President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has instructed the Secretary to the President, Dr. P.B. Jayasundara to make preparations for all possible eventualities of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka.

The Multi-Purpose Development Task Force has requested the Election Commission to grant permission to continue with the programme commenced with the objective of lifting 100,000 families from absolute poverty since it was started 03 months ago.

The Director General of the Multi-Purpose Development Task Force, Major General (Retd.) Nanda Mallawarachchi sent a letter to the Chairman of the Election Commission  explaining the beginning, objectives and the mechanism of the programme. The Director General pointed out although the Parliament had been dissolved, nomination had not  yet been called and the process of the Task Force commenced well before the declaration of elections. As per the letter, on December 10th, 2019 the Cabinet of Ministers decided  to create a pool comprising multi-faceted service providers. Applications were called on January 20th this year and the interviews started in February had now been completed.

The Cabinet decided to establish a new Department called Multi-Purpose Development Task Force on January 3rd. The Department of Management Services granted its approval on February 18th to recruit staff. The Presidential Secretariat allocated Rs. 1.15 billion for this purpose.

Thus, the Director General of the Task Force observed that the process of seconding officials from various government institutes as well as recruiting 100,000 out of eligible  candidates from poor families have to be completed.

As this process commenced before the declaration of election, the Director General requested the Commission’s permission to continue this programme.

On 5 March 2020, the Australian Government in partnership with UNICEF Sri Lanka delivered four laptops to the Disaster Preparedness and Response Division (DPRD) of the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services to support Sri Lanka’s ongoing monitoring of COVID-19.

The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Bahrain in collaboration with the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA) organized a “Sri Lanka Cultural Evening” at Bahrain Cultural Hall as part of a continuing series of events marking Sri Lanka’s 72nd Year of Independence and the 28th anniversary of the establishment of Sri Lanka – Bahrain relations. This was the first ever mega cultural event organized by the Embassy from its inception in 2013.