Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declares state of emergency
Colombo, May 6: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency with effect from Friday midnight, according to the presidential media division.
The state of emergency gives the police and the security forces power to arbitrarily arrest and detain people.
Rajapaksa's decision was to ensure public security and maintain essential services so as to make sure a smooth functioning of the country, the presidential media division said.
The decision came amidst weeks of public protests demanding the resignation of the President and the government.
Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis in its history with the shortage of essentials, and power outages caused by a severe forex crisis.
Rajapaksa had declared emergency on April 1 also after a mass protest opposite his private residence. He had revoked it on April 5.
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Two women from Telangana die in road accident in US
Hyderabad (PTI): Even death could not separate two childhood friends from Telangana, who lost their lives in a road accident in the United States.
The victims, Meghana Rani and K Bhavana, both aged 24 and natives of Mahabubabad district, died in a car accident in Bishop City, California, at around 3 am (IST) on Monday, while they were on a tour, according to information received by their family members.
"They were classmates in school, during their BTech and later during their Master’s studies in the US," Meghana’s cousin Mani Kumar told PTI.
After completing engineering from a private college in Hyderabad, the two went to the US in 2022 and completed their MS degrees there, he said, adding that they were currently looking for jobs.
According to him, friends in the US informed the families about the accident.
BRS Rajya Sabha member Vaddiraju Ravichandra expressed grief over the deaths.
He spoke to the parents of the deceased and assured them that he would take up the matter with the concerned officials to facilitate the return of the mortal remains, according to a press release.
Bhavana’s father, Kadiyala Koteswara Rao, is the Upa Sarpanch of Mulkanoor village, while Meghana’s father, Prallakhandam Venkata Nageswara Rao, runs a ‘Mee Seva’ citizen service centre as a franchisee, the release added.
