A massive crowd continues to remain gathered at Galle Face, the main beachfront in the capital Colombo, outside Sri Lankan President`s secretariat to protest against Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa amid the economic crisis in the country with agitators at the protest site terming the government tyrant and full of nepotism.
The agitation comes at the backdrop of violent protests that erupted as hundreds of demonstrators gathered in various parts of the country and demanded the President’s resignation for what they called his failure in addressing the worst economic crisis in Lanka.
Several people have also been injured in the chaos so far after the authorities used tear gases and water to disperse the crowd.
Sri Lanka is presently reeling from one of the worst economic crises.
Scheduled power cuts will be reimposed across Sri Lanka from Saturday after a temporary suspension of the disruption of power supply in view of the April New Year festival. Scheduled power cuts will resume from tomorrow, with authorities disrupting the power supply for over 2 hours.
A shipment of 11,000 MT of rice from India arrived in Sri Lanka under the concessional Indian Credit Facility of USD 1 billion, which was ceremonially handed over to the Government of Sri Lanka by officials of the High Commission of India, in Colombo on Tuesday.
As Sri Lanka reels from an economic crisis, Sri Lankan protestors try to flee to India in search of refuge. Sri Lanka has started a process to import cooking gas through a credit line arrangement with India.
Sri Lanka is also facing a foreign exchange shortage, which has affected its capacity to import food and fuel. The shortage of essential goods has forced Sri Lanka to seek assistance from friendly countries. India had earlier provided Sri Lanka with a USD 500 million Line of Credit for fuel purchases which are expected to exhaust soon.
In midst of the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka which has led to a shortage of essential commodities, the country has introduced fuel rationing for most categories of non-commercial vehicles. Fuel will only be issued for LKR 1000 for Motorcycles, LKR 1,500 for three-wheelers, and LKR 5,000 for Cars, Vans, and Jeeps.
About a hundred protesters have been camping in tents in a small but growing camp that has become the focal point of Sri Lanka's protest. The agitators are can be seen carrying signs saying "Gota Go" and ever since then the site is being called 'Gota-Go' village.