• Bring back the CTB proper

• Prompt action

• Delivery of letters

• Pension anomalies

• Gates at railway crossings

• Protecting natural environment

Bring back the CTB proper

There has been widespread jubilation over the reconstitution of the Ceylon Transport Board.

This is no doubt, due to the fact that the public has observed the services provided by the Ceylon Transport Board up to 1977 and the deterioration and disorganisation that took place subsequently with the decentralisation of the CTB to the regions, giving power to the regions for the operation of the services in their regions, the dismantling and sale of the central workshop and garage at Werahera to the private sector together with the fleet of buses and the emergence of the private bus operators who have captured a large stake in this sector, of as much as 86 per cent, and occupying a dominating position of being able to dictate to the Government in regard to the various issues such as revision of the fares and carrying out 'wild cat' strikes to win their demands.

Despite attempts by the State to bring some order in to the sector the private bus operators run according to their programmes and the public has been put to immense hardship and inconvenience, since the private buses operate only during day time, as after dark and early hours before day break buses do not get filled to capacity.

During day time the buses do not adhere to any time table, are also over-crowded and do not reach the destinations in time as they pick up every possible passenger en route. Particularly these buses cannot cope with the rush before and after office hours particularly, women have to wait long to board a bus.

Schoolchildren have also been put to hardship as the school buses run by the CTB were discontinued. It has been left to the state run bus services to fill in the breach. In this set up it was the office goers who took a severe beating. the public outcry for the re-establishment of the CTB is justifiable and a long felt and crying need.

Judging from the steps taken by the Ministry of Transport, such as

1) Introducing of additional buses on several routes.

2) Ordering of additional buses.

3) Agreeing to get the private bus operators to agree to a joint time table etc., there appears to be hope that the services operated by the CTB prior to 1977 will be introduced as a solution to the problem of the travelling public and they will be solved once and for all. But for this to be achieved, the main characteristics of the CTB which made it one of the best transport services in South East Asia have to be identified.

It is a widely accepted that the CTB ran at peak efficiency during the period when Anil Moonasinghe was the Chairman. But even though Mr. Moonasinghe lived till a few years back his services or advice were not been obtained to reorganise the bus services.

Several articles appeared in the press some by senior officials who had been in the CTB prior to 1977 on 'the CTB that was' and one of the features of the CTB had been mentioned, which was that at bus halts where large number of commuters had collected during peak hours, the buses going in the opposite direction were stopped by the traffic inspectors and the buses diverted back and the loads of commuters cleared.

At present a large number of intercity buses operate on the various routes. The fare charged by them is double or more than the normal fare.

Another category of buses, known as semi-luxury buses, also operate on Galle Road and other roads. Their fare is about one and half times the normal fare. But these buses are few and far between and they run mostly empty or with a few passengers.

Often the conductors would get down from the buses at the halts, mostly outside peak hours, and beckon passengers to board the buses whilst the passengers would be kicking their heels and wait impatiently not knowing when they would reach their destinations. On some routes the buses would be stopped at certain halts for 5-10 minutes to pick up the maximum number of passengers.

Now that the CTB has been re-established it is imperative that all the services it offered prior to 1977 be re-introduced hook, line and sinker, if the hopes and aspirations of the public are to be fulfilled and their trials and tribulations lasting over two decades are to be ended. But in carrying out this task it will have to tackle the problem of the large number of slow buses which ply on the roads stopping at every halt and even in between and cause traffic jams and also the intercity buses that ply on the various routes which have limited capacities.

As the express buses will take only half the time taken by slow buses for its trips only half the number of these buses will be required to run the express services.

The CTB will have to work out the number of express buses that will be deployed on each route and the small number of slow buses that will be deployed in addition for the convenience of those who would wish to travel in them.

On their return journey from Pettah during peak hours in the morning and on the journey to Pettah in the peak hours in the evening the express buses will not get a full complement of passengers.

The private bus operators will fight shy of running express for this reason. Such buses can be accommodated on other routes to run regular services according to a CTB time table.

Nelson H. Gamage

Prompt action

I wrote to the chairman of the National Savings Bank (NSB) to bring to his notice certain shortcomings at the NSB.

