Sri Lanka crisis worsens: Schools shut; India to send more fuel

Sri Lanka is once again looking at India to meet its unfulfilled demand for fuel as the hapless country continues to battle the worst economic crisis since 1948.

On Monday (July 4), India decided to send two ships each of diesel and petrol to the neighbouring country. One ship will reach the Colombo port in the mid of July and the second by the end of this month. Sri Lanka has decided to use these shipments to meet only essential services even as the country waits for more supplies to arrive in the coming few weeks.

Earlier, Sri Lankan high commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda met the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, after which India agreed to supply additional fuel to the country. So far, India has provided over 400,000 tonne of fuel to Sri Lanka since the crisis hit the country around April.

Besides, schools in Sri Lanka will remain closed for at least one more week starting July 4, the country’s education ministry announced. The schools were earlier closed because of the fuel crisis and lack of electricity. The ministry stated that the loss in education will be overcome in the next vacation. As a short-term measure, Sri Lanka’s education secretary Nihal Ranasinghe asked schools to conduct online classes. Meanwhile, schools at the divisional level have been permitted to hold classes with less number of students on the condition that students and teachers can move without the need for vehicles.

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The island nation is under severe financial duress and the effects of it are witnessed in the form of serpentine queues outside fuel stations that stretch for several kilometres. The waiting time is now measured not in hours, but in days. Motorists camp outside filling stations, sitting and even sleeping in their vehicles in hopes that a fuel tanker will arrive. Some motorists say they have waited in line for more than a week.

Besides there is severe shortage of essential commodities like food, medicine, cooking gas and fuel.