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Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister agreed to resign Saturday after the country’s most chaotic day in months of political turmoil, with protesters storming both officials’ homes and setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the nation’s severe economic crisis, Associated Press reported.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he will leave office once a new government is in place, and hours later the speaker of Parliament said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would step down Wednesday. Pressure on both men grew as the economic meltdown set off acute shortages of essential items, leaving people struggling to buy food, fuel and other necessities.

Police had attempted to thwart promised protests with a curfew, then lifted it as lawyers and opposition politicians denounced it as illegal. Thousands of protesters entered the capital, Colombo, and swarmed into Rajapaksa’s fortified residence. Video images showed jubilant crowds splashing in the garden pool, lying on beds and using their cellphone cameras to capture the moment. Some made tea, while others issued statements from a conference room demanding that the president and prime minister go.

It was not clear if Rajapaksa was there at the time, and government spokesman Mohan Samaranayake said he had no information about the president’s movements.

Protesters later broke into the prime minister’s private residence and set it on fire, Wickremesinghe’s office said. It wasn’t immediately clear if he was there when the incursion happened.

Earlier, police fired tear gas at protesters who gathered in the streets to march on the presidential residence, waving flags, banging drums and chanting slogans. In all, more than 30 people were hurt in Saturday’s chaos.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a televised statement that he informed Rajapaksa that parliamentary leaders had met and decided to request he leave office, and the president agreed. However, Rajapaksa will remain temporarily to ensure a smooth transfer of power, Abeywardena added, according to Associated Press.

“He asked me to inform the country that he will make his resignation on Wednesday the 13th, because there is a need to hand over power peacefully,” Abeywardena said.

“Therefore there is no need for further disturbances in the country, and I urge everyone for the sake of the country to maintain peace to enable a smooth transition,” the speaker continued.

Opposition lawmaker Rauff Hakeem said a consensus was reached for the speaker of Parliament to take over as temporary president and work on an interim government.

Wickremesinghe announced his own impending resignation but said he would not step down until a new government is formed, angering protesters who demanded his immediate departure. 

“Today in this country we have a fuel crisis, a food shortage, we have the head of the World Food Program coming here and we have several matters to discuss with the IMF,” Wickremesinghe said. “Therefore, if this government leaves there should be another government.”

Wickremesinghe said he suggested to the president to have an all-party government, but did not say anything about Rajapaksa’s whereabouts. Opposition parties were discussing the formation of a new government.

Rajapaksa appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in May in the hope that the career politician would use his diplomacy and contacts to resuscitate a collapsed economy. But people’s patience wore thin as shortages of fuel, medicine and cooking gas only increased and oil reserves ran dry. Authorities have also temporarily shuttered schools. 

The country is relying on aid from India and other nations as leaders try to negotiate a bailout with the International Monetary Fund. Wickremesinghe said recently that negotiations with the IMF were complex because Sri Lanka was now a bankrupt state.

Sri Lanka announced in April that it was suspending repayment of foreign loans due to a foreign currency shortage. Its total foreign debt amounts to $51 billion, of which it must repay $28 billion by the end of 2027, Associated Press reported.

Months of demonstrations have all but dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty, which has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades but is accused by protesters of mismanagement and corruption. The president’s older brother resigned as prime minister in May after violent protests saw him seek safety at a naval base.

With fuel costs making other forms of travel impossible for many, protesters crowded onto buses and trains Saturday to get to the capital, while others made their way on bicycles and on foot. At the president’s seaside office, security personnel tried in vain to stop protesters who pushed through fences to run across the lawns and inside the colonial-era building. 

At least 34 people including two police officers were hurt in scuffles. Two were in critical condition, while others sustained minor injuries, according to an official at the Colombo National Hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media. 

Privately owned Sirasa Television said at least six of its workers, including four reporters, were hospitalized after being beaten by police while covering the protest at the prime minister’s home.

Sri Lanka Medical Council, the country’s top professional body, warned that hospitals were running with minimum resources and would not be able to handle any mass casualties from the unrest. 

