Making a difference

COLOMBO: Call 1919- Government Information Centre. Open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Calls can be made in Sinhala, Tamil and English. Have you taken note of this ? Have you tried calling them?

Brainchild of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunge, two sons of the soil, the Government Information Centre is making a difference.

Lalith spoke to me one evening about his long career as a Civil Servant, about his parents who were teachers and how they educated thousands of children.

He also told me how he met an old man from Moneragala 25 years ago.

The old man had come all the way to Colombo to find out how to obtain a passport. Lalith told me how saddened he was that the old man had to come all the way to Colombo only to find out about a simple passport.

"Can you imagine that he had to travel to Colombo just to get that bit of information ?," said Lalith. He related another story, how he visited a certain Pradeshiya Sabha when he was the Secretary to the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. He told me how rude the woman at the counter was and how she pushed him around.

However, the moment he identified himself the woman had changed colour, apologised and extended all the courtesies.

Lalith said it was not the done thing and that public servants must treat everyone alike and it was their duty to do so whoever they may be.

Ideas come from experiences like that and with the desire to help one another. Our own people and the people who want to help our Motherland.

We don't need to play politics for that. We can get together and make a difference.

We are happy that our notice had helped the people to reach out more from Mullaitivu to Jaffna, from Anuradhapura to Matara, from Kandy to Colombo.

Call 1919

They are making a difference

Bandula Jayasekara