Due to the state of emergency in Sri Lanka, it is necessary to do so for the safety of the public, the preservation of the peace of the country and the maintenance of essential supplies and services for public life, the gazette notification said.
People are suffering due to severe economic crisis in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is facing such an economic crisis as Sri Lanka's debt is high and its foreign exchange reserves are depleted. Additional borrowing from countries like India to deal with the crisis. Efforts have also been made to get a loan from the International Monetary Fund. All essential items are in short supply as they depend on imports. For example, even chicken feed has to be imported from the US. All important commodities like palm oil, sugar, eggs, petrol, diesel and gas have gone up in price.
As the country's most important power plants can run on diesel, they have also reduced production or shut down. This causes long power outages. At most, most places experienced a maximum 13-hour power cut due to non-availability of diesel on Thursday evening. Many companies have asked their employees to stay home due to this crisis. Sri Lanka crisis: Fishermen go to work leaving their wives behind to buy fuel
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People continued to protest against the economic crisis. In this case, after the public attempted to besiege the President's house in Sri Lanka's Nukegodai-Mirihana area last night demanding the resignation of the President for failing to prevent the economic crisis, the police fired teargas shells and used batons to disperse them.
So far 45 people, including a woman, have been arrested in connection with this protest. According to the police, five police personnel were injured in the violence and a police jeep and two two-wheelers were burnt. Following this protest, a police curfew was imposed in Colombo North, Colombo South, Central Colombo and Nukekodai. The restriction will remain in force until further orders, it said.
In this situation, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has declared a state of emergency in Sri Lanka as the protests are intensifying amid the severe economic crisis. In an announcement issued by the President's Secretary Kamini Senarath yesterday midnight, "a state of emergency has been declared in Sri Lanka to manage public safety, law and order security and the provision of goods and services for the livelihood of the people. The announcement was made yesterday (April 1) at midnight.
According to lawyer Ilayathambi Thambaiya, the common law in the country will be abolished through this notification.
With the implementation of this law, freedom of assembly and freedom of demonstration will disappear, he said.
He says that through the Emergency Act, a person identified as a suspect can be detained for a period of 3 months.
The Act empowers the Security Branch to arrest any person if it is deemed to pose a threat to national security.
Advocate Ilayathambi Thambaiah says that this law is a very serious law.
Meanwhile, Senior Advocate and former Commissioner of Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission Pradeepa Mahanamaheva says that the purpose of this notification is to provide essential services to the public in an appropriate manner.
He said that there are currently deficiencies in the provision of essential services and indicated that there is a possibility of unrest among the people due to the inability to get them.
This creates a compulsion to protect public property.
In a way, he says, it is better that this state of emergency is declared in this case.
He says that the government should take steps to provide the essential goods needed by the public in a proper manner through this law, on the basis that the services for the public should be continued.
However, the freedom of protest is being taken away from the public through this law.
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