Category: Daily Financial Times

Authorities have proposed introducing an Electric Vehicle (EV) shuttle service within Horton Plains National Park to reduce vehicle emissions, carbon footprints and noise pollution.

The proposal was made during a special field observation tour and progress review discussion held at Horton Plains on 29 August, chaired by Environment Deputy Minister Anton Jayakody.

Under the proposed system, dedicated parking facilities would be established near the park’s entrance gates, with visitors transported into the park using electric shuttle vehicles.

The initiative is aimed at minimising the environmental impact and wildlife disturbance caused by conventional vehicles, while providing visitors with a quieter and more environmentally friendly experience.

Authorities expect the proposed system to contribute to the protection of the park’s sensitive ecosystem while supporting sustainable tourism.

Horton Plains, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is home to a unique and fragile ecosystem that is particularly vulnerable to human activity and environmental disturbances.

The proposal forms part of a broader program to modernise infrastructure and establish a sustainable eco-tourism model at the national park.

Salesforce yesterday announced the expansion of its collaboration with John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH) to accelerate customer experience transformation across Sri Lanka.

The expanded collaboration will enable two of JKH’s key businesses – Keells supermarkets, one of Sri Lanka’s leading supermarket chains, and John Keells CG Auto, its automotive business, to deliver stronger customer experiences that are connected, personalised, and data-driven, as they evolve for the next phase of growth.

At the heart of the collaboration is Keells Nexus, one of Sri Lanka’s most recognised loyalty programs, powered by Salesforce and serving more than two million members.

Keells Super is using Salesforce Loyalty Management, Data 360, Marketing Automation, MuleSoft and Agentforce Service. By unifying customer transactions, behaviours, preferences, and interactions, Keells can turn customer insight into action-delivering more personalised experiences that deepen loyalty, drive engagement, and unlock greater value across the customer lifecycle.

John Keells CG Auto is the authorised distributor for BYD passenger vehicles in Sri Lanka, supporting the country’s growing adoption of New Energy Vehicles.

The business is using Salesforce Automotive Cloud to support vehicle inventory management and connect it with customer interactions across pre-sales, sales, ownership and after-sales service.

A unified view of customer and vehicle data will help John Keells CG Auto connect every stage of the automotive journey-from discovery and purchase to servicing and ownership. This foundation will enable more contextual and consistent customer experiences while supporting the company’s expansion across new locations, services and premium segments.

JKH PLC Group CIO and EVP Ramesh Shanmuganathan said: ‘At John Keells, we see the experience economy as the next frontier of differentiation. It is about moving beyond transactions to creating connected, intelligent and increasingly personalised experiences. Our partnership with Salesforce brings together data, AI and customer engagement to turn insight into action. From Keells Supermarkets to John Keells CG Auto, we are building a scalable foundation that will expand across the Group, with relevance to each business and its customers. As agentic AI moves increasingly to the edge, we see the opportunity to turn context into action in real time – enabling personalisation at scale.’

JKH Senior Vice President, Head of IT – Retail Sector Osanda Warnekulasooriya said: ‘With more than two million Keells Nexus members, personalisation must be relevant, timely and trusted. Salesforce enables us to bring together customer transactions, preferences and engagement signals so we can better understand our customers and make every interaction more useful. This is about going beyond rewards to build deeper everyday relationships and deliver a more consistent experience across channels.’

Salesforce – India and Sri Lanka Managing Director Mankiran Chowhan said: ‘Customers do not experience businesses as separate systems or functions, they experience one continuous relationship. Whether someone is making an everyday retail purchase or navigating years of vehicle ownership, the expectation is the same: recognise me, understand my context and make every interaction easier. Our collaboration with John Keells reflects a broader shift from simply collecting customer data to activating trusted customer intelligence across the moments that matter. This is how modern enterprises create sustainable growth: by bringing data, CRM and AI together as one connected operating model.’

The collaborations demonstrate how organisations can build on their existing technology foundations to embrace the next phase of digital transformation – using data, AI and automation to create more connected, intelligent and customer-centric businesses.

