Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa yesterday (20) said the youth are trying to leave the country due to the irresponsible conduct of the Government and the long queues in front of the Department of Immigration and Emigration prove that fact.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Kushinagar International Airport in Uttar Pradesh (UP) with an international flight from Sri Lanka, becoming the first to touch down at the new airport.

The inter-provincial travel restrictions currently in place had been extended till October 31, Army Commander General Shavendra Silva said.

There are no hidden agendas or conditions set out by India to Sri Lanka when facilitating a recent credit line to pay off crude oil purchases, the Government insisted.

100,000 litres of nano nitrogen liquid fertiliser, imported for agricultural purposes for the Maha season, reached the Bandaranaike International Airport this morning (20).

Sri Lanka on Tuesday backed down from ambitious plans to become the world’s first completely organic farming nation, reversing a ban on imports of chemical fertiliser.

The JVP says the decision reached by teachers and principals trade unions to report to work on Monday, the 25th of October, when schools reopen under the first phase, was the correct decision.

The teachers and principals, who have been on strike for more than three months, have split into groups that want to resume academic activities on 25 October and others that want to continue their trade union actions until they get a proper solution to the 24-year-old salary issue.

SLPP Chairman and Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris yesterday (18) emphasised that the worsening financial crisis experienced by the country was so acute the government wasn’t in a position to grant the salary increase sought by school principals and teachers.

The first consignment of 100,000 litres of Nano Nitrogen liquid fertilizer from India will arrive in Sri Lanka today (19).

The Teachers-Principals Trade Union Alliance has informed principals and teachers to report for duty at schools on October 25, and not on October 21 and 22 when the primary sections of schools with less than 200 students reopen.

Parliamentarian Kumara Welgama charges that the current fertiliser crisis created by the government is a form of a mafia to sell cultivated land in the country to foreign countries.

SJB MP Tissa Attanayake yesterday said his party would move a no-confidence motion against Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage for his failure to provide fertiliser.