Connect with us

News

President’s House & Temple Trees to be moved out to Kotte

Published

on

The President’s House, the Secretariat, and the Prime Minister’s official residence Temple Trees have been earmarked to be moved out of Colombo city to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte and may be kept open only as a tourist attraction.

Urban Development Authority (UDA) Director General Prasad Ranaweera told that on the instructions of President Ranil Wickremesinghe,  they were looking for alternative land in the Sri Jaywardenapura-Kotte area to have the administrative complex in one location.

He said that after the identification of the location they hoped to report back to the President to draw out plans for a phased shift of the buildings.

Under a proposed ‘New Colombo Heritage City Plan’, the President’s House, the Secretariat and the Temple Trees building and the Prime Minister’s office on Flower Road are likely to be protected as tourist attractions.

Under the plan, a string of other buildings in Colombo city are to be re-offered for lease to investors.

Accordingly, the General Post Office, the Foreign Ministry building, Police Headquarters, Air Force Headquarters, Navy Headquarters, Visumpaya, Shrvasthi (former MP’s hostel), the Gafoor building, the Irrigation Department building at Jawatte Road, the Welikada Prisons and the old Defence Ministry building at Galle Face have been identified to be leased out.

He said the objective was to lease out the buildings for boutique hotels where the investors would be able to renovate the building while preserving its original identity.

Mr. Ranaweera said they would be looking at leasing out the buildings for more than 30 years with concessionary terms on taxes.

He said that under the Heritage City Plan, they also hoped to have a sheltered corridor between the Gafoor building and the Port City so that the people could make use of the passage.

He said the President had instructed the UDA itself to carry out some of the development activities and hand them over to the investors to avoid delays and issues in acquiring lands.

Urban Development Prasanna Ranatunga Minister told the Sunday Times discussions had begun with potential investors and among them had been investors from Georgia.  He said all measures would be taken to preserve the identity of the old buildings.

(sundaytimes.lk)

News

Charges against Keheliya & others postponed

Published

on

By

The Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar has postponed the formal serving of charges against former Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella and 12 others to Sep. 16, citing delays in the printing of annexures required to accompany the chargesheets.

Deputy Solicitor General Lakmini Girihagama, appearing for the prosecution, informed the court that while the chargesheets had already been filed, the annexures had not yet been submitted due to printing delays. She noted that it would cost approximately Rs. 866,565 to print the annexures for each accused and that the documents for all twelve defendants are yet to be prepared.

The Government Printer has indicated that it would take about 21 days to complete the printing. Therefore, the prosecution requested the court to reschedule the case accordingly. The court granted the request and fixed the next hearing for Sep. 16.

The Attorney General has filed 13 charges against the accused, including allegations of conspiring to fraudulently misappropriate Rs. 1.444 billion in public funds by supplying 6,195 vials of human immunoglobulin and non-pharmaceutical substances such as Ritopsimap to the Ministry of Health’s Medical Supplies Division.

Continue Reading

BIZ

UK’s relaxed trade rules to boost SL exports

Published

on

By

The Government of the United Kingdom (UK) has unveiled a package of reforms to simplify imports from developing countries like Sri Lanka after upgrades to the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS).

The changes, announced as part of the UK’s wider Trade for Development offer, aim to support economic growth in partner countries, including Sri Lanka, while helping UK businesses and consumers access high-quality, affordable goods.

New measures include simplifying rules of origin, enabling more goods from countries such as Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and the Philippines can enter the UK tariff-free, even when using components from across Asia and Africa.

These changes are expected to be in place by early 2026.

This move strengthens Sri Lanka’s position in its second-largest apparel market, supporting exports, jobs, and economic growth.

The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Andrew Patrick, said: “This is a win for the Sri Lankan garment sector, and for UK consumers. With the UK being the second largest export market and garments making up over 60% of that trade, we know manufacturers here will welcome this announcement.

“We want Sri Lanka to improve the utilisation of the UK’s Developing Countries Trading Scheme for a wider range of goods, not just garments. With the Sri Lankan government’s ambition to grow exports, and with the simplification of rules of origin for other sectors too, we strongly encourage more exporters to explore how they can benefit from the preferences offered by the DCTS. The UK remains committed to working towards creating shared prosperity for both our countries.”

Continue Reading

News

Pakistan police arrest 149 including 2 Lankans in ‘scam call centre’ raid

Published

on

By

Pakistan police have arrested 149 people in a raid on a scam call centre, the country’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) said on Thursday.

The agency told the BBC it acted after a tip-off about the network, which was operating in the city of Faisalabad.

It said the centre was involved in Ponzi schemes and tricked people into handing over vast sums of money in the name of fake investments.

Those arrested included 78 Pakistanis, 48 Chinese nationals, eight Nigerians, four Filipinos, two Sri Lankans, six Bangladeshis, two Myanmar nationals and one Zimbabwean national.
Eighteen of the 149 were women, the agency added.

A copy of a police report said victims of the alleged scam would initially receive a small return on their first investments, before being persuaded to hand over larger sums of money.

“The charged individuals ran WhatsApp groups where they lured ordinary people by assigning small investment tasks like subscribing to different TikTok and YouTube channels,” the agency said.

“Later, they shifted them to Telegram links for further online tasks requiring larger investments.”

Pakistani citizen Muhammad Sajid told BBC Urdu that he was added to a Telegram channel with tens of thousands of members and was impressed by the company’s work. He said he gave them more than 3.138 million rupees ($36,600) in various instalments.

The raid, which took place on Tuesday, saw authorities seize hundreds of computers, servers, cryptocurrency exchanges and foreign SIM cards from the site.

On Wednesday, 149 suspects appeared in court, 87 of whom were handed over to the NCCIA on a five-day physical remand.

A further 62 suspects have been transferred to the district jail on judicial remand until 23 July.

The agency said the raid was at the residence of Malik Tehseen Awan, the former head of Faisalabad’s power grid, who has not been arrested.

(BBC News)

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2024 Sri Lanka Mirror. All Rights Reserved