Sri Lanka’s Minister of Finance and Mass Media Mangala Samaraweera met with the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran to discuss possible ways to utilise RS 1 billion rupees allocated by Sri Lanka’s 2018 budget to the Northern Province.

Speaking at the council, Mr Samaraweera said the Budget had also made provisions to help resettle former LTTE cadres and provide them with soft loans.

The Office of Missing Persons (OMP) will not be used as a punitive body and will not lead to criminal procedures or prosecutions said its chairperson Attorney Saliya Pieris.

Speaking in an interview with dailynews.lk, Mr Pieris said,

“Our function is not to punish. The law specifically says the findings of the OMP cannot be used in any criminal or civil proceeding. They cannot be used as evidence in a criminal proceeding.”

The Tamil National People’s Front will support the Tamil National Alliance to ensure that Sinhalese parties don’t take control of Vavuniya North.

The 120th birth anniversary of S J V Chelvanayakam was marked at his memorial statue in Mannar today.

The only option for the PM is to step down, said State Minister Dilan Perera on Friday.

Describing the incumbent prime-minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as a roadblock in the functioning of the unity government, Mr Perera called on the prime minster to step down whilst speaking at a press conference.

Mr Perara accused the prime-minister of blocking efforts to resolve the Bond scam crisis which saw UNP politicians accused of corruption.

As evidence into the murder of Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge unfolds in court with high-level police officials implicated in coverups and destruction of evidence, a report has shown that two Tamil youths were abducted and murdered and had their motorcycle stolen in an attempt to frame the LTTE for the journalist’s assassination.

A report by the Daily Mirror states:

“According to the ‘B’ Reports, the motorcycle had been stolen in Vavuniya on January 18 by blindfolding and abducting Balraj Ram Prakash and Kumarasingham Vishnukumar whist they were travelling to Settikulam.   

Sri Lanka’s Army announced that it had agreed a ‘national’ vetting process with the UN for personnel that it sends out on UN peacekeeping assignments.

In a statement published on the army website, it said,

The Sri Lankan Prime Minister has said reviving “fallen” education in the North would take at least another ten years.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said this at Temple Trees on Wednesday at a ceremony to hand out permanent appointment letters for around 400 teachers to the Northern Province.

“The whole system of education in the North had fallen today. What have to do is to lay the foundation stone to revive this system in the province. It will take time,” he said.

A newly elected local government member has been arrested in connection with the anti-Muslim violence in Kandy.

Kumara Mohottige Samantha Perera alias Araliya Samantha, a member elected to a divisional council in the Kandy district was arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID).

Mr Samantha is a member of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, the Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka Freedom Party breakaway that swept the elections in the Sinhala South.

A temporary police checkpoint in Maniyanthottam, Jaffna was set ablaze by unknown persons on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka’s Army Chief Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake met with Northern Province Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran to offer army leadership for school cadet programmes, reports the army website.

The Commander also cited examples of the Army’s potential for deepening civil and military cooperation.

Sri Lanka's military has received strong cirticism from civil society for its pervasive involvement in civilian affairs of the northern province. 

The Tamil National Alliance using support of the EPDP to form gain control of Local Governing bodies will be considered as forsaking party policy for personal gain, said the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran.

China would never interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka nor attach additional conditions to its assistance to Sri Lanka, the Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka has said.

Ambassador Cheng Xueyan’s remarks came at a meeting with the Secretary General of Sri Lanka’s National Economic Council, according to a press release by the Chinese Embassy.

The Sri Lankan Cabinet has granted approval to abolish an economic management committee headed by the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The decision was made in a cabinet meeting chaired by Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, who has previously submitted two cabinet papers requesting the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management be disbanded.

The President said that the CCEM has done nothing fruitful to the country in its existence.