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Sri Lanka Economic Crisis Live Updates: Amid protests, govt imposes 36-hour curfew; Sri Lanka denies reports of Indian troops in country

Sri Lanka Economic Crisis Live Updates: The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry on Saturday rejected social media speculation that Indian Armed troops had arrived in the island nation to help maintain law and order.

By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi |
Updated: April 3, 2022 8:30:08 am
Sri Lankans watch after setting a bus on fire during a protest outside Sri Lankan president's private residence on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, April 1, 2022. (AP)

Sri Lanka Economic Crisis Live Updates: The Sri Lankan government on Saturday imposed a 36-hour curfew as a nationwide public emergency has been enforced ahead of a planned anti-government rally over the worst economic crisis in the island nation that has hit the common man badly. The island-wide curfew has been imposed with effect from 6 pm Saturday to 6 am Monday (April 4), PTI reported.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry on Saturday rejected social media speculation that Indian Armed troops had arrived in the island nation to help maintain law and order. Secretary, Defense Ministry, Kamal Gunaratne told news personnel that local troops were capable of handling any national security emergency and no such aid from outside was required, according to PTI.

Meanwhile, Lanka IOC, the subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation in Sri Lanka, said Friday it would supply 6,000 MT of fuel to ease the power shortages. On Saturday, Indian traders said they were in the process of shipping 40,000 tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka, according to a report in Reuters.

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Sri Lanka Economic Crisis Live Updates: Amid protests, govt imposes 36-hour curfew; Sri Lanka denies reports of Indian troops in country

08:30 (IST)03 Apr 2022
Sri Lanka imposes curfew, lawyers urge end to state of emergency

Sri Lanka's government imposed a weekend curfew on Saturday even as hundreds of lawyers urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to revoke a state of emergency to ensure that freedom of speech and peaceful assembly are respected under the country's economic crisis.

"Under the powers given to the president, curfew has been imposed countrywide from 6 p.m. (1230 GMT) on Saturday to 6 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Monday," the government's information department said in a statement.Rajapaksa on Friday invoked stringent laws to tackle growing unrest in the unprecedented crisis. (Reuters)

08:28 (IST)03 Apr 2022
40,000 MT diesel from India reaches crisis-hit Lanka as it struggles to mitigate power outage

A consignment of 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel from India reached Sri Lanka on Saturday, the fourth such assistance from New Delhi, to mitigate the spike in power cuts in the island nation, which is facing an unprecedented economic and energy crisis caused due to shortage of foreign exchange.

Power cuts lasting over 13 hours were imposed on Thursday, the longest cut since 1996 when a strike by the state power entity employees caused a 72-hour black out. Officials of the state fuel entity, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), said the Indian diesel supplies would ease the ongoing power cuts. The power cuts effective Saturday are over 8.5 hours. (PTI)

A Sri Lankan man shouts anti government slogans during a protest outside Sri Lankan president's private residence on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, March 31, 2022. (AP)

‘Can we eat money?’: Prices high, supplies low, despair in Lanka

Vani Susai, a 31-year-old school teacher working in Batticaloa in Sri Lanka’s eastern province, recalls the first signs of the economic crisis in the last week of January. “That Sunday morning, I ran out of gas. I called the agency to check for a cylinder and was told they could not deliver it for several days. I went in search for one, going shop to shop. I finally found a cylinder after three hours.”

Two months later, the cooking gas supply is down to once a week. “Everybody goes to this one place on Sunday and stands in a queue that starts forming at 4 am.

They give 300 tokens at one time, while the queue has over 1,000 people,” says Susai, adding that as a working woman and mother, she can’t spare the time to stand in a queue. Her husband works in the Gulf. “If I get a chance, I will leave.”

Last week, Tamil Nadu received more than a dozen people who had fled Lanka under similar economic duress. The country is facing one of its worst economic crises, battered by the Easter Sunday blasts of April 2019, two Covid waves and now the Russia-Ukraine war. The setbacks have hurt the tourism industry that is the bedrock of the Lankan economy. The island country that imports almost everything from outside has been struggling to manage supplies.

 

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