All government and government-approved private schools will reopen for the new school term today. Schools were closed for a period of one month to facilitate the conduct of the GCE Advanced Level Examination. A new circular signed by the Secretary to the Ministry of Education was issued recently detailing the manner in which the new school term should be conducted. According to the circular, if the number of students in a class is 20 or less, such classes are permitted to function every day.

However, the circular states that if there are 21 to 49 students in a class, such classes should be divided into two groups and classes should be held every other week. If there are more than 40 students, the students should be divided into three groups.

The Lanwa Sanstha Cement Corporation (Private) Ltd, a state-of-the-art cement manufacturing facility that is expected to be one of the region’s largest, will be declared open. The opening ceremony will be presided by the Head of state Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. The factory, which spans 63 acres, is located in Hambantota’s Mirijjawila Export Processing Zone. A BOI venture, the total capacity of Lanwa Sanstha Cement Corporation (Pvt) Ltd would be 4million Metric Tons with Phase 1 producing 2.8 million Metric Tons per annum. One of the facility’s strengths is the emphasis on cutting-edge technology, with all mixing being done with European machinery for minimal wastage.

The President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will kick off the program to  hand over land deeds to 100,000 Mahaweli settlers in 10 Mahaweli zones tomorrow. This program has been implemented under the ‘Vision of Prosperity policy manifesto. At the opening ceremony to be held in Embilipitiya tomorrow, 10,000 land deeds will be given to Mahaweli farmer families in the area. Both the president and the prime minister will grace the occasion as chief guests. Under the President’s national program one million land deeds will be offered farmers island-wide within this year.

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka has approved the request made by the Ceylon Electricity Board for rotational load shedding today, due to the shortage of fuel supplies. Commission Chairman Janaka Ratnayake said that power cuts of 04 hours and 40 minutes will be imposed in the areas mentioned under groups A, B and C in the power interruption schedule.
Meanwhile power cuts of 04 hours and 30 minutes will be imposed in the other areas, he said. The Commission chairman said that the power cuts of 4 hours and 40 minutes will be imposed between 8.30 a.m. and 10.30 p.m. in groups A, B and C while it will be divided as 02 hours in the morning and 02 hours 40 minutes in the night.
Meanwhile in the other groups, the power cuts of 04 hours and 30 minutes will be imposed between 8.30 a.m. and 9.30 p.m. while it will be split as 02 hours in the morning and 02 and a half hours in the night.

The parliament will convene today.Parliament Communications Department said a number of Committees including Ministerial Consultative Committees are scheduled to meet this week.

Accordingly, the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Energy, Ministerial Consultative Committee on Agriculture and the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Wildlife & Forest Conservation will meet today.

The Ministerial Consultative Committee on Labor and the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Lands are scheduled to meet tomorrow.

The Select Committee of Parliament to Identify Appropriate Reforms of the Election Laws and the Electoral System and to Recommend Necessary Amendments is scheduled to meet on February 24th.

Furthermore, the Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus is scheduled to meet today.

Radio Dambana of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation marks its 12th anniversary today.It was set up on the 11th of September 2016. Radio Dambana is the only radio channel in Sri Lanka that targets the indigenous community of the country. Concentrated in Dambana area and is operated without any commercial interest.

Considering the preservation of identity, beliefs, art forms and customs of the indigenous community as a national

responsibility,

Dambana Radio broadcast many programmes during the past period connected with and important to their lifestyle. The special programme “ Wasa wisa nethi Govithena” was aired with a view to encouraging people to take up toxic free farming and highlighting the use of organic fertilizer in the farming of

paddy and other crops.

Today marks the 65th Anniversary of diplomatic relations between Sri Lanka and the People’s Republic of China and the 70th anniversary of Rubber – Rice pact between China and Sri lanka. A ceremony will be held today at the Lotus pond theatre in Colombo under the patronage of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa as an accolade for long-standing friendship and mutual trust between the two countries.

The Health Ministry says 1,217 new COVID-19 infections were reported yesterday.

According to the Epidemiology Unit report, a total of 631,816 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Sri Lanka since the beginning of the pandemic.

While 19,875 infected patients are currently under medical care at hospitals and homes, 596,042 patients have fully recovered and been discharged from hospitals.

Sri Lanka yesterday reported 25 deaths raising the total to 15,899.

So far total of 16,821,707 people have received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 14,044,375 have received the second dose. In addition, 6,214,739 have received the third booster dose.

The renovated Dharmapala Park located on the edge of the Galle Fort will be opened by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa today. The Dharmapala Park, popular with both local and foreign tourists was in a state of disrepair due to a lack of proper maintenance. The renovation work of the Dharmapala Park in Galle was carried out under the supervision of the Urban Development Authority.