• Regulate State and private bus services

• North-East situation

• Set them free

Regulate State and private bus services

Much has been said and written about the deplorable state of bus services in this country. Whenever an accident of great magnitude happens involving a private bus, transport experts and academics write lengthy articles with suggestions but none of them catch the attention of the government.

I would like to give some practical suggestions to the government in general and the pragmatic present Minister of Transport and the Traffic Police in particular.

Compel all the private bus owners and the trishaw drivers by legislation to display the name of the owner, address and telephone numbers behind their seats.

In the case of buses this can be displayed prominently on the fixed glass (where usually the picture of Saraswathi is displayed) opposite the seat allocated to the clergy. Trishaw drivers must be asked to display their photos, too.

This exercise will enable the police to nab easily the trishaw drivers who indulge in cheating their passengers and in criminal activities. Several friends of mine who visit South India have told me this system is followed there.

Create a hotline desk at the Ministry of Transport and at the Police Traffic Department to hear complaints from passengers.

Get the buses and trishaws to display these hotline numbers also inside their vehicle so that passengers carrying mobile numbers can immediately complain of reckless driving and overtaking tactics, shabby treatment and misbehaviours by conductors, tooting of horns to the annoying of passengers and other vehicle users, unnecessary delaying at bus-halts to scoop passengers, etc. then and there.

Establish an institute at the Ministry of Transport to give basic training in etiquettes, polite manners etc. to the bus crew.

Compel all bus operators to get their crew trained at this institute. (As a daily commuter from Ratmalana to Wellawatte and back to Ratmalana, I have noticed the SLTB bus crews are polite and never do they tax the patience of the passengers by stopping at bus halts for minutes, tooting the horns and things like that.

One reason for the SLTB bus crew to be polite is most of them are matured and between the age range of 28 and 45 while the crew of the private buses are between the ages of 18 and 30/35).

Get all the private bus owners and the SLTB to provide comfortable light colour cotton uniforms to their bus crew with the company?s or individual owner?s name printed or stitched on the pocket and at the back of the uniform.

While all the SLTB buses islandwide can be painted with one single colour (The present red one seems to be alright), private bus owners should be asked to get their buses painted with specific colours.

The luxury buses from all provinces can have milk white colour with the mix of colour of the particular province. The passengers will be able to identify the buses with ease they want to take.

Get all the buses to display the route number, destination in the front top, back top and sidewards near the entrance.

High ranking ministry and police officials should disguise themselves and taste the public transport on different routes daily to know first hand how the bus crews behave with passengers so that action could be taken on their findings.

Regular opinion polls should be conducted by the media about the services. To do it constructively and effectively in the interest of the poor passengers the private bus operators should voluntarily give their names for such opinion polls to know where they are in providing better service to the passengers.

Office goers are expected to wear decent dresses. Due to the filthy status of the interior of the buses and thick layers of dust deposited on the seat and by getting squeezed amongst the fellow passengers their dresses get stained and dirtied.

To avoid this, conduct monthly competitions amongst bus companies to know which company provide cleaner and pleasant interior in their vehicles while compulsorily limiting the number of standee passengers. Announce the results over the print and electronic media.

Belching and unroadworthy buses have become dwindled but even the existing ones should be eliminated forthwith.

Fifty per cent of the private buses have permanently locked the window glasses thus preventing passengers to open when it is sultry inside the bus. This is indeed a torture. In many buses the signal bells to the driver to stop the bus are in the hands of the conductors. The route permit of such buses must be cancelled.

Having made these suggestions, I plead the Government and the Minister of Transport to give us a regulated transport service with at least minimum comforts.

S. AMEERALLY - Ratmalana.

North-East situation

The viper is the deadliest among the snakes. It is also the most frightened animal in the animal world. Because it is frightened, it strikes.

Why do the LTTE cadres carry out killings? Because they are frightened. They kill the soldiers because they do not want to be killed. They kill other Tamil civilians because they are frightened of being labelled terrorists and being condemned and ostracized by the world community.

So how do we tame the vipers? Through Metta! When we moved into our new house at Nawala ten years ago, the homegarden was full of vipers. But we didn?t kill a single viper. We spread metta and continued to live in the house along with the vipers in the garden.

Gradually one by one the vipers went away. Perhaps sometimes they may be coming at night to visit their former dwellings. But we are not bothered anymore.

The army must give an assurance to the Tiger cadres that they (the army) are not out there to kill them (the Tigers) but to safeguard the area and the civilians. This assurance must be given by thought, word and deed.

The army personnel must make a positive move towards making friends with the LTTE cadres.

They could share their food, etc. and help build the war-torn and tsunami-hit areas. They must remove the fear in the hearts of the Tiger cadres. When their (LTTE?s) fears are removed, the killings will stop.

?Enmity is never appeased by enmity.?

?It is by love alone, that enmity is appeased?.

We must learn to love the Tamil tigers, as much as we love our only sons. They are the people who need our love most, because they are the weakest people in our society. Those who are really strong, will always love the weak, and help the weak.

Chandrasriya de Silva - Nawala.

Set them free

Why do people rare birds in cages? They seem to be satisfied when they give food and water. They keep on talking to the birds with sweet words. Like a piece of art, these birds are exhibited to all and sundry.

They do not realize for a moment the agony these birds are undergoing. What sort of freedom and happiness could you give to a bird in a cage. For years they languish in a cage which is like a mini jail house. What crime has this bird committed to deserve such a punishment. Born free they are caught and caged.

Birds too have a way to show their feelings on other birds. It so happened in a remote village. there was a parrot in a cage. A boy who was the owner of the parrot, noticed another parrot visiting the cage on and off.

One fine day the boy noticed that the parrot outside the cage spending more time than the other days. In a jiffy the parrot outside was able to open the cage. The parrot inside flew to freedom with the parrot outside. The boy stood in utter amazement at this incredible escape.

Away with cages. Do not imprison these innocent birds. Set them free.

J. T. MIRANDO - Negombo.