The letter was posted by me during the weekend and to my surprise on Tuesday morning around 9 am I received a telephone call from the chairman, usually the secretary dials the number and then connects the call.

The chairman thanked me for bringing the shortcomings to his notice which he said would be taken up with the senior Managers. I am happy that there are persons such as him at the head of a Government institution. Usually when some shortcoming is pointed out the management either finds excuses or justifies what was done.

I also want to bring to the notice my own experience at the office of the Registrar of companies at Union Place.

I recall reading a letter written by a member of the public that he received his certificate within a matter of hours if not minutes. My experience is that the application I handed over for a Business Registration a month ago and I am yet to receive the certificate of registration.

Tilak Fernando, Colombo 6

Delivery of letters

An increasingly frequent nuisance one has to suffer these days from the loss, delay or the misdelivery of one's letters and postal packets.

For a postal peon to do his duties, with a modicum of proficiency, what is required after all, is very little by way of qualification: all he needs to possess is a most rudimentary knowledge of the alphabets of the three languages commonly used in this country, ie, Sinhalese, Tamil and English.

Sinhalese and Tamil being phonetical languages, deciphering a name or an address should not demand much ingenuity; English, however, being non-phonetical, would require a little more effort.

But what do we find now many of these worthy gentlemen are unable to read a name or an address. Far from their being able to read English, they are often unable to read a name or address in Sinhalese or Tamil, too.

To say the least, the situation is deplorable. When they find they are unable to read an address, they simply throw the letters over anybody's garden-gate and make a quick get-away.

And so, hundreds of letters are lost daily: inquiries fall on deaf ears.

A.C., Matale

Pension anomalies

The letter published on November 2 on the above topic is some news to all pensioners and I wish to add a few more things to it.

The retired Government Servants in general had benefited very little on the rectification of the pension anomalies by paying pensions corresponding to the 31.12.1996 salary. The reason for this is that the salaries of teachers had been increased in 1994 and that of the Government Servants on 01.01.1997 which is after 31.12.1996 and before its increase.

Apart from this, a Public Administration Circular had been issued separately for teachers to pay pensions for a portion of the service they had rendered for a particular grade of their service. This confusing circular benefits those teachers who had remained in one grade without passing examinations and not getting promoted.

We should not grudge old pensioner teachers getting benefits. But what had happened is that this teachers circular had deprived the previously earned increments of those who had passed examinations and obtained grade to grade promotions from time to time.

Increments earned by them in the previous grades are simply ignored and I would say they are completely removed from the new pension after rectification of anomalies. Some teacher pensioners who were drawing salaries above the maximum of trained teacher at retirement are now being put down to somewhere near the maximum of a uncertificated teacher.

This is a grave injustice done to some category of teacher pensioners. Appeals for amendment of circular and to give relief to those affected have hardly any effect as replies to them takes years.

It appears that the officers who drafted this teachers circular had either favoured the unqualified group of teachers at the expense of the qualified teachers or that they have no knowledge about the service conditions of the various categories of teachers.

I suggest that the next circular for rectification of anomalies on corresponding salary of 01.01.1997 should be a general circular for all categories of pensioners including teachers so that no discrimination or injustice can be done to a particular group.

If this new circular which all Government pensioners are awaiting is issued and implemented early it will benefit all categories of Government pensioners.

I. P., Ratmalana

Gates at railway crossings

Every now and then we hear about accidents at unprotected railway crossings. There have been several loss of lives due to these unfortunate accidents.

When an accident occurs at a railway crossing it has been the usual practice to put the whole blame on the railway authorities.

Although there are 'warning' boards fixed on either side of these crossings the drivers of some vehicles do take a chance and attempt to get across the crossing before the train passes this place. Very often they meet with these fatal accidents due to their own negligence.

The railway has provided gates at a large number of crossings where major roads cut across the track. Provision of gates at unprotected crossings cost the railway department a tidy sum, where automatic barriers have to be provided, unlike formerly.

Funds have to be provided by the Treasury to the department for this purpose. But, however, due to financial constraints, the treasury is unable to provide the funds asked for.

