India and Sri Lanka will jointly construct a 135-MW solar power plant in stages in the port district of Trincomalee. The national thermal power corporation of India (NTPC) has partnered with the Ceylon Electricity Board, and the first stage of the project will be a 50-MW solar power plant expected to be completed in two years.

Sri Lankan Cabinet has given approval for the project as the country aims to generate 70 per cent of its electricity requirement by 2030 from renewable energy sources.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry and Minister of Justice Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms Wijeyadasa Rajapakse recently took a trip to South Africa from 21 - 25 March. The intended purpose of this trip was to study the concept of a Truth and Reconciliation mechanism. 

A statement issued by the Foreign Ministry on 28 March stated: 

Douglas Devananda, the Minister for Fisheries announced that fishermen in the Vadamarachchi are now required to obtain clearance from the Navy before going out into the sea. 

The announcement was made at the Jaffna District Secretariat office on the 29th of March. 

Two idols in the Rajarajeshwari Amman temple located in the high-security zone in Palaly have been stolen. 

An idol of Murugan has been missing since the 28th of December last year. On the morning of the 20th March, this year, when the temple was opened to conduct a pooja, the administration discovered that the Pillaiyar idol was missing. Following this second theft, the administration lodged a complaint at the District Secretariat, and also in the Police station. 

Tamil families of the disappeared protested in Mullaitivu today as they continue their roadside protests demanding to know the fate of their relatives who were forcibly disappeared at the hands of the Sri Lankan state. 

“We don’t need death certificates, we don’t need compensation, we don’t need the Office of Missing Persons (OMP), give us international justice,” said the protesters.

Activists from the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), including MP Selvaraja Kajendran, joined locals to protest in front of Vediyarasan’s fort, in Neduntheevu (Delft) following the Sri Lanka Archaeological department’s declaration of the fort being a Buddhist site.

The Tamil National’s People’s Front remembered the struggle and life of Annai Poopathy, a member of the Batticaloa-Amparai Mother’s Front, who fasted unto death to protest the violence of the Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF). 

Annai Poopathy, a mother of 10 children, was an active member in the Batticaloa-Amparai Mother’s Front for many years.

The presence of the IPKF and ensuing violence was acutely experienced by Tamil people particularly in the East.

Many villages in Mullaitivu are being targeted for ongoing Sinhala-Buddhist colonisation by the Sri Lankan state. In the 80s, villages such as Manalaru, Othiyamalai, Amaravayal, Thennamarawadi and Kokkilai were violently, not only with Sinhala names, but also with Sinhala settlements populating the village following the massacre of hundreds of Tamils from each village by the Sri Lankan army. 

Before the massacre in 1984, over 367 families lived in these areas, with over 200 families cultivating paddy as their main livelihood while others grew livestock. These farmers were also unionised into diverse cooperatives to protect their livelihoods, which allowed them to accumulate a significant amount of wealth, according to locals. 

Further details have surfaced following the destruction and vandalism of the Athi Lingam and theft of various consecrated items from the temple. The Athi Sivan Kovil atop the Vedukkunaari mountain in Vavuniya, which has been a place of worship for Tamil people for many generations has been renamed as Waddamana Parwatha Viharaya on Google Maps. Additionally, the Archaeological Department of Sri Lanka has declared it to be an ancient Buddhist site.