NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2022) Lanka Indian Oil Company, the only private corporation running gas stations in Sri Lanka, said it had resumed fuel supplies to its filling stations on Sunday.
Lanka IOC is a subsidiary of IndianOil, the largest state-owned oil corporation in India.
On Friday, Lanka IOC announced a two-day halt in supply operations ahead of the planned protests. The company added that it would still deliver fuel to the "valued industries" during this period.
Sri Lanka's commercial capital, Colombo, was rocked by major protests on Saturday. Crowds tore through the barricades surrounding the presidential residence, climbed over the fence and took control of the area, according to local media reports.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is reported to have been evacuated. He is expected to resign on July 13, according to Sri Lankan newspaper Adaderana.
Parliamentary Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana has informed Rajapaksa of the decisions made at the Saturday emergency meeting of the party leaders, which was convened in response to the mass protests in Colombo. The letter called for the immediate resignation of President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and provided for convening the parliament within 7 days to appoint an acting president.
Sri Lanka is now facing a political and economic crisis considered the worst since gaining independence in 1948. In mid-April, Sri Lanka defaulted on its external debt for an interim period, pending a restructuring of the obligations under an IMF-supported economic adjustment program. The recession is attributed to ineffective government policies and foreign exchange shortages caused by a clampdown on tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic. It left the country unable to buy enough fuel, with people facing an acute scarcity of food and basic necessities, heating fuel, and gas. Many regions have power outages.
