Monks from the Buddha Sasana, concluded that major amendments to Sri Lanka’s constitution were not needed.

The Buddha Sasana which shares a dedicated ministerial post with the Ministry of Justice in Sri Lanka, met to discuss the constitution with monks from different Buddhist institutions.

Speaking at the end of the meeting Ven. Anamaduwe Sri Dammadassi Nayaka Thero said any new amendments to the constitution ,other than ones those fixing loopholes, were not needed, reports adaderena.lk.

The Ministry of the Buddha Sasana is presided by the Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe

The Sri Lankan government is set to announce a ban on bottom trawling fishing this week, in a move targeting fishermen from Tamil Nadu who reportedly cross the International Maritime Boundary Line.

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Minister Mahinda Amaraweera will introduce the ban on Thursday, with reports that up to 1,500 Tamil Nadu boats have been reported fishing in Sri Lanka waters using bottom trawls, according to the Sunday Times.

The use of bottom trawlers has also been a point of concern for Tamil fishermen across the North-East, who have repeatedly complained of damage being done to their equipment and the marine environment by the controversial practice.

The Myliddy harbour, which at one time accommodated almost a third of Sri Lanka’s fishing trade, and 54 acres of surrounding land on Jaffna peninsula were released today after 27 years of military occupation.

Around 50 families have registered with the Tellipalai Divisional Secretariat to resettle in the lands released today.

While residents were eager to step into and see their lands after having no access for 27 years, they noted that none of their properties were in immediately habitable conditions.

Houses and buildings in the lands were mostly demolished, and none of the valuable furniture and construction materials left behind by civilians were to be found.

Community spaces such as the local Kovil and its chariot were also discovered in a state of ruin and disrepair.

Honouring fallen LTTE cadres should be allowed, the Sri Lankan Minister of Home Affairs has said, according to a report by the Uthayan newspaper.

The minister, Vajira Abeywardena, is quoted by the Uthayan as saying “all soldiers [including LTTE] that died in the war should be honoured and there is nothing wrong in paying tribute to them.”

The remarks were made at the Oddusuddan Maha Vidyalayam in Mullaitivu during a session of the Sri Lankan President’s “Nila Mehewara” National Mobile Service Program.

The Sri Lankan military has constructed a new accommodation block for soldiers at its Eastern headquarters, declared an official army website last week.

A group of Tamil schoolchildren were given a tour of KKS in Jaffna last week, a restricted area of land where the Sri Lankan security forces maintain a large military base and operates its own holiday resort.

India donated 16,000 books, mostly in the Tamil language, to the Jaffna library last week, during the Indian High Commissioner, Taranjit Singh Sandhu visit to the North-East.  

The collection includes photocopies of some of the original work of the Arumugam Navalar which was destroyed when the library was set alight by state security forces and Sinhala mobs in 1981. 

Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Ravi Karunanyake warned this week the country should not be complacent that its own economy would reap the rewards of improving economies of other countries in the region. 

"Sri Lanka has so far been largely reactive to the interest of its neighbours and potential partners. We cannot afford to remain complacent, believing that we will automatically reap the economic rewards of a global shift from West to East. We will not," he told a seminar in Colombo on Wednesday. 

A Fundamental Rights application on the right to build an Islamic religious school was dismissed by Sri Lanka's Supreme Court, the Sunday Times reported this week. 

Buddhist monks and locals had demonstrated against the building of the religious school. 

The FR application was made by a principal of a madrassa in Panadura and mosque president, who argued their right to build a religious school was being violated. 

The unity government has failed on one of its key election promises to end corruption and prosecute those previously responsible, this week's editorial in Sri Lanka's Sunday Times concluded. 

"One of the key promises of the electoral campaigns of the then Opposition in 2015 was that a new administration under Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe would, not only eliminate corruption, but hold those suspected of it in the past to account. On both counts, this Government has failed," the editorial, entitled 'Sri Lanka's going down, not up' noted. 

Pointing to ongoing lack of transparency in procurement, the paper concluded, "It is corruption, as usual."