The current season is expected to see a 35% drop in the paddy harvest due to drought affecting the condition of crops, which is thought to cause more increases in price for rice.

“We have enough paddy stocks for a few months, but as the market is controlled by private rice mill owners there may be price fluctuations,” Agriculture Ministry Secretary, R.M.D.B. Meegasmulla said.

The Sri Lankan Army has said it will target 150 Tamil women from the North-East for recruitment to the Army Volunteer Force.

100 of the Tamil women will be recruited in Kilinochchi and 50 from districts in the east.

A press release by the army said that the recruitment is voluntary.

The Sri Lankan Army has been collecting the details of unemployed youths, aged between 25 and 30, in the Mullaitivu district over the past few days, reported the Uthayan.

Senior officials have said they were not aware of the purpose of the data collection.

Sri Lanka’s National Languages and Social Integration Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara has called on South Asian countries not to allow the US to pass a resolution against the country at the UN Human Rights Council session in March.

The minister said that interference in Sri Lanka may be the first step by the US to interfere in South Asia and warned that they may attempt to force a change of government in the island.

“I find it very disturbing that a country whose independent history is rooted in the struggle for democratic rights and free speech should have taken what is, in effect, an act of overt political censorship”.

Members of the military are demanding information from the Divisional Secretariats about the people who reported to the presidential commission on the disappeared in Jaffna,  reported the Uthayan newspaper.

The Buddhist organisation Sinhala Ravaya has called off its campaign to ban the slaughter of cattle in Sri Lanka after President Mahinda Rajapaksa assured that necessary action will be taken to address the issues raised.

Three monks from the organisation started a fast-unto-death, which turned out not to last that long, after the presidential intervention.