NPC conducted a training programme on leadership, skill building and information on available state mechanisms for 38 marginalised community members in Galle as part of the European Union
supported intervention, Accountability through Community Engagement and Initiatives for Transition (ACE-IT) implemented by NPC and Right to Life (R2L).

Eight training programmes on conflict analysis and management for government officers, religious leaders, media personnel, women community leaders and youth were conducted by master trainers under NPC’s project Technical Assistance to Justice Institutions in Sri Lanka in Kalutara, Monaragala, Ratnapura, Matara, Polonnaruwa, Kebithigollewa and Kegalle.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s statement that his verbal orders should be considered as circulars to be implemented has generated considerable interest as it goes against the norms of state administration. There has been much commentary on it, not all of it positive. The president issued this directive at a meeting organised for him in one of the country’s most underdeveloped areas. His desire to cut through layers of bureaucracy on the spot could be based on his previous experience as a serving military officer and later as Defense Secretary. The large number of requests made by the residents of the village of Vilanwita in the Badulla District could have been the reason the president made this announcement to ensure that the decisions he was making would be implemented.

The government has announced that the draft 20th Amendment bill will be presented to parliament on Tuesday. It will be the same version that caught the country by surprise when it first made its appearance to the public on September 3. The extreme nature of the proposed amendment, which has been the cause of much disquiet, is epitomized by the power it seeks to give the president to sack the prime minister and ministers at his discretion and to dissolve parliament after a year of its election. Undoubtedly it was concerns within the ranks of those elected to parliament from within the government side itself that prompted Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to appoint a committee consisting of parliamentarians of stature to give their opinion on the proposed 20th Amendment and to suggest further amendments to it.