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| Wednesday, 26 May 2004 |
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Letters | |
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Please forward your letters to [email protected] in plain text format within the e-mail message, since as a policy we do not open any attachments.
Chinese rail coach factory in Sri Lanka It was reported in the state media recently that the Government of the People's Republic of China has expressed its willingness to set up a stainless steel rail coach assembly plant in Sri Lanka for local use as well as export. A project proposal report has been handed over to the new Minister of Transport by a delegation comprising the First Secretary to the Chines Embassy in Colombo and the officials of the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation. According to the project proposals the Chinese Government is scheduled to provide US Dollars 50m. Line of Credit to Sri Lanka to set up this railway passenger coaches assembly plant. The passenger coach assembly project, according to the project proposal is to be set up in an unused land belonging to the department. It was also reported that it was proposed to manufacture some body components locally too. The report has also stated that the coaches could be used for more than 20 years. As an ex-railway man, I wish to state here that the proposed coach assembly plant could be housed in the present Railway Workshops at Ratmalana, without going in for a new assembly workshop at a new site elsewhere, as our Railway Workshops are the best equipped in South East Asia, and are able to turn out any new carriages or components for Carriages and Locos, Wagons, etc. The Sri Lanka Railway Workshops are manned by an efficient team of engineers, foramen, supervisors and other skilled workmen who are quite capable of taking up the challenge of turning out or assembling coaches at our workshops. If this proposed coach building project of the Chinese Government is carried out at Ratmalana Workshops, it will enhance the employment opportunities for the skilled technicians trained at the German Technical Training Institute, Ratmalana, and also transfer the latest technology to the Railway Department Engineers and other technical staff at the Workshops itself. It has also to be mentioned here that the Rumanian Government gifted a new Workshop to the Sri Lankan Railway and put up a Carriage Workshop at Ratmalana for the maintenance and repairs to the Rumanian coaches which our Government purchased from Rumania. Likewise, this proposed Workshop could also be housed at the present Railway Workshops at Ratmalana, which will save much time and money for both countries as the Sri Lankan Railway is badly pressed for a new fleet of carriages to replenish the wornout coaches which are being pulled out from normal service almost daily. It is an open secret that most of our standard train sets are now being operated with a fewer number of carriages, causing much inconvenience to the commuters. LIONEL L. LEANAGE Liberalisation of diesel vehicle imports The objective of the diesel subsidy - reduction of the cost of living is only paid lip service. Public transport is cheap but it ends there. The service itself leaves much to be desired and the prices of goods and commodities keep rising. Therefore, the exercise of discouraging diesel vehicles is not a success but the powers that be (and have been) do not appear to want to look beyond their proboscis. The present crippling taxes on diesel vehicles has contributed to inflated prices of such vehicles which only benefit a small segment of our society; the affluent class to whom the price of diesel fuel will anyway be immaterial. Putting diesel vehicles beyond the reach of ordinary motorists is akin to depriving them of a staple of livelihood - like bread, for example! The rationale of the penal charges on diesel vehicles must be evaluated in today's context. Do the benefits justify these punitive measures? It does not take a rocket scientist to perceive that there is something fundamentally wrong here. The price of a diesel vehicle (excepting trucks and their ilk) is so unbelievably high that the motoring public has long realised that it is far more prudent to buy a petrol vehicle, for despite paying heavy petrol bills this still represents a considerable saving. The Government therefore is actively encouraging the use of gas guzzling petrol vehicles causing a steep rise in our fuel imports. Can one fail to observe the proliferation of gas guzzling 4x4s on our roads? Diesel engines are innately much more efficient than petrol engines and the modern diesel engine with its new Common Rail Technology and Ultra High Pressure Fuel Delivery Systems, is now, pound for pound, or cc for cc, as powerful or more powerful than its petrol counterpart. In point of fact, BMW's forthcoming model, the One Series, has at the top of its engine options, a two litre Turbo Diesel pumping out 163 BHP! Fuel economy (that great yardstick) concomitant with these innovations is further enhanced in these new engines and results in up to 40% saving over a similar capacity petrol engine. True enough, petrol engines are developing greater efficiency too, with innovative direct injection, fuel stratification methods, variable valve timing, and so on, but why are we waiting? The diesels are already here. Another important aspect of the modern diesel engine is that its emissions are less pollutant and thus more environment-friendly. A well-maintained diesel, with its after burner and catalytic converter and whatnot, spews much less noxious fumes than a petrol engine. Countries in the West have recognised this and have incorporated incentives to encourage use of diesel engined vehicles. Minister of Environment - please note. The import cost of diesel too, if the newspapers are correct, is rather less than that of other crudes. Discouraging the use of diesel vehicles just because its fuel is subsidised, is like cutting off ones nose to spite the face. Theoretically, the use of diesel as the sole fuel for vehicles in the country would bring down our fuel imports by at least 30 per cent. How many billions of rupees would that