Due to this problem the department is unable to protect all these crossings. At the time when the tracks were laid, there may have been only a few roads crossing the tracks, or else the department would have provided gates at place where the movement of traffic was considered heavy. With the growth of the population in almost all parts of the country, the local authorities have opened up roads crossing the railway tracks. However, the concerned authorities have not taken action to get these crossings protected where necessary by providing the necessary funds to the railway.

Lately most of the cars, jeeps and vans are provided with air conditioning facilities.

So the vehicle drivers put up the shutters when on the move. This prevents the sound of an approaching train at an unprotected crossing which has contributed to many an accident.

The other contributory factor is the cassette radios in these vehicles which are switched on no sooner the vehicle starts moving, thus distracting the attention of these drivers.

In some instances, some inexperienced vehicle drivers take the risk of crossing the tracks due to error of judgement. To minimise these accidents the authorities concerned should introduce 'Humps' a few hundred metres away from these crossings, on either side, to check the speed of the approaching vehicles and to draw the attention of the drivers, even if he fails to observe the Warning boards when approaching these place.

Also, 'Whistling boards' should be fixed along the tracks to draw the attention of the locomotive drivers, so that they could sound their horns to attract the attention of the motor vehicle drivers who may be approaching the crossing.

I presume it is the duty of the vehicle drivers to assure that there is no train within sight of a level crossing before he attempts to cross to the other side of the road, as I presume the 'right of way' is for the approaching train.

Until such time the authorities concerned find a permanent solution to this problem, the motor vehicle drivers will have to be extra careful when getting across unprotected railway crossings.

LIONEL LEANAGE, Ambalangoda

Protecting natural environment

"Every part of this earth is sacred to my people, every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every hearing, and every humming insect is holy in the memory, and experience of my people.

The sap which courses through the trees carries the memory of the red man".

'Our sacred Land' - Chief Seattle

The above mentioned is an excerpt from the profound statement made on the environment by Chief Seattle who was a leader of the Red Indians.

The word 'environment' means the natural conditions, land, air, water and everything around us. The environment is essential for the growth and development of all plants and animals. Due to various harmful activities on the part of people, the natural environment is being polluted gradually. Today, the environment pollution takes place almost everywhere as the man disturbs nature to make life better. This results in pollution in his surroundings.

The pollution can be divided into three categories such as water pollution, land pollution and air pollution. It appears that rivers, streams, reservoirs and seas are polluted with chemical waste released mainly from factories.

For example, in the past, water of the Kelani ganga became black as a result of releasing chemical waste. Likewise, in many parts of the country, especially in city areas, obtaining pure drinking water has become a problem. The sea is also polluted in the same ways.

Secondly, the land pollution that occurs almost everywhere is for the most part, due to dumping garbage, pesticides and harmful chemicals.

The trees are cut down on a large scale; as a result of this the percentage of forest cover has already decreased to a great extent.

Due to deforestation arable soil becomes barren and this results in floods, poor soil. So also, destruction of virgin lands and acid rains are dire consequences of these actions.

The results of these activities may be in fact, harmful to all of us in every way. Thirdly, the air pollution too can be seen all around us, especially in city areas. This is because of excessive smoke released from factories, vehicles and aircrafts into the atmosphere. Deafening sound of loud speakers causes air pollution.

In places especially, in cities where environmental pollution is high, people undergo various health problems.

People in cities live in a polluted environment, as pollution is high in cities and towns. In the past, there wasn't environmental pollution in the country, but nowadays it takes place due to various causes such as rapid growth of population, housing problem, lack of enough space for garbage dumping.

However, if the man is engaged in pollution of environment continuously it will have a pernicious influence on the lives of all human beings as well as the fauna and flora. Likewise, there will be harmful effects in future as the pollution can upset the balance of nature. Though today the importance of protecting natural environment has been stressed the pollution is taking place everywhere at an alarming and unprecedented scale.

This is in fact a situation which calls for prompt action.

Therefore, it's the duty of all of us to get together and safeguard the environment without polluting it so that we can live in this world in a care-free and peaceful environment.

L. W. GAMINI C. KUMARA, Colombo 10