Monitor Memo

Jaffna Municipal Council Mayor V. Mathivathani has urged the Central Government to release to local councils the tax revenues collected through them, as the government has now instructed local authorities to pay their employees' salaries from their own income in order to ease the national financial crisis. The Mayor pointed out that as the Sri Lankan government continues to face a severe financial crunch, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recommended that local authorities shoulder part

Sivagnanam Shritharan, Jaffna District MP representing the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) and a sitting member of Sri Lanka’s Constitutional Council (CC), is facing a formal parliamentary privilege inquiry following allegations that he failed to disclose a pending bribery complaint and misused his position on the Council to shield himself from accountability. Raising the matter under privilege, MP Chamara Sampath Dassanayake (New Democratic Front, Badulla) told Parliament that Shritharan h

A cache of weapons, including a T-56 rifle and three hand grenades, was discovered hidden in the roof of the University of Jaffna’s main library. Workers conducting roof repairs first found two magazines and a roll of wire, prompting the university to alert the Kopai Police and STF. A subsequent inspection uncovered the rifle, additional magazines, ammunition, medical supplies, and a blood-stained lungi. Police later recovered three grenades during an extended search and have cordoned off the

Buddhist monk and human rights activist Venerable Gnanananda Thero has accused the Sri Lankan government of deliberately obstructing the investigation into the Chemmani mass grave, alleging that authorities are spreading misinformation to deflect accountability for alleged wartime atrocities. Gnanananda Thero, a prominent figure in the Equal Rights Movement, made the allegations during a recent protest in Jaffna calling for the reopening of the Chemmani mass grave excavation. Demonstrators from

As Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam took the floor in Parliament to accuse the Sri Lankan military of playing a “major role in spreading narcotics in the North,” fate appeared to deliver its own dark punchline back in his political heartland — on the very same day, the son of a TNPF member was arrested with 20 grams of ‘ICE’ (crystal meth). The Fiery Speech in Parliament Speaking in Parliament, MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam launched a blistering attack on t

Acting President of the ITAK, C.V.K. Sivagnanam — who is also a former Jaffna Municipal Commissioner and former Chairman of the Northern Provincial Council — has alleged that a property belonging to the Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) was fraudulently transferred to private ownership, with even the council’s own asset registry records allegedly altered to conceal the transfer. Sivagnanam further claimed that municipal taxes were being paid to the same council by those who had obtained the proper

A former local council member of the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) has died after a tragic sequence of events linked to addiction to the online game PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds). Sivakumar Akeeban, widely known as Comrade Billa, a former member of the Valikamam East Pradeshiya Sabha, passed away at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital following a suicide attempt reportedly driven by severe financial distress and prolonged gaming addiction. Akeeban, a resident of Urump

A major dispute has erupted within the Puttalam Municipal Council — in what many wryly describe as something that “could only happen in Sri Lanka.” Puttalam Mayor Eng. Rinsad Ahamed has accused Councillor and Clean Nation Party (Thuya Desathirkana Katchi) Leader SM Isham Marikkar of falsely presenting himself as the Mayor of Puttalam during the Asia Pacific Cities Summit (APCS) 2025 in Dubai — a global forum exclusively meant for mayors, not for those merely aspiring to be one, mayoral sources