save our cash strapped economy? The price differential could make it 35 per cent. Therefore, in practical terms, the benefit that would accrue to the country would like somewhere between the current expenditure and the theoretical. The sooner we take meaningful steps in this direction, the greater the benefit. Minister of Finance please take note. If the aim of the Government is to benefit the public whilst augmenting the coffers, a fresh look should be taken into the matter of taxing diesel vehicle owners in a painless and practical application. For instance, a weighted system of taxation (perhaps based on engine capacity) and a price structure designed to narrow the gap in the spending of diesel and petrol vehicle owners at the fuel pump. This implies a gradual weaning of our motorists away from the diesel subsidy, so that ultimately the price differential between diesel and petrol will be in the region of 10 per cent. Even so, the diesel user will benefit by about 50 per cent and the Government's fuel bills will be that much lower and status quo as regards consumer prices will still remain, or improve. MONTE HOLSINGER When these programmes were started on TV channels they served some purpose as far as the listeners were concerned. They have now become a bore where mainly some loud and foul mouthed second grade politicians appear and utter nonsense which even they do not believe. To act like this they must be thinking that we the public are asses or mutts like them. They may be scoring with their leaders but definitely they are not scoring for their parties. Moderators (are they?) of these programmes too should play an active role and should intervene to control these liars without being time keepers and telephone operators. Party leaders have to be more concerned about whom they send for these interviews because the masses do not like when some third grade politicians who have come to some position over their votes try blatantly hoodwink them or 'Gonata Andavanava'. DESHAPRIYA RAJAPAKSHA 'Postal Department and its profit' This refers to M.T.M. de Silva, Mortuwa, on the above caption (May 17). The Department of Posts has not reported any profit in the year 2003 as stated by Mr. Silva in his article. Anyway, this wrong information was carried by another news paper last month even after having an interview with us and some written documents were collected from this Department. In the documents which were collected from this Department by the reporter, it was very clearly mentioned that this Department had earned Rs. 2047.0 mn as total income in 2003. But this information was carried by the reporter in his newspaper article as the profit. I have sent a clarification to the Chief Editor of that newspaper asking him to publish same in his paper. Further I would like to note here that my personal attention to facts mentioned by Mr. Silva in his letter has already been drawn for rectification very soon and very much thankful for the interest shown by him for the improvement of postal service in Sri Lanka. K. A. S. SENADHEERA Circular after circular is being issued recently by the Director of Pensions rectifying pension anomalies but no concrete action has been taken to pay these pensioners according to these circulars. In January this year, circular No. 062004 was issued giving much publicity to it - but still these circulars have not been implemented particularly in areas such as Kandy. On top of this, inquiries made at the Kandy pensions branch reveal that another new circular amending the earlier circular No. 06/2004 was issued by the Director of Pensions on May 13 this year. However, no action is being taken to implement these new salary scales for the suffering pensioners throughout the island. It is time that the Government takes early action to implement these circulars without duping the pensioners. It is also prudent for the Government to remember that the pensioners' as well as their families' votes too count much in the Provincial Council election which is round the corner. Thus, it is hoped that these rectified pensions are paid at least before the forthcoming Provincial Council elections. A. P. It seems that most of those who speak and write on learning and teaching of English are completely sunk in orthodox or traditionally accepted policies and principles and blind to see so many realities beneath, behind and around the languages made with many variations therein by the people who use and create them. If human beings can't make themselves free to think about and on any subject they may not be able to understand the real nature of that subject. It is so in connection with all the subjects which are being taught in our schools. Undoubtedly there are various ways and means methodologies, techniques and know-hows to get anything done. The same should be said with regard to the English language being taught or learnt. Without telling more details on the subject matter I wish to draw the attention of the reading public only to the fact that what will happen to the teachers, students, and the whole country or society and also to the education if we practice the old way of learning English which was practised more than enough by our learned ancestors about half a century back who became brilliant scholars in various subjects both in English and also in Sinhala. In brief I dare say that first learn the mother tongue which is mostly Sinhala in Sri Lankan society and then learn English which is neither a official language nor a national language. How can either a teacher or a student who have no knowledge of active voice and passive voice in their own mother tongue teach or learn English. Learning mother tongue well is the wide open free door to enter any new language or a subject. This does not mean that only the knowledge in mother tongue is sufficient to learn English. But this means that making comparisons through translations from one language to the other is one radiant way to be fluent in both languages. What are the instructions to be given to any one or any society to learn a language except, reading, writing, speaking, listening, understanding and analysation? MARTIN DASANAYAKE |
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