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Demonstrators take part in a ritual of boiling milk to mark the Shinala and Tamil new year during their protest against Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in front of the Presidential secretariat, amid the country's economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 14, 2022. (Reuters) As Sri Lanka continues to grapple with the worst economic crisis in its history, India is in the process of exporting cooking gas to the country through a credit line arrangement. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin wrote to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar urging the Centre to ship essential commodities from the Thoothukudi port to Sri Lanka.
Here are some of the top developments:
🔴 The Sri Lankan Army Saturday said they would uphold the Constitution and not resort to violence amid the anti-government protests across the island nation against the worst economic crisis, PTI reported. Referring to speculations on social media that the government might use military to launch a crackdown on the week-long protest near the presidential secretariat, the Sri Lankan Army stated it would not resort to violence to thwart the anti-government stir.
🔴 Sri Lanka is set to receive cooking gas from India, according to the chairman of the state-run gas company Litro Gas. “I had initiated a process through the Indian High Commission to obtain an Indian credit line to import gas. This could be easily implemented,” Theshara Jayasinghe said on Friday as he resigned from his post, alleging that a gas mafia was engaged in corruption, the PTI reported.
“There is massive corruption in the gas business,” he wrote. Cooking gas is one of the many resources that is in short supply in Sri Lanka. People continue to wait in long queues for fuel, while other essentials, including medicines, remain largely unavailable.
🔴 In a letter to the External Affairs Minister, Stalin said, “It has now been reported that the Union government has enabled the shipping of food and other essential commodities to Sri Lanka…(hence) I request that this may be facilitated at the earliest in view of the worsening situation in Lanka.”
Late last month, he had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed his state’s willingness to provide essential commodities and life-saving medicines to the Lankan Tamils. “During our recent telephonic conversation on April 7, I had also brought to your notice that the state has been receiving Lankan Tamils forced to leave their country amid the escalating economic crisis that is turning into a humanitarian crisis,” Stalin added in his letter.
🔴 Amid an acute shortage of fuel, Sri Lanka’s state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) announced fuel rationing for vehicles from Friday. In a statement, the petroleum corporation said that motorcycles and other two-wheelers will only be permitted to purchase fuel up to Rs 1,000 when they visit the fuel station.
Meanwhile, three-wheelers can purchase fuel worth Rs 1,500, cars, jeeps and vans up to Rs 5,000. Buses, lorries and commercial vehicles have been exempted from the rationing.
🔴 A plan by Sri Lanka’s state-owned airline SriLankan Airlines to lease 21 aircraft despite the economic crisis has sparked widespread public criticism, Reuters reported. Tender notices for the lease of 42 aircraft were published on the airline’s website on Thursday.
“This must be a joke?!,” a member of parliament from the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) alliance, Harsha de Silva, tweeted. “Sri Lanka is bankrupt; no fuel, gas or medicine. Where the hell is money for this nonsense?! Better immediately clarify.”
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