LOLC Life Assurance recently celebrated the winners of its island-wide children’s art competition, ‘Sihina Siththara,’ with a special day at Pearl Bay, bringing the initiative to a memorable close for the young participants and their families.

Open to children across Sri Lanka, ‘Sihina Siththara’ invited participants to express their creativity, imagination and unique perspectives through art. The competition featured three age categories: 3-5 years, 6-8 years and 9-12 years, providing children with an opportunity to showcase their artistic talents.

The competition received an impressive response from young artists across the country. Following an evaluation by an expert panel, the top three winners in each category received cash prizes, while the top 10 winners in each category enjoyed a memorable day at Pearl Bay with their families

The awards ceremony brought together company management, the winners and their parents to celebrate the achievements of the young participants.

Executive Director/Principal Officer Dr. Chandana L. Aluthgama said: ‘Our commitment to creating positive social impact complements our role as a life insurance provider. We believe in contributing to the development of future generations by supporting initiatives that create opportunities for children and strengthen the communities around them. ‘Sihina Siththara’ reflects this commitment by providing young participants with a platform to express their creativity and showcase their talents. We will continue to support initiatives that contribute to a more inclusive and empowered future.’

Chief Operating Officer Jayantha Kalinga said: ‘At LOLC Life Assurance, we believe that encouraging children to explore their potential from an early age plays an important role in building confidence and self-expression. ‘Sihina Siththara’ provided a platform for children to showcase their abilities while celebrating their achievements. We are pleased to have extended the initiative beyond the competition by creating an opportunity for the winners to enjoy a memorable experience at Pearl Bay with their families.’

The initiative forms part of LOLC Life Assurance’s commitment to creating positive social impact, with a focus on supporting the development and well-being of the younger generation. As one of Sri Lanka’s fastest-growing life insurers, LOLC Life Assurance said it continues to create meaningful value for individuals, families and the communities it serves.

Sri Lanka is at an important crossroads in its economic recovery. Having gone through one of the worst financial crises in its history, the country is now trying to rebuild trust, restore stability, and set the stage for steady growth. As the current monetary policy framework comes up for review, one question keeps surfacing: should the Central Bank change its inflation target? The short answer is no – not because 5% is some magic number, but because the existing framework fits Sri Lanka’s economic reality. The real challenge for the next phase isn’t picking a new number. It’s making the current system work better.

Small, open economy living with global shocks

Sri Lanka’s current framework, set up under the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act No. 16 of 2023 and the Monetary Policy Framework Agreement of October 2023, targets headline inflation of around 5%, with room to move two percentage points in either direction.

This approach recognises something important: Sri Lanka is not a large, diversified, advanced economy. It’s small, open, and heavily dependent on the outside world. Oil prices affect transport and electricity bills. Global food prices hit household budgets. Currency swings raise the cost of imported goods. International interest rates affect how much capital flows in or out. Add in the risks of geopolitical conflict disrupting shipping, or droughts and floods hurting local harvests, and it’s clear that many of the forces driving prices in Sri Lanka are simply beyond the Central Bank’s control.

This matters because monetary policy can’t fix these problems directly. If fuel becomes more expensive on world markets, raising interest rates won’t produce more fuel. If a poor harvest pushes up vegetable prices, higher rates won’t grow more vegetables overnight. The real job of monetary policy isn’t to stop every short-term price wobble – it’s to make sure temporary shocks don’t turn into lasting, embedded inflation, and that people’s expectations about future prices stay anchored.

If fuel becomes more expensive on world markets, raising interest rates won’t produce more fuel. If a poor harvest pushes up vegetable prices, higher rates won’t grow more vegetables overnight. The real job of monetary policy isn’t to stop every short-term price wobble – it’s to make sure temporary shocks don’t turn into lasting, embedded inflation, and that people’s expectations about future prices stay anchored

Food prices hit harder in countries like Sri Lanka

One of the biggest differences between rich and developing economies is how much food matters in the average household budget. In Sri Lanka, food makes up about 26% of the Colombo Consumer Price Index basket – a big chunk of typical spending. Research from the IMF backs this pattern up more broadly: food accounts for a median of roughly 31% of consumption in emerging and developing economies, compared with about 17% in wealthy nations.

