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The latest modus operandi of the murderous LTTE is to sabotage the
agricultural and irrigation infrastructure mainly in the East starting
from Welikanda, and then moving on to Mavil Ara and now to Raddala
reservoir in Paanama area. They have started indiscriminately killing
the peasant workers who attend to repair the irrigation canals, anicuts
etc.
On May 29, LTTE summarily executed 12 workers who were returning home
after a repair to an irrigation canal in the Welikanda area. This was a
training exercise for the LTTE's child brigade. A few days ago, the same
plight befell 11 Muslim workers who were brutally killed while they were
attending to some irrigation repair work on the Raddala reservoir. The
LTTE also attempted to deprive 15,000 farmers of their daily water needs
when they refused to open the Mavil Ara sluice gates.
All these attempts and massacres lead to the LTTE's latest strategy
of spreading a fear psychosis among the farmers in the East, be they
Sinhalese, Muslims or Tamils and to capture the irrigation and
agricultural infrastructure.
The necessity therefore has now arisen that the Government should
provide security for the peasant workers who are involved in
irrigational repair work.
Farming is the heart and soul of the East. The Government can use the
newly formed Home Guards to protect these workers who are involved in
agricultural repair work like in Welikanda and Raddala.
If this is ignored, the LTTE will continue to kill innocent
agricultural workers in those projects and we will have no people to
work in those areas threatened by the LTTE terrorists.
MALIN ABEYATUNGE,
Australia, via email
Ranjith Wimalaratne's article (DN Sep. 14) is quite right. The States
should not be divided on ethnic lines.
We must all learn to live together. The best solution is to make
English the common language which I am sure will be acceptable to all
races.
OLGA MENDIS,
Australia, via email
Recently the world kept the fifth anniversary of 9/11. As one watched
the pictures on TV, it was very sad to see those left behind by the
tragedy of that day, five years ago.
Looking back, I do not think that Bush & Co. have learnt their
lessons.
The BBC's Dateline programme of Sunday, September 17 reminded us that
it was the Muslim States that expressed their solidarity with the US
first five years ago. Bush should have used that to work for peace with
justice in our world. Instead he began his so called war against terror.
His rationale to enter Iraq in March 2002 was to get rid of all weapons
of mass destruction.
Recently the US Senate has reported adversely about this. Today Tony
Blair has been with Bush in all these wars to get rid of terror.
As Yvonne Ridley said at the BMICH at a recent Islamic Forum Meeting,
Blair wants the sons of others in the UK to go to war in Afghanistan and
Iraq, whereas his son is in the US!
Apanis Ghosh in the Baghdad Diary in the TIME of August 28, 2006
states, "In 3 1/2 years of covering Iraq, I have not come across a
single leader who has seemed able to rise above petty political or
sectarian interests".
Doesn't it sound very familiar? Isn't this the state of our world?
The collapse of the USSR and its allies in the 1980s has left the US
the only super power. No checks and balances. Can Havana and NAM be the
turning point? Can the Arab Nations use NAM? Iran, etc.
As I write this letter, Pope Benedict XVI has angered the Muslim
world with his very insensitive remarks about the 14th Century Byzantine
Emperor. Of course as the Vatican has stated, the People's intention was
to have dialogue on the issue of violence. It has boomeranged.
The Muslim world links the West with the Church. Hence the attitudes
on Churches in several places in our world. Also the killing of the R.C.
nun in Somalia.
So sanity has to prevail in our world. Bush and Co. must be prepared
to take it that 9/11 was because of US sponsored wars. So the answer to
9/11 is to stop these wars.
No more wars. Ultimately it is not bush and Co. but the ordinary US
soldier who dies.
The tears on September 11, 2006 were shed not by Bush and Co. but by
those who lost loved ones in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, five
years ago.
These global realities must also help countries like Sri Lanka.
SYDNEY KNIGHT,
Rajagiriya
On August 25 this year, I obtained two Money Order Application forms
from the Kollupitiya Post Office and correctly filled both forms and
handed them to the counter-clerk on duty. One was for Rs. 2,000 and the
other Money Order was for Rs. 350. Both were payable at the Godahena
Sub-post Office.
