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A crisis manifesto: exorcising debt, hunger and unemployment. Summary 🧵 drive.google.com/file/d/1xJHG9j… 1/14
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Daniel Alphonsus
8K posts
Daniel Alphonsus
@danielalphonsus
verandah living, also examining at @ExaminerLK
Sri Lanka Katılım Mart 2009
1.6K Takip Edilen2.3K Takipçiler
Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
Single largest treasure trove of public Sinhala and Tamil data. Nuwan solved a problem that many have been attempting for decades. Great for future researchers!
Nuwan I. Senaratna@nuuuwan
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka Document Datasets: A Large-Scale, Multilingual Resource for Law, News, and Policy 🆕 v2026-07-02-0940 is now live. - 278,621 documents (80.7 GB) - 26 distinct datasets - සිංහල, தமிழ் & English @GitHub: <github.com/nuuuwan/lk_dat…> @arXiv: <arxiv.org/abs/2510.04124> 🤖 @GitHub is updated automatically & near-instantly as new data becomes available. # SriLanka #OpenData #NLP #LKA
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
“Ragging is not one thing,” said a UGC official. “There’s a legal dimension to it. There’s a very, very sociological dimension to it.” If one sees only one aspect, she said, “then you miss the big picture”. The point of analysis is not only the individual perpetrator but also the “silent, but very insidious institutional or social arrangements that sustain violence.”
examiner.media/despite-suprem…
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
Nalinda Jayatissa said that 41,000 prisoners are in prisons which only have a total capacity of 11,000. 13,000 of the 41,000 were incarcerated since September 2024, partly because of arrests from the government’s anti-drug programme.
examiner.media/no-negombo-jai…
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
Inmates raided the pharmacy and took pills. Women inmates in the neighbouring prison also protested, and had taken pills male inmates had thrown over to them.
examiner.media/no-negombo-jai…
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
The trouble began last Sunday, a day before the riot. Inmates clashed when a veteran prisoner, Suresh Pushpakumara, killed two fellow prisoners for snitching on him, a confidant of Pushpakumara told The Examiner. Thirty nine others were injured in the fracas.
examiner.media/no-negombo-jai…
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
Overcrowding also affects prison guards. Between 20 and 50 prison officers are typically stationed at Negombo. That’s less than one officer to 30 prisoners at best. These staff are under-trained, particularly in handling weapons and overworked.
examiner.media/no-negombo-jai…
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
Negombo is a remand prison; around 90% of its inmates haven’t been convicted. Outside the prison on Tuesday, families were trying to find out where their loved ones had been sent when the government decided to transfer all prisoners to other jails.
examiner.media/no-negombo-jai…
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
The Human Rights Commission visited Welikada prison at 8.30 pm on Tuesday but were denied access by the Chief Jailer. By law the commission has right of entry to all prisons at any time. A human rights commissioner emphasised the importance of immediate access, as otherwise evidence can be removed and tampered with.
examiner.media/no-negombo-jai…
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
All the killed jailers were from Colombo, brought when tensions were rising on Sunday.
Many were wearing track suits and t-shirts with “SPEAT Force” written on them. SPEAT stands for Sri Lanka Prisons Emergency Action and Tactical Force, created in 2022 and raised from former soldiers.
examiner.media/no-negombo-jai…
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
Post-mortems find that 14 of the Negombo prison riot victims died of gunshot wounds and nine died of blunt force trauma. The prison officers all died of blunt force trauma. The final report is still not out.
examiner.media/no-negombo-jai…
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
Prisons are severely overcrowded. Negombo houses about three times its capacity of 761 inmates. Each inmate gets only about eight square feet of space in their residential facilities. Its eleven wards are overflowing with over a hundred inmates in each, sleeping back-to-back.
examiner.media/no-negombo-jai…
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
Often the greatest cost of badly run SOEs is underinvestment.
Low efficiency -> losses -> no profits to invest.
Same story with CEB (grid upgrades), Sri Lankan (new routes) and CPC (pipelines).
SOEs can be well run, it’s just that it’s harder. And also requires a highly competent state, which Lanka is not.
For rail privatization debates; yes, the UK completely botched their’s. Japan’s is a much better example, where rail companies are basically real-estate companies.