This isn’t just an abstract statistic. When global food or fuel prices spike, wealthier households can often absorb the hit because food is a smaller share of what they spend. Poorer households don’t have that cushion – they can’t simply eat less, so a bigger share of their income has to go toward keeping the family fed. That’s why headline inflation (which includes food and fuel) matters so much in Sri Lanka, even though economists sometimes prefer to look past these ‘temporary’ swings. To a family staring at a higher grocery bill, the distinction between temporary and permanent inflation is beside the point.

External shocks aren’t going away

The past several years have shown just how easily the global economy can be knocked off balance. COVID-19 disrupted supply chains worldwide. The war in Ukraine sent food and energy prices soaring. More recently, shipping routes and trade have faced fresh disruptions from geopolitical tensions. Sri Lanka, as a small island nation, imports much of its fuel, food, machinery, and raw materials – meaning that global price swings quickly show up at home. Research on small island states confirms this vulnerability: their limited size, geographic isolation, heavy reliance on imports, and exposure to supply-chain problems make global food price shocks hit harder and faster than in bigger economies. Given all this, a monetary policy framework needs enough built-in flexibility to absorb these external shocks while still keeping a credible long-term anchor. That’s exactly what the current tolerance band is designed to do.

Inflation band is a feature, not a flaw

Some people misunderstand what an inflation ‘target’ really means, assuming the Central Bank should hit exactly 5% every single month. But monetary policy doesn’t work with that kind of precision. Interest rate changes take time to filter through the economy, and the underlying causes of inflation are constantly shifting. That’s why a range makes sense. Sri Lanka’s framework currently allows inflation to move between 3-7% without automatically being treated as a policy failure. The Central Bank is only required to explain itself if inflation strays more than two percentage points from target for two straight quarters.

The Central Bank is only required to explain itself if inflation strays more than two percentage points from target for two straight quarters. Think of it this way: if an oil price shock temporarily pushes inflation to 6%, but the underlying trend is stable, an aggressive rate hike may do more harm than good. Likewise, if a temporary dip in food prices pulls inflation below target, there’s no need to rush in with stimulus just to hit the number exactly. The target should be seen as a medium-term compass, not a monthly scorecard

Think of it this way: if an oil price shock temporarily pushes inflation to 6%, but the underlying trend is stable, an aggressive rate hike may do more harm than good. Likewise, if a temporary dip in food prices pulls inflation below target, there’s no need to rush in with stimulus just to hit the number exactly. The target should be seen as a medium-term compass, not a monthly scorecard – and that flexibility is especially valuable for a country as exposed to outside shocks as Sri Lanka.

What other developing countries are doing

Sri Lanka isn’t alone in picking a target close to 5%. Kenya targets 5% inflation with a band of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. Mongolia also targets 5%, with a 2-point band. Trkiye has historically used a similar setup, and Moldova targets 5% with a tighter 1.5-point band. Uzbekistan, too, targets 5% inflation. Of course, no two economies are identical – but this comparison shows that a target around this level isn’t unusual for emerging and developing economies.

A target is also a message

Inflation targeting isn’t just about setting interest rates – it’s a communication tool. Businesses use inflation expectations to plan investments. Workers factor them into wage negotiations. Banks use them to set lending rates. Households decide whether to save or spend based partly on what they expect prices to do.

A clear, steady target helps everyone coordinate these expectations. If people trust that inflation will stay broadly stable, temporary price spikes are less likely to spiral into permanent wage and price increases. This lesson is especially relevant for Sri Lanka after its recent painful bout of extremely high inflation. The real takeaway from that crisis isn’t just that inflation can spin out of control – it’s that once people stop trusting the numbers, restoring stability becomes far more costly. Chopping and changing the target every few years, without strong justification, risks damaging that hard-won credibility.

