• Deadline and heavy fines

• 'Maha Kalu Sinhalaya'

• Auto Association - Action too

Deadline and heavy fines

THE deadline given to the government by the private bus owners not to impose heavy fines on private bus drivers for 'whatever their careless driving, maiming the pedestrians or killing their passengers' is fast approaching.

Tomorrow, if they insist that in order to overtake a bus, in a case of urgency to them, they should be allowed to use the pavements too, the State will have to stoop to their demand. Striking or threatening to strike has become part and parcel of their speeding life.

So, in a country where there is no gallows even for a murderer has to just sacrifice one's life under the wheels of a maniac.

For anything and everything-like, if a passenger slaps the conductor for his violent approach or if a policeman pulls him out of his bus for his appalling behaviour the buses of the route concerned would stage a strike. This is a sad situation.

The private bus owners, I remember, sometime back opposed to the proposal of deploying policemen in mufti in detecting traffic offenders. I suggest that taking this opportunity the proposal should be implemented.

Only then they will have a fear of prosecution in any part of the island, specially for their speeding. To deploy the uniformed cops to catch the speeding drivers is a futile attempt as drivers will not speed in the presence of the cops and also the cops cannot be on the road the full day.

The government should not care a hoot for the deadline given. Give them the freedom of striking very generously as long as they want without allowing them to interfere to the services of other transport.

If they attempt to show their might despite the country being under Emergency they should be severely dealt with.

All State owned buses should be put into service and as this alone will not completely successful some concession should be given to the workers who normally rush for their work places.

A grace time of one hour in the morning to arrive and one hour early to their normal departure should be given, so that the workers would be able to manage their travelling.

Even schools should adjust their time accordingly. If this is done, the victory is for the government and the masses.

NAZLY CASSIM -
Colombo 13.

'Maha Kalu Sinhalaya'

'THE great Sinhala Warrior' Lakshman Kadirgamar championed the cause of a united Sri Lanka. Uppermost in his mind was the human rights of his own Tamil people, Muslims, Sinhalese and others, in that order, suffering due to unnecessary clashes and differences among them.

To be a great man and a patriot, his own people should naturally be considered first. Though not explicit in his demeanour as a gentleman politician, it is implied that the immense suffering of the people living in the North and East weighed heavily on his conscience and more so after the tsunami.

He knew that the word 'ethnic conflict' was a misnomer as various communities continue to live in peace and harmony in Sri Lanka.

He also knew that a handful of rebels succeeded in perpetrating terrorism due to various complex forces and he was determined to halt its violent path, first internationally and then locally.

Where Sinhalese are concerned, Lakshman Kadirgamar was the eminent successor to Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam. The late Foreign Minister went further and broke the racial barriers without remaining a good Samaritan on the other side of the fence.

Hence it is upto the present political leaders to integrate Tamils, Tamil language, Muslims, Islam, Hinduism and Christianity into a social milieu that could be called the 'Sinhala nation'.

Why can't a Sinhala be of Tamil or Indian origin as some Tamils have already integrated into Sinhala families? Why can't a Sinhalese speak Tamil and worship in a Hindu Kovil, Mosque or Church?

The Burghers and Malays proudly belong to the Sinhala nation and respect the culture and religion of a 2500 years old great civilization.

At the beginning of this civilization there were Tamil Ministers and before the British invasion of Kandy there were Tamil Kings. As pointed out by historians, King Dutugemunu who defeated Elara, respected Tamils.

President Kumaratunga is no different. Who is inciting people against each other? Whoever they are, they should be exposed and branded traitors who cause destruction and misery and weaken the national economy, so that others could call Sri Lanka a poor country. Lakshman Kadirgamar did his best to erase that. He was truly a national hero.

SUNIL J. PEIRIS -
Moratuwa.

Auto Association - Action too

I refer to a letter by Yvonne F. Keerthisinghe which was published in Daily News of August 24, under the caption 'Auto Association - talk only'.

The above letter contains a complete misrepresentation of facts relating to the incident referred to by Mrs. Keerthisinghe. On perusal of all the relevant documents in our possession and statements by all the staff concerned, who were involved in this particular breakdown, the facts of the case are as follows -

She telephoned our Breakdown Service at exactly 5 p.m. on August 2, 2005. This is confirmed by the entry made by our Road Patrolman in the 'Breakdown Call' document.

He informed Mrs. Keerthisinghe that he was immediately leaving the premises to attend to her car at the Rosmead Place address given by her.

Having gone to Rosmead Place, he was told by the occupant of that house that Mrs. Keerthisinghe had finished her tuition class and proceeded to a house at Gregory's Road for another class.

In the meantime, Mrs. Keerthisinghe had telephoned our headquarters again at 5.10 p.m. and 5.20 p.m. requesting that a Road Patrol be sent to her immediately.

The security guard who had answered both calls had told her that all the Road Patrols were out on breakdowns. Road Patrol arrived at the Gregory's Road address where Mrs. Keerthisinghe was, at 5.30 p.m. This time is entered on the Breakdown chit by her.

She has further stated, in the same document that 'Work has been done just to get to my Garage'. She had also entered the time, that the Road Patrolman left after attending to her car at 5.55 p.m.

From the foregoing it is obvious that Mrs. Keerthisinghe, being anxious about the delay in Road Patrolman's arrival, which was in turn due to the fact that an incorrect address was given to him by Mrs. Keerthisinghe, rang the Association headquarters twice and on being told that all the Road Patrols were out, in desperation, she rang the undersigned for assistance.

Since I was not aware that the Road Patrolman had already left to attend to her car, I immediately telephoned the breakdown department at about 5.30 p.m. and instructed another Patrolman who had just returned after attending to another breakdown, to go to Mrs. Keerthisinghe's assistance at Gregory's Road.

In the meantime, the first Road Patrol had temporarily repaired the clutch cable retaining bracket, which was fractured in Mrs. Keerthisinghe's car, to enable her to take it to a garage and get it attended to. Mrs. Keerthisinghe should have had the courtesy to telephone me back and inform me that the first Road Patrolman had attended to her problem and not to send another Road Patrolman.

Instead, when the second Road Patrolman came to Gregory's Road, she instructed him to follow her car, which was being driven by her driver, to her residence at Rajagiriya.

Strict instructions have been given to all Road Patrolmen that they are to only attend to minor repairs to ensure that a member is mobile and, under no circumstances to follow member's vehicles to any destination.

The necessity of issuing such instructions are obvious since, if every member who has a breakdown attended to, had to be followed home by our Road Patrolmen, there won't be sufficient Road Patrolmen to attend to actual breakdown calls.

While we do not profess to be infallible, it is generally accepted that we do a good job of work. It is a pity that Mrs. Keerthisinghe, in the first instance, did not think it fit to write to the Association if she had a complaint to make in respect of any service that she had received.

ANTON KANDIAH -
Secretary, AA of Ceylon.