Rukshana Rizwie

Land levelling and fencing at the controversial 500 megawatt proposed coal power plant has begun in Sampur, Trincomalee. Authoritative sources at the Ministry of Power and Energy told the Sunday Observer that the project has hit an unexpected snag. Fierce opposition from environmentalists and residents lobbying for a relocation of the plant were unfavorable and could bring construction work to a grinding halt.

The actual worth of Sri Lanka's RTI (Right to Information) law will be in its implementation, mechanism and how the media and citizens would use it after it is enacted. Sri Lanka had for too long good laws that lie inactive in the statute book. Sri Lanka will probably be the last country in the Asian bloc to enact the Right to Information Act and the first to have an Act so distorted that it virtually leaves room for the government to withhold information at its discretion. Even if it's unclassified.