A new framework still needs time to prove itself

There’s also a simple, practical reason to stay the course: Sri Lanka’s current framework is still young. It takes time for the public, markets, and businesses to understand how a new system actually works – how the Central Bank responds when inflation runs hot, when it runs cold, and when external shocks hit. Just like any new institution, credibility is built through consistency, not constant redesign. The next few years would be better spent consolidating this young framework rather than tearing it up again.

Staying the course doesn’t mean ignoring high inflation

None of this means the Central Bank should shrug off inflation above target. The key distinction is between temporary shocks and inflation that becomes embedded and persistent. If food prices jump due to a short-term supply problem, policymakers need to judge whether it will fade on its own. But if higher food costs start feeding into wages, rents, and transport prices more broadly, that’s a different, more serious problem requiring a policy response. The Central Bank needs to stay forward-looking – focused not on where inflation is today, but where it’s headed several quarters ahead.

Interest rates can’t fix everything

It’s also worth remembering that monetary policy has limits. If vegetables are expensive because of spoilage after harvest, higher interest rates won’t help. If rice supplies fall short, the Central Bank can’t produce more rice. If global wheat prices spike due to war elsewhere, domestic interest rates can’t undo that.

Sri Lanka has already paid a heavy price for macroeconomic instability. Given that history, the wisest move now may be the least dramatic one: keep the current target, give the young framework time to prove itself, and focus energy on strengthening how it’s implemented – rather than reopening the debate over the number itself

This means fighting food inflation requires cooperation across Government – improving farming productivity, cutting food waste, strengthening storage and distribution, keeping strategic reserves where needed, boosting competition in food markets, and keeping trade policy predictable. A sound fiscal position also takes pressure off the Central Bank and strengthens overall confidence in economic management. And a flexible exchange rate can help the economy absorb external shocks without forcing all the adjustment onto interest rates alone – something Mauritius’s experience also highlights for small island economies.

Beyond the numbers: Real lives are at stake

Inflation can sound like an abstract statistic, but for ordinary households it’s anything but. Rising food prices force families to change what they buy. Higher transport costs eat into commuting budgets. Rising school expenses strain family finances. And when savings lose value, people lose confidence in their financial future. These effects fall hardest on lower-income households, who have far less room to adjust their spending. That’s why price stability isn’t just an economic goal – it’s a social one too.

Looking ahead: Building a smarter, forward-looking framework

Keeping the current inflation target doesn’t mean freezing monetary policy in place. The next three years should be used to make the framework more forward-looking, transparent, and credible – an approach known as Inflation-Forecast Targeting. Rather than waiting for inflation to rise before reacting, the Central Bank should continuously look ahead and adjust policy based on where inflation is expected to go, since interest rate changes take time to filter through the economy.

This forward-looking approach lets policymakers tell the difference between a temporary shock – like a short-term spike in food prices that’s expected to fade – and a more worrying trend, such as strong demand or rising inflation expectations that could push prices higher over time. Waiting for inflation to actually rise before acting in the second case would be too late.

Managing expectations is just as important as setting interest rates. If people believe inflation will stay under control, temporary shocks are less likely to become permanent. This is why clear communication from the Central Bank – explaining not just what it decided, but why, and what it expects going forward – has become central to modern monetary policy.

None of this works, though, without genuine Central Bank independence. This isn’t independence for its own sake – it exists to protect long-term monetary stability from short-term political pressure, such as the temptation to keep rates low before an election or finance Government spending directly. Independence doesn’t mean the Central Bank should avoid accountability – it still must explain its decisions clearly to Parliament, financial markets, and the public. Given how badly Sri Lanka was hurt when fiscal weakness, monetary instability, and lost confidence reinforced each other during its recent crisis, insulating monetary policy from short-term political cycles has never been more important.

Sri Lanka isn’t alone in picking a target close to 5%. Kenya targets 5% inflation with a band of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. Mongolia also targets 5%, with a 2-point band. Trkiye has historically used a similar setup, and Moldova targets 5% with a tighter 1.5-point band. Uzbekistan, too, targets 5% inflation. Of course, no two economies are identical – but this comparison shows that a target around this level isn’t unusual for emerging and developing economies

Three pillars for the road ahead

Taken together, Sri Lanka’s next phase of monetary policy should rest on three pillars: a clear and credible inflation anchor, stronger forecasting and analytical capacity so decisions are based on where inflation is heading rather than where it has already been, and better communication paired with real institutional independence.