NewsWire 🇱🇰@NewsWireLK
Sri Lanka Railway has decided to reduce the Colombo-Kankesanthurai intercity express train service from daily operations to four days a week due to a shortage of power sets. Under the revised schedule, effective July 10, the train departing Mount Lavinia at 5.15 a.m. and Colombo Fort at 5.45 a.m. for Kankesanthurai, along with the return service leaving Kankesanthurai at 1.50 p.m. for Mount Lavinia, will operate only on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. D: newswire.lk/h0ah
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
The Cabinet has approved a pilot programme to introduce bus sector clustering in Sri Lanka, beginning with routes 170, 177 and 190. The initiative aims to ease overcrowding, improve efficiency and reduce unsafe practices by managing services along interconnected corridors as coordinated clusters rather than separate units. Results from the pilot will determine its expansion to other routes.
D: newswire.lk/ymo1
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Poor customer service reflects the lack of competition; primarily because of government policy, especially on tariffs and investment.
Eng. Mangala P.B. Yapa@MangalaYapa
A countrywide campaign must be initiated, especially for the private sector businesses to accept their mistakes, be accountable, and correct themselves, whilst apologising the Customer. @ccc_ymf @CeylonChamber over to you for consideration!
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If I were negative, I’d say we couldn’t do all the things India is doing. On the contrary, I absolutely think we can.
I’m just flagging that we aren’t, and ought to.
In any case, I suspect the conversation’s reached the point of nuance that’s beyond Twitter. Let’s chat in person sometime.
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Funny that you think we don’t have our act together and many of them do :).
Look I’m not blind to the fact that we could’ve done so much better had we had not wasted many opportunities but there’s no need to be so negative. And don’t forget India too had a lot to do with the troubles here.
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We need shipping lines like MSC and Maersk to invest in Colombo port terminals if we want to stay competitive.
That’s what ECT was supposed to be, until the ADB-led PPP process was scuppered.
Shashi Tharoor@ShashiTharoor
Significant news for Vizhinjam: @AdaniPorts has signed a $2.85 bn agreement with MSC's Terminal Investment Ltd, the world's largest container line, for a 49% stake in AVPPL, the single largest foreign private investment in Indian port infrastructure . #Vizhinjam Port crossed 2 million TEUs in just 18 months; this should accelerate Phase 2 and cement its place as a global transshipment hub. My reaction as MP for this port constituency: more cargo, more capacity, more jobs for Kerala. But a transaction of this scale involving a strategic asset deserves due diligence, not just applause. Under the concession agreement, any change of ownership above 25% requires the Govt of Kerala's prior approval, rightly so since the port is built largely on state government land and Vizhinjam is located on a major global shipping lane. That approval can only come after a review that ensures standard national-security/critical-infra checks, It’s important that Vizhinjam stays a non-discriminatory, common-user port for other shipping companies; it must offer fair access and tariffs for rival shipping lines even as MSC, its biggest potential customer, becomes a part-owner. Done right, this cements Vizhinjam's future, to Kerala's lasting benefit. I'll continue engaging with the State Government and the AVPPL on this. reuters.com/world/india/ad…
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
• Why don't Litro import more empty gas cylinders?
- Consumers cannot legally buy new cylinders from dealers🤦
• Why don't #LIOC or Sinopec enter LP gas market in #lka?
- Licensing restrictions?
• Is there a legitimate reason for Litro not refilling #LGL gas cylinders?
#CSE
Rohan Samarajiva@samarajiva
Duopoly under Minister is dysfunctional. Allow more entry. “This problem has arisen over the last two weeks as Laugfs Gas suspended its distribution. Consumers have therefore reacted and shifted to Litro Gas,” Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe said. The minister said 1,500 metric tons of gas will be released today, tomorrow and Saturday to address the shortage." newswire.lk/94ft
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@sanjiva I’m not particularly interested in how they see us.
What I do know is that we we’ve depended on their charity to keep the lights on and people moving.
Not to mention them getting their act together, while we tarry and keep missing opportunities.
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@danielalphonsus Kinda funny how the other side sees us.
We could’ve done even better but you’re always saying “in another place 22miles away” and they say the opposite.
🚨Indian Gems@IndianGems_
Sri Lanka has been classified as an upper middle income economy surpassing India by the World Bank just three years after its economic crisis.
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
A source close to NPP leadership says that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is keen on completing all high profile cases quickly.
examiner.media/government-mul…
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Daniel Alphonsus retweetledi
Youth in tea growing regions are migrating to urban areas in search of better opportunities, leaving behind an aging workforce. However, only a few plantations are starting to use machines to ease the labour burden.
examiner.media/can-machines-r…
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