Protest and religious leaders said Rajapaksa has lost his mandate and it is time for him to go.

“His claim that he was voted in by the Sinhala Buddhists is not valid now,” said Omalpe Sobitha, a prominent Buddhist leader. He urged Parliament to convene immediately to select an interim president, according to Associated Press.

Nepal witnessed two major air disasters in 1992, prompting the then government led by Girija Prasad Koirala to commission a survey to find an alternative to Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). Of the eight sites proposed by the Nepal Engineering Consultancy Service Center Limited in 1995, Nijgadh was deemed the most suitable. A Korean company conducted a feasibility study in Nijgadh the same year and came up with a cost estimate of Rs 700bn. But things went nowhere for another 13 years. 

In 2008, the government led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal revived the idea and decided to undertake the project under the Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model. Two years later, in March 2010, the Ministry of Civil Aviation signed a $3.55m contract with Landmark Worldwide, a Korean company, to carry out a detailed feasibility study. The company submitted its report to the government on 2 Aug 2011. But the plan stalled, again.

Then, in 2019, the Nepal Investment Board announced a global tender to build the airport. But the board’s attempt to attract foreign investors fell flat without the project’s Detailed Project Report (DPR) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports. 

In its policies and programs, the current government announced a start of airport construction from the fiscal 2023/24. However, there are challenges galore. Over the years, there has been a strong opposition against the airport project, mainly around environment and other viability issues. 

After the formation of the KP Oli led-government in 2018, the then Civil Aviation Minister Rabindra Adhikari had made the airport one of his priorities. But when the EIA report came out, the project became a major environmental concern. The report proposed cutting down 2.5m trees to make room for the airport, causing unprecedented damage to local flora and fauna. 

Of the 80.45 sq km land allocated for the airport, almost 70 sq km are dense forests. Moreover, the proposed site is three to four times that covered by even the biggest airports in the world. 

The latest Supreme Court verdict has directed the government to carry out a fresh EIA of the site and to ensure minimal environmental damage during project-development. 

Top leaders of the ruling five-party alliance, including Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, recently pledged to build the proposed Nijgadh International Airport come what may. They even visited the proposed site. The Nijgadh International Airport project is also important because it is linked to other mega-undertakings like the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track and the Outer Ring Road. And yet, over the years, the airport plan has been marred by sluggish progress, increasing costs and a myriad other controversies.

The airport should have minimal environmental impact

Arjun Dhakal
Environmentalist

At issue here are not only environment and wildlife, but also other important things like DPR, EIA, budget, viability, feasibility, etc. In a national pride project, each of these things must be thoroughly studied. 

One of the most sensitive but lesser-known issues is that the proposed area, which traverses a water corridor, receives excessive rainfall. Only last week, it got 225mm of rainfall in eight hours.

Even though all the major political parties are in the airport’s favor, none is interested in conducting a detailed study. The Supreme Court has instructed concerned authorities to start from the beginning, and this time, with all the resources and research, the project is likely to go ahead, finally. It is crucial that the airport be built with minimal damage to surrounding areas.

The government should also be clear about the airport’s purpose. What kind of airport are we talking about here? One aimed at handling cargo or passengers? No one knows for sure.

The government of Nepal has decided to observe one-day national mourning on July 9 in honor of former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe who succumbed to bullet injuries on Friday.

A Cabinet meeting held today decided to observe the national mourning over the death of Abe tomorrow.

Abe died after being shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election in the Nara region on Friday.

He was rushed to a hospital but doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

Abe (67) was the longest-serving leader of Japan before he resigned for health reasons in 2020.

The government has withdrawn the Citizenship Bill from the Parliament on Friday.

The Nepal Citizenship (First Amendment) Bill 2075 presented by Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand has been withdrawn from the House of Representatives.

The main opposition CPN-UML lawmakers protested against the proposal to withdraw the bill.

Minister Khand said that the Citizenship Bill will be presented again from the Cabinet meeting today itself.

The KP Sharma Oli government had registered the bill at the Parliament Secretariat on August 7, 2018.