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.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has established a Presidential Task Force for Green Agriculture.

Friday heralded the beginning of the Maha season according to the agrarian calendar; but a majority of the farmers across the country were not in their paddy fields sowing seeds but were on the streets demanding organic fertiliser which the Government has promised to deliver.

The central bank is looking at a proposal to allow persons who can pay in foreign exchange to import vehicles and pay taxes in hard currency, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said last week.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Chairman Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka yesterday pledged to build up a giant political force to defeat the government and called for people’s support for the same.

Two police constables have been stabbed by a drug addict when they attempted to question him in the area of Modara last night (October 16).

Venerable Athuraliye Rathana Thero, member of ‘Ape Janabala’ Party (Our Power of People Party), has been expelled from the party.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya Parliamentarian Patali Champika Ranawaka says it is regrettable that the government has not been able to provide a stringent solution to teacher principal salary anomalies.

Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa has told Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila that the Treasury is not in a position to assist the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). However, there would not be a fuel price hike in the short term, the Minister of Energy told the media yesterday.

Plans are afoot to complete 100% broadband coverage in 10 districts before the end of this year under the ‘Communication to the Village’ National Programme and to provide broadband coverage islandwide covering the remaining districts before the end of 2022, says Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, Oshada Senanayake.

The JVP says the United States will have the opportunity to deploy a permanent vessel near the Port of Colombo due to the agreement to transfer the ownership of gas supply to the Kerawalapitiya Power Plant to an American firm.

Colombo High court discharged Minister Basil Rajapaksa and former Director-General of Divineguma Kithsiri Ranawaka over Divineguma funds misappropriation case in 2015.