in Jaffna later in the day. I [...]

A political settlement to Tamils in Sri Lanka and a solution that answers the aspirations of the Tamil community…is the most important issue to be resolved, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, here on Tuesday.

During the 90-minute breakfast meeting between the two leaders at Temple Trees, the official residence of the Sri Lankan President, a wide range of issues were discussed but the focus remained firmly on the Tamil question.

With relations between [...]

The internally displaced Tamils in the north will soon be partners in building their own homes. They will build a majority of the 49,000 houses over the next few years after India and Sri Lanka on Tuesday signed a few documents to this effect.

The Memorandum of Understanding specifies the modalities for the next phase of the Housing Project being implemented with India’s assistance of about $260 million. External Affairs Minister of India and Sri Lanka, S.M. Krishna and G.L. Peiris, [...]

Even as the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance hardened their positions on the question of devolution and autonomy to Tamils in Sri Lanka, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna arrived here on Monday to hold wide-ranging talks with his counterpart, G.L. Peiris, and a host of political and civil society leaders, on political and development issues.

The four-day visit will take him from one end of the country to the other – Jaffna in the north to Galle [...]

Barely two days before the commencement of a crucial round of talks between the Tamil National Alliance, an umbrella group representing Tamil political parties, and the Sri Lankan government, the outfit again called for outside scrutiny of the Eelam War IV.

The war concluded in May 2009 and the government has conceded that there have been civilian casualties in the war. Almost all civilians killed were Tamils.

“The need for an accountability process that meets international standards while delivering on [...]

Banking on the “structural changes” in the economy to “provide the momentum for the economy to grow by about 8 per cent in 2012, even in the midst of the slowdown in global economic activity,” the Sri Lankan Central Bank’s January Monetary Board, in its meeting on January 10, decided not to touch any of the interest rates.

“The Monetary Board is of the view that the present policy framework does not require any adjustment and accordingly, at its meeting [...]