Road in Penang named after M. Kuppan

Compiled by C. ARUNO, IYLIA MARSYA ISKANDAR and R. ARAVINTHAN

THE Penang government’s decision to name a street after the late footballer Datuk M. Kuppan was a welcome honour, Malaysia Nanban reported.

Kuppan, who retired in 1967, was part of the national team which won gold at the 1961 SEAP Games.

He represented the national team for eight years and the state team for 10 years.

Kuppan died in December 2021 at the age of 84.

> The daily also reported that Sri Lanka has resorted to importing “low quality” rice to meet its needs due to a shortfall in local production.

Its Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said it was caused by former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s administration which banned the import and use of certain chemical fertilisers to supposedly encourage full transition to natural and organic fertiliser.

That decision led to a drastic drop in rice and other agricultural yield.

The shortage meant that imports were now needed to cover about one-third of the food needs in the island nation, the minister said during his speech in Parliament.

He said Sri Lanka had to import six tonnes of rice.

While the reliance on imports was regrettable, he claimed that it was the result of the previous administration’s disastrous policy.

● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.