None of this promises to eliminate every bump in inflation – that’s simply not possible for a small economy exposed to global shocks. But it can help ensure temporary shocks stay temporary, expectations stay anchored, and inflation keeps drifting back toward its medium-term goal.

Sri Lanka has already paid a heavy price for macroeconomic instability. Given that history, the wisest move now may be the least dramatic one: keep the current target, give the young framework time to prove itself, and focus energy on strengthening how it’s implemented – rather than reopening the debate over the number itself.

Digital Mobility Solutions Lanka PLC (PickMe) has appointed Priyanthini McNair as an Independent Non-Executive Director.

McNair is a seasoned global banking leader with over 25 years of extensive international experience across the UK, Hong Kong, the MENAT region, India, and Singapore and the founder of APG Management Consulting.

Most recently she served as the Global Co-Head of Corporate Coverage and Senior Managing Director at Emirates NBD Group, where she led international corporate banking, overseeing a multi-billion-dollar portfolio and global sector coverage across seven countries.

Prior to Emirates NBD, Priyanthini spent over two decades at HSBC in senior leadership capacities, including Regional Head of Coverage for Commercial Banking across MENAT (Dubai), UK Head of Leveraged Corporates (London), and Global Head of Business Development and Chief of Staff for Large Corporates (UK and Hong Kong). Earlier in her career, she trained in Audit and Business Assurance Services at Ernst and Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Sri Lanka.

Priyanthini brings deep expertise in corporate banking and finance, risk governance, capital allocation, ESG-aligned financing, and strategic growth spanning multiple sectors and geographies.

Priyanthini is a CFA Charterholder, a Chartered Accountant (CA Sri Lanka), and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA, UK) and is an active coach/ mentor.

CT Land Development has appointed Joseph Page as Non-Executive Chairman with effect from 21 August 2026, while Indira Malwatte joins the Board as an Independent Non-Executive Director.

Joseph Page counts over 40 years of management experience in the private sector, having held several leadership roles across entities within the CT Holdings Group.

He is part-qualified with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), UK. Current Appointments: He currently serves as a Director of the parent company C T Holdings PLC.

He is also a Director of Cargills (Ceylon) PLC and Kotmale Holdings PLC. In addition, he serves as a Director of Ceylon Theatres (Private) Ltd., CT Properties Ltd., C T Properties Lakeside Ltd., C T Real Estate Ltd., CT Smith Asset Management Ltd., C T Property Management Company Ltd., and Odeon Holdings Ltd.

Indira Malwatte is a distinguished professional with over 40 years of experience in export promotion, international marketing, and public sector leadership. She holds a Combined Degree in Economics and Geography from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and was the first woman Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB).

Her extensive expertise spans industrial, agricultural, services, and SME sectors, as well as supply chain management and women’s empowerment. She has served as a key resource person and focal point for international development projects supported by organisations such as the World Bank, International Trade Centre (ITC), GIZ, CBI and JETRO.

Recognised both locally and internationally for her contributions, she was awarded the Wifts Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in Business (London, 2016), becoming the first Sri Lankan recipient of the honour. She has also been recognised by Zonta Sri Lanka and Women in Management for her leadership and achievements in the government and development sectors and was featured on the LMD ‘A-List’ of Sri Lankan business people in 2018. She currently serves as the Chairman and Non-Executive Director of Samson International PLC and as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Cargills (Ceylon) PLC, Kotmale Holdings PLC and Lanka Shipping and Logistics Ltd. She is also a Director of the SWRD Bandaranaike Memorial Foundation and the Sri Lanka Handicraft Board.

Nine years ago, a small guesthouse in Negombo began hosting guests the way almost no Sri Lankan property had before: entirely in sign language. That guesthouse, Lilly Palace Villa, has since welcomed more than 1,000 travellers from over 15 countries and holds a 4.8-star rating, and it is now the foundation of what its founders hope will become one of the island’s newer tourism export categories.