I perfected the payable column of the Money Order applications as
Godahena S.P.O. via Ambalangoda.
After about a week I contacted both recipients of these Money Orders
and found out that they have received the Money Orders sent by me, but
the Sub-Postmistress had informed them that the Advices had not come
from the Kollupitiya Post Office.
There is no telephone facilities at the Godahena Sub-Post Office.
Anyhow I contacted the Sub Postmistress and she told me that she had
asked for the Advices from the Kollupitiya Post Office, by letter, and
this very letter had been returned to her from the Kollupitiya Post
Office stating that these two Money Order Advices had been sent to
Padiyapellella Post Office and wanted the Sub-Postmistress to get them
down.
This is too much. The offence had been committed by the Kollupitiya
Post Office and they must get it down from Padiyapellella.
Subsequently I contacted the Postmaster at the Kollupitiya Post
Office. This gentleman was very courteous and co-operative. He took down
all the particulars from me and promised to rectify their mistake very
early. (These type of officers are very rare in Government Offices).
I am not making a compliant about this matter as one officer had
stood on his hind legs and brayed for which the whole staff of the
Kollupitiya Post Office cannot be blamed.
As I wrote the Godahena S.P.O. via Ambalangoda in large letters, I
wonder how the Advices had gone to Padiyapellella. If it had strayed to
Ambalantota, Ambepussa, Ambalanpola, or even Amugoda it could be guessed
that the counter officer had made a genuine mistake. But how it went to
Padiyapellella is a mystery.
Ananda Jayasena,
Borelesgamuwa
Who is fooling whom! Hope of a 'CoL to Pensioners' is it a dream? Why
are the pensioners deprived of maintaining Joint Accounts in Banks?
Action taken to separate wives of pensioners from husbands is a crime.
Why are the feeble pensioners harassed this way?
They are elder citizens, ex. Government servants who have served the
people of this country and the past Governments, for three and more
decades in different trades in different parts of the country. They are
experienced, 60 and or more years in age and are feeble.
Those in service today will follow this feeble lot tomorrow. They
have worked hard to earn this pension for their future existence.
Harassment to this feeble lot should be stopped. The pension is their
sole income and right. They have to consult doctors and buy expensive
drugs, just to exist.
All human beings, men and women, work for a living. The salary they
draw, from the employers, private or Government do not dictate any terms
or stipulate norms or conditions on how to spend or save in Banks,
Joint/Individual or Current accounts.
Similarly the pension paid by the Government are executed through the
Pensions Department and the Divisional Secretaries to banks or post
offices. The Director of Pensions, now Director General Pensions,
Divisional Secretary or the Bank Manager trying to stipulate terms to
pensioners, suggesting the Account Joint/Individual or Current is
amounting to harassment and infringement of human rights.
Most pensioners, feeble married couples, maintain Joint Savings
Accounts with spouse, son, daughter or next of kin, as a facility for
their existence who will rise to any urgent occasion or requirement up
to even at demise.
The illegal order of the Divisional Secretary, Thimbirigasyaya,
"Pensions will not be credited to joint account in future and you are
therefore requested to take steps to convert your account into an
individual account" translated by the Manager, NSB Kollupitiya Head
Office Branch to pensioners is the challenge before the aged feeble
pensioners which amounts to infringement of Human Rights, both of the
feeble lot and the Manager NSB, himself.
It is the account holder and he only is the sole authority to
instruct the Bank as how to operate this account and the Manager
maintains the account on the advice and instructions of the account
holder. Any outsider, the Director General of Pensions, Divisional
Secretary or any other is not entitled to interfere with an account of
another.
I am privileged and glad to thank Mr. D. Dharmadasa, Manager, NSB,
Kollupitiya Head Office Branch for having understood the problem of the
feeble pensioners in consideration of their appeal and to have acted
promptly on September 12, to prevent a bad situation.
I have also to add that all this is due to Bureaucratic bungling to
bring the 'Mahinda Chintana' and the Government to disrepute.
H. S. A. KARUNARATNE,
Mount Lavinia |
