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by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy South Group Correspondent

Some people have put up posters against the Kandy - Colombo Express Highway and the landing of sea planes at Kandalama. Both these projects have been planned to induce tourists to come to Sri Lanka and also solve their transport problems.

There is a strong need to have the Express Highway as it will attract investors who do not want to waste their time at traffic jams and traffic snarls. If similar protests had come during the late seventies and early eighties the accelerated Mahaweli diversion scheme and the Victoria reservoir will not be there today, said the Minister of Central Region Development Tissa Attanayake.

He made these observations at the opening ceremony of the first Zonal office of the Ministry of Science and Technology which was opened at 115 D.S. Senanayake Veediya in Kandy on Thursday.

Minister Attanayake said that the opening of this Zonal Office is a very important step as it will link the offices with the Ministry of Science and Technology and this linking will play an important role in the future. The public will have access to important data and statistics using modern technology and this step is in the positive direction to keep abreast with the changing world.

A much spoken word today is the Computer and Information Technology and the government is making all attempts to take IT to all areas linking offices so that there will be a network to obtain information in the shortest possible time. When we compare other countries they have been using this technology for their advance over two decades ago and therefore, we will have to fall in line with the progress of the world as otherwise we will be behind time.

The Ministry of Science and Technoogy by introducing IT to all fields will create a form of a revolution which the country will progress immensely from it.

He said that during the past two years the present government has taken prudent measures to not only to build the economy which was in ruins but also to put it in the correct direction. Together with this, the present regime had to make sacrifices and determined efforts to end the meaningless ethnic war which was draining our resources and to create a peaceful atmosphere to build the country and win the confidence of investors.

The Ministries of Central Region Development and the Science and Technology together could do a lot of work for the benefit of the nations. We are taking steps to link the 20 Divisional Secretariats and the 6 District Secretary's Offices through computers before the end of this year and they will be directly linked to the Ministry of Central Region Development with the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

He said by linking all these far flung offices, we will be eliminating paper work which is done at slow pace and time consuming. Take the case of police stations, we are lagging far behind as we are still using the communication receivers to send messages, which are taken down in a sheet of paper by a police officer and then taken to the destination it is intended to. It is a difficult task for the police officers in ares like Hasalaka, Wilgamuwa, Hettipola, or Laggala which are areas off the beaten to carry out their duties as they will have carry messages in bicycles or in other forms of transport.

He said that this is a very out dated way of doing things and this must be changed, DIG for Kandy Nimal Mediwake agreed but said that his department has financial problems and this could be done only in stages.

Initially we said at least we will try to use fascimille machines to send messages and with the intervention of the Ministry of Central Region Development, Every Police Station in the Kandy District is now equipped with a fax machine. Next they must go into the use of computers in their day to day use. We will try to provide computers to all departments in the Kandy district where it is necessary.

Minister of Science and Technology and Kandy District MP Kheliya Rambukwella said that India has made giant strides in computer literacy and they are much more advanced than most European countries. Most villages and towns abroad have computer kiosks where the public have access to official matters through computers without having to travel.

The aim of the present regime is to spread the use of computer knowledge to all parts of the country including rural areas. As a first step Computer Resources Centres have been set up in many Divisional Secretariats with the participation of the private sector to educate the people in the use of computers.

Minister Rambukwella said that there are 97 pirivanas in the Central Province and steps will be taken to provide computer education to those in the Pirivenas.

Computer Resources Centres established so far have been a big success and has proved to be a big asset to the people.

Governor of the Central Province Monty Gopallawa also spoke.

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