Ceylon Deaf Adventures (CDA), the Negombo-based inclusive travel enterprise that grew out of that homestay, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with DeafVentures of Germany. Announced on August 20, the agreement is understood to be the first cross-border Deaf tourism partnership formalised by a Sri Lankan operator, and it converts an already-working relationship into a structured, ongoing one.

The two companies had already run a joint inbound tour before the MOU was signed , a fully accessible itinerary for confirmed German Deaf travellers, guided in sign language from the moment they landed to the moment they left. The agreement now gives that collaboration a framework to continue: CDA and DeafVentures will jointly develop, market and operate Deaf tourism packages connecting the two countries.

Deaf and hard-of-hearing travellers make up a sizeable, and largely unaddressed, segment of global tourism demand. The gap has rarely been about attitude, it is infrastructure: few destinations have guides, operators or accommodation providers who work natively in sign language rather than treating accessibility as an afterthought. By CDA’s own reading of the global Deaf travel landscape, no other dedicated inbound Deaf tourism operator exists anywhere in South Asia, leaving the field largely open.

That matters commercially because Sri Lankan tourism competes on relatively thin margins against every other sun-and-culture destination. A niche with almost no direct regional competition, unusually high traveller loyalty, and a tightly networked international community , the kind that produces referrals rather than one-off bookings, is a different kind of proposition. Germany already anchors CDA’s inbound numbers, and DeafVentures supplies the source-market credibility and distribution needed to turn that into a recurring, packaged pipeline rather than occasional group visits.

Behind the partnership is a personal story. Founder and CEO Praveen Waas is a CODA – a Child of Deaf Adults raised moving between the Deaf and hearing worlds, and fluent in Sinhala, Tamil, English and sign language. Lilly Palace Villa, run by his family since 2017, was Sri Lanka’s first Deaf-friendly homestay; CDA, formally launched in November 2025, was built to carry that same model sign-language guiding paired with accessible logistics and Deaf-owned hospitality , beyond a single guesthouse. It has since hosted several Deaf tourist groups, and the DeafVentures MOU marks the first time that model has been extended into a formal international partnership.

It is precisely this combination a commercially defensible niche, a first-mover position, and a measurable inclusion outcome that tends to catch the attention of development partners, impact investors and SDG-aligned funders.

‘This MOU is bigger than two companies. It’s the first bridge between Sri Lanka and the global Deaf community, built in our own language. We’re proving that accessibility isn’t a cost it’s a market, and it’s one Sri Lanka can lead,’ said Praveen Waas.

The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, which fell on 30 August, should be more than a day of remembrance in Sri Lanka. It should be a day of reckoning. Few countries carry a burden of unresolved enforced disappearances as devastating as ours. Since 1971, thousands upon thousands of people have been subjected to enforced disappearances by the State. Estimates of the total number of enforced disappearances vary, with credible international sources placing the figure between 60,000 and 100,000, while the true number remains impossible to establish.

The first large-scale wave followed the suppression of the JVP insurrection in 1971. The second, and arguably most horrific, occurred during the 1987-90 period, mainly young Sinhalese men suspected of supporting the JVP were killed or forcibly disappeared. Amnesty International has estimated that between 30,000 and 60,000 young people may have been killed or forcibly disappeared during this period while Sri Lanka’s own commissions of inquiry have recorded 43,000 cases.

The irony is that the JVP, whose own members and supporters were among the greatest victims of State repression during that era, has now been at the centre of Government for nearly two years. This should have presented an historic opportunity for a Government with roots in a movement that experienced the brutality of enforced disappearance to become the Government that finally broke the culture of impunity. Yet there is little evidence that this opportunity has been seized.

It may be due to the fear of confronting the military and security establishment or political caution, or even the passage from victim to Government simply made the past more inconvenient.

