The Tamil Nadu government is pushing New Delhi to discuss the restarting of a ferry service between India and Sri Lanka in order to facilitate the repatriation of refugees, the Times of India reported on Wednesday. 

A meeting that was due to be held between Tamil Nadu officials and the Ministry of External Affairs was cancelled due to "political turmoil", an official told TOI. 

"Now a letter and a report have been submitted to the Centre to aid structured resettlement of refugees who want to return," the official said. 

Sri Lanka's finance minister on Thursday announced he would be introducing tax cuts and subsidies for loans to small businesses as a result of the droughts and flooding. 

"Our measures today will increase economic growth and make this country an entrepreneurs' paradise," Mangala Samaraweera was quoted by AFP as saying. 

"Businesses would be offered heavy-subsided loans up to 750 million rupees ($5 million) and tax cuts for commercial vehicles to encourage entrepreneurship."

Tamil mothers of the disappeared who have been protesting for months across the North-East stated that they were still waiting on the Sri Lankan president to fulfil promises he made to them earlier this year.

Speaking at a press conference in Colombo, the mothers stated that one of their demands was a list of all those who surrendered to Sri Lankan security forces before and after the armed conflict.

“Does [the Sri Lankan president] not understand the pain of losing a child?,” one mother told jouranlists.

Sri Lanka’s Police Chief Pujith Jayasundare is considering legal action against a news website which published a video of him assaulting two junior members of staff at the police headquarters for not obeying the police department's rules on morning meditation for Buddhists, said a spokesperson this morning.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara stated that “there are 17 lawyers among police officers and they are reviewing this ugly episode and will take appropriate legal action”.

The footage, which was published Lanka-E-News, was captured on CCTV and shows Mr Jayasundara manhandling and making threatening gestures to the two men earlier this year.

Officials at Eastern University announced that the Vantharumoolai and Batticaloa campuses would be closed “Indefinitely” as tensions continue to be rasied, after an attack on security staff by Sinhala students last week.

All students have been ordered to vacate their rooms and hand over their keys by noon tomorrow, reports Daily Mirror.

The Sri Lanka Campaign (SLC) has called on the Sri Lankan government to release a list of all those who surrendered or were detained by the security forces during and after the war, in a new initiative launched this week.

“For approximately half a year, family members of those who disappeared during and after Sri Lanka’s civil war have been protesting continuously at various locations across the North and East of the country,” said the group. “Today we are launching this campaign in support of their struggle.”

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) called for foreign intervention in Sri Lanka’s reconciliation process in a letter to diplomatic missions and the UN reports Colombo Gazette.

Expressing frustration at the government’s failure to release private lands in the North and diversion from the reconciliation process TNA Leader R Sampanthan said the Tamil people have lost their patients.

“Foreign countries must not remain silent anymore. They must intervene,” he allegedly wrote in his letter.

The US-based advocacy group PEARL has strongly condemned the assault on Mullaitivu disappearances activist Mariyasuresh Easwary and called for an immediate independent investigation into the crime.

The 683 Bridgade of the Sri Lankan army celebrated 8 years since its founding with a Buddhist ceremony in Mullaitivu last month.

The Sri Lankan government has continued to build Buddhist statues in non-Buddhist areas in the North-East, despite objections from locals and leaving civil society with the perception of “Buddhist Sinhalese religious and cultural imperialism,” said the US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report for 2016.

“Non-Buddhist religious groups reported an increase in discriminatory restrictions imposed by local government officials on religious minorities,” stated the report which was released earlier today.