• What we can do - but just do not do

• Payment of pensions

• South African lotteries

• Reply to Mr. Ismail

• No trains from Hunupitiya to Fort

• Appeal to Minister of Transport and Police
   

What we can do - but just do not do

PUBLIC TRANSPORT: The country spends millions of dollars on vehicles. Yet it has not solved the public transport problem. We have no money nor the political will to have large scale road transport corporates, more railway engines and carriages, disciplined parking to help traffic move faster.

Bullock carts are off the road but huge numbers of trishaws take up all roadside parking areas. With an oversupply, they have turned to illicit activities to help repay the finance company loans. They are now a strong political force - as much as the bus owners.

Why not restrict the imports of vehicles and use the savings to import food items from which every one would benefit.

State property and regulations: Encroachment of State property goes unchallenged as the Government law enforcement officers are not foolish enough to stop it and face the wrath of the local politicians.

The Wellawatte canal was dredged with Japanese funding and fenced off. Now the squatters are moving in with broken fencing. A Buddhist shrine is being built inside the canal reservation on Vihare Lane. None dare stop it.

Municipal by-laws have penalties in rupee amounts of the 1940s. Instead of linking the fines to a Central Bank price index for annual automatic increases along with inflation, all mayors in the country had to meet to decide on wholly inadequate increases which are ridiculously low by the time they are implemented. Politics again make them avoid the simpler effective deterrent fines.

Law enforcing officers of all local and national authorities do not enforce compliance with the law except when they can avoid a political backlash and make some money by non enforcement. We break the law and then put pressure on the law enforcing personnel and entice them with bribes. The remedy is in our own hands.

In Colombo the road name boards are coming up with new style spelling. The contractor does not make a copy of the correct existing spelling, before he replaces it. Instead he spells it his way Pereira Lane, Shurbery Gardens and many more. This happens for years, as with every correction the contractor would be making more money. Correction is more profitable than prevention.

Fruits: Madras is full of fruits of consistent, good quality and reasonably priced. You are not gambling when buying a fruit in Madras. Not here. The first, second and third Perennial Projects funded by ADB have made no impact. The canneries now take any sour mango and when processed it makes good cordial and jams. Eating a fresh mango is a gamble.

The Department of Agriculture for the last 75 years stopped us from importing mangos. It said that our local mango would be wiped out by a beetle. Let them be wiped out. The country has given them 75 years of protection at much inconvenience to the public.

Now let us have top quality mangoes of consistent quality - no gamble. Alphonsu mangoes are sent by Pakistan charter flights to Europe. Why can we not ship them out here? When we become familiar with an excellent quality mango, there would be enterprises that would grow them here. Rambutans have gone up to Rs. 10 for a hopefully good fruit. The grower gets only Rs. 2. Papaws - there is no quality reliable brand name nor supplier.

Ever since papaws first came to the country, we have not gone one step forward to give a quality product to our people - for export, yes. Local cultivation has failed.

There will be enough local businessmen to import these fruits from India, if the authorities change the rules, give the change much publicity and do not harass the importers. Encourage our youth from schools to prefer a fresh fruit to a beverage. The high prices we pay do not go to the cultivator, but to rapacious middlemen.

Fish: We are surrounded by an ocean. we have a traditional fishing community. We must have the political will to stop promoting single day outboard powered small boat, because we have overfished the areas accessible to them.

Foreign fishing enterprises with huge trawlers were given by a former minister, licences to fish in our seas for dollars passed under the table. Let the fish be imported - with the new technology of flash freezing in the trawlers and good freezer transport.

The Pakistan fishermen throw back to the sea, the seer they catch as it is not popular among their people. We have to pay Rs. 700 per kg. There is a wide variety of small and medium size fish that are little known to the consumers. No publicity is given to their local names, their season and most suitable style of cooking.

The more one thinks of these, the clearer it is - they and many more are all due to our own seeking. Is Kuweni's curse still bugging us?

J. L. Seneviratne - Colombo 13

Payment of pensions

It is not understood why the Director of Pensions is so keen to overhaul the existing method of paying pensions when it has not brought any hardship to the poor pensioners.

The pensioners will be very thankful if the Director directs his attention to the revision of pensions in accordance with his circular no. 2/2006 to rectify anomalies based on 01.01.'97 salaries.

It is understood that this work is proceeding very slowly in the Divisional Secretariats.

The Director should call for reports from all Divisional Secretaries and see how far this work has progressed.

There is absolutely no necessity to revise the present system of payment of pensions.

A. M. Witharanage - Pannipitiya

South African lotteries

During the last few months I have received via email four notifications that I have been the fortunate winner of various lotteries, the prize monies are large sums. While informing me of been a lucky winner, the authorities have requested me to advice the -

(A) Personal particulars

(B) Bank account details

(C) Ability to travel to South Africa to collect the prize money in person.

Can someone please advice:

(A) How genuine these lotteries?

(B) How they operate and whether the South African Government has any meaningful control?

(C) The advisability of forwarding the personal particulars and bank account details.

D. C. RATWATTE  - Nawala

Editor's Note: Transmitting personal information such as Credit Card numbers, bank account numbers, passwords, etc. via e-mail should never be done. We at the Daily News receive many notifications per day informing that we have won millions of dollars. These types of e-mails are regarded as Span and should be ignored. Replying to these emails is the worst mistake one can make.

Reply to Mr. Ismail

Yes Mr. Ismail we thank you for taking this attitude.

The army has certainly been protecting the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims, and so many of them lost their lives.

OLGA MENDIS - Australia - via email

No trains from Hunupitiya to Fort

The travelling public, office workers, schoolchildren who depend on 'season tickets' undergo untold hardships due to frequent delays, sudden cancellations of certain slow trains bound to Colombo in the morning.

Meanwhile between 9.20 a.m. and 11.32 a.m. not a single train is available to Colombo Fort. It is a great injustice to train travellers who depend on trains. Hundreds of commuters who congregate at the station to travel to Colombo to visit patients in hospitals, collect schoolchildren and various personal requirements are frustrated due to the non-availablity of trains at time.

However between the above two hours several express trains run to Colombo Fort passing Hunupitiya. If at least two trains are stopped at Hunupitiya, most commuters will be able to travel to Colombo without undue delays.

T. KURAISHIN - Hunupitiya

Appeal to Minister of Transport and Police

A concerned writer, vide D/N of 19/9 has highlighted that undue time wasting by bus crews is a national crime. The observations contained therein are praiseworthy.

At the very inception of introducing a private bus service, close upon three decades ago, the bureaucrats involved failed to plan out an efficient service to the public.

This lapse had resulted in a series of never ending problems which the travelling public have had to face. Keeping the bus parked at bus halts until the next bus on that route arrives, is just one of the curses we have inherited, with no corrective action.

Bus stands are meant for parking buses and loading passengers. Bus halts are meant only for unloading and loading human cargo. Thus, buses cannot be parked at bus halts.

If this rule is strictly adhered to, there is no need for commuters to physically suffer inside a stationary bus and also waste their precious time. It is far better to allow the commuters to breathe some fresh air outside while waiting for the bus at the bus halt. Can any private bus owner challenge that such a system would reduce the income?

A classic example of the on-going mismanagement is seen at bus halt at Nugegoda - opposite City Timber Store where this unauthorized parking of buses often creates a traffice block at the nearby roundabout. Why don't the police strictly enforce a move on rule at the bus halt?

We hope that the Minister of Transport will introduce and striclty enforce a move on rules at all bus halts, at least in the Colombo area, in the near future.

GGI - Kotte