COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's 36-hour curfew, imposed in the aftermath of political upheaval, was lifted on Monday, with public transit returning to normal.
The government's islandwide curfew was removed on Saturday, and all mass transit, including railways, the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB), and private buses, began service at 6 a.m., according to the Daily Mirror newspaper. Accordingly, Railways Deputy General Manager Gamini Seneviratne claimed that all office trains were back on track as usual, but that long-distance trains were an hour late.
While the SLTB claimed that their buses were running on time, private bus owners claimed that just 15 percent of the existing fleet had returned to service. The news follows a period of political unrest on the island nation.
The Sri Lankan Cabinet resigned en masse on Sunday night, with the exception of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, following anti-government protests against the country's severe economic crisis.
On Monday morning, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will meet to discuss the government's future. The decisions on the resignations of state ministers, on the other hand, had not yet been made.
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