RUMOUR MILL: Last week, schools in many parts of the country closed down willy nilly with the spread of news that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) either have planted bombs or targeted some schools in Colombo for their next attack.

The Government claimed that there was no truth in it and said that it was an attempt to instil fear in the minds of the public by rumour mongers who like to fish in troubled waters.

The State also informed the public that using the Emergency powers in operation rumour mongers would be taken to task and the public was asked to be vigilant.

The media also reported some persons had been questioned in this regard. The LTTE Headquarters in Wanni on an inquiry by some newspapers in South had denied it was targeting schoolchildren. The LTTE spokesman had further said that they had no intention of attacking school children.

The spokesman for the terrorist group had also told the media that their fight was only with the Government and they had no intention of planning attacks on civilians or schoolchildren.

But the fact remains that the public are reluctant to take the denials of the LTTE lightly going by experience over the past three decades.

Their minds are still fresh with the assassination of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, the attack within the Sri Lanka Army Headquarters where Army Commander Lt.General Sarath Fonseka was the target and the killing of Major General Parami Kulatunga. The attack on the civilian bus at Kebithigollewa too cannot be forgotten.

Therefore there is every reason to be worried about as nobody knows when and where the enemy will strike and who the next target would be.

Having carefully studied the prevailing situation in the country the Education Ministry in a circular issued to the schools is said to have placed the burden of providing security with the school authorities during school time. Parents on their part have acted differently. After all they are the parents.

Although not reported in the media there had been strong verbal duels between parents and school heads over this issue and there were instances where the parents forcibly removed their children from the schools which were allegedly under threat.

In one such school the principal had sarcastically asked the parents who were adamant on taking away their children from the school for protection from a possible attack, to guard the entire school building by forming themselves into a circle as a kind of protective wall.

The Daily News along with other print and electronic media on Saturday reported that on the request of the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, the Sri Lanka Telecom had agreed to provide Caller Line Identification (CLI) facility to all schools and hospitals to identify the mischievous callers spreading rumours.

That seem to be a very sensible way of handling the situation since the most difficult task is the identification of the persons giving nuisance calls.

Unconfirmed sources said that the police also have deployed (or plan to deploy) specials officers at telephone booths in the country to arrest these mischievous elements.

Is this logical? How practical is the move? Though it is very pragmatic and useful to have CLI introduced to all schools and hospitals, one cannot overlook the fact that not all schools in the country specially those in the rural areas and even most small schools in the cities have telephones.

My understanding is that all the schools in the country do not have this facility. They therefore do not get the nuisance calls. But gossip and rumours travel by "jungle telegraph" in the villages, and the harm created is incalculable.

Thus irrespective of the fact that whether all the schools have telephones or not, there is no guarantee that everything is hunky dory. A fear psychosis is created when rumours are spread. The less privileged may feel sidelined and harbour resentment with the authorities for not providing them with telephone access and may be driven to act accordingly.

The placing of CID officers or special police officers at every booth is not going to be a pragmatic approach to the issue. Can the Police department keep its officers at each telephone booth.

Do they have the means to so. How ethical is it to eavesdrop into telephone conversations? What about the nuisance calls coming to residences? How do they tap them? Those in authority would have to give serious thought to these factors. There has to be some way of tackling this situation.

Gamaya is of the view that the Telecommunication Department should introduce recording devices to telephone booths and encourage the residential telephone users to have the facility connected to their telephones to help them identify those giving nuisance calls and trying to create disturbances.

The Telecom Central points from which the telephone calls are transmitted could operate the device and tape the calls. The CLI will help identify the number, but the voice record will be useful in tracing the rumour mongers.

Countries in the world faced with similar situations could help the Post and Telecommunication Ministry think of devices that can be adopted to meet the current situation.

Posts and Telecommunication Minister D.M. Jayaratne, a senior stalwart known as a man of action should ponder over this. The country looks to him to come out with a solution.