The excavation of the Chemmani mass grave in the North makes the question even more urgent. The discovery of the remains of more than 400 people, including children, has reopened one of the conflict’s darkest chapters. The lack of both the technical capacity and political will to properly investigate mass graves, has resulted in the loss of evidence and the failure to identify victims. Despite the dire need, Sri Lanka still lacks the comprehensive forensic infrastructure necessary to identify the dead. A properly managed DNA database of victims and close family members, applied systematically to Chemmani and other mass graves, should have been an obvious priority. Instead, another opportunity for truth risks being lost.

There is also a deeper principle at stake. Justice for the disappeared cannot be selective. The Sinhalese youth who vanished during the JVP uprisings, the Tamil civilians who disappeared during the war, journalists and activists who vanished in the post-war years, and all others taken from their families deserve the same answer. They have a right to know what happened to their loved ones, who was responsible, and if possible, a return of their remains. Since signing onto the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and ratification through an act of parliament in 2016 these are now obligations of the State. According to international law and now the domestic law of Sri Lanka, as long as the cases of victims of enforced disappearances remain unresolved, they are considered as ongoing violations. Therefore, any attempts to burry these are crimes of the past will not suffice.

On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Sri Lanka must therefore remember not only the disappeared, but the responsibility that remains with the living. The Government has an opportunity to change the national discourse on State violence, not through rhetoric, commissions that gather dust, or promises of closure, but through credible investigations, forensic identification, prosecutions and accountability.

The Coalition for Inclusive Impact (CII), at the request of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), has conducted a special training program for the party’s local government representatives from Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullaitivu.

The program brought together Mayors, Chairpersons, Vice-Chairpersons and Councillors and focused on strengthening their practical knowledge and capacity to govern and manage local authorities effectively.

Key areas included revenue generation and financial sustainability, preparation and implementation of by-laws, powers and responsibilities of Mayors and Chairpersons, powers vested in local councils, administrative procedures, planning and project implementation.

The sessions also covered ITAK’s political ideology and principles and how they could be translated into effective, accountable and people-centred local governance.

University of Jaffna Department of Law Lecturer Kosalai Mathan and local government federations representative Pradeep provided legal, institutional and practical guidance to participants.

ITAK President C.V.K. Sivagnanam, General Secretary M.A. Sumanthiran, Parliamentary Group Leader Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, former Batticaloa Mayor and ITAK Central Committee Member T. Saravanabavan and MP Dr. Sathiyalingam were among those who attended.

ITAK said strengthening the capacity of elected local government representatives was essential to enable councils in the North to make full use of their powers and deliver effective, transparent and accountable governance.

Major Clubs limited-over table toppers from Group ‘A’ Moors SC completed their fixtures with their first loss going down by 44 runs to Ace Capital CC at Moors SC grounds yesterday.

Moors SC who have 9 points from their six matches have to await other results to see whether they have qualified for a place in the semi-finals. Only the top two teams from each of the two groups qualify for the last four.

Defending champions CCC who didn’t have a game yesterday are in second place with 6 points and with two games in hand. Ace Capitals CC with their win yesterday have moved to third place also with 6 points but with one game in hand and Panadura SC are fourth with 5 points and two matches to play.

Sri Lanka’s Under19 left-arm spin all-rounder Chamika Heenatigala took 4/36 to bowl out a star-studded Moors SC for 207 while chasing a target of 252. Ramesh Mendis was their top scorer with 48. Thisara Ekanayake (54 off 88 balls, 4 fours) and skipper Pawantha Weerasinghe (60 off 59 balls, 6 fours, 1 six) put on a century partnership for Ace Capital CC to reach 251-9. Seamers Santhush Gunathilake (4/43) and Shiran Fernando (3/42) took the wickets for Moors SC.

Colts consolidated their position at the top of Group B with an emphatic eight-wicket win against Havelock Park rivals BRC at Colts grounds. BRC were wrapped up for 184 by seamer Dilshan Madushanka (3/38) and spinner Akila Dananjaya (3/34). Only Pawan Sandesh made any impression with the bat scoring 57 off 86 balls (4 fours, 3 sixes). Colts raced to victory powered by an opening stand of 145 by Shalin de Mel (85 off 90 balls, 6 fours, 2 sixes) and Randunu Ganganath (69* off 95 balls, 4 fours). (ST)