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Polythene bag menace

What peace of mind, satisfaction and assurance have we got that the danger and horrendous threat of the non-biodegradable polythene’s ruinous influence is now non-existent and is under check and control. There was a big lull in the issue and usage a year or so back, possibly on the Supreme Court order then - now, ironically polythene bags are in free circulation again.

Are the manufacturers spewing out the correct article under authorised supervision, one wonders?

The public is not aware of any official strictures either.

The handing over to the next generation, interminably and harmfully blocked obnoxious drains and drainage systems and infertile useless non-porous impermeable, dioxin and toxic emanating lands, even prime, should be most conscionable and beyond just rationale indeed.

Just imagine Sri Lanka with such constricted and limited land space, unlike many other countries who benefit sideways, have to unnecessarily forego even the little expanses available on account of inconsiderate and non-practical and bad planning of the various Local Government authorities and agencies.

Simple solutions like resorting to recycling these bags for conversion to software items like buckets, basins, soap dishes etc. and also soluble macadam surfacing and recycling too of papers keeping in mind that otherwise at least 30 odd valuable forests will have to be ‘cropped’ for Sri Lanka’s general paper requirements purposelessly and detrimentally.

The progressive Municipal Council of Weligama has given a wonderful start three years back with planned collection of garbage leading to recycling processes on paper and polythene and also turning all the other heavy garbage into compost as fertiliser thereby even as a master move have converted worthless/harmful rubbish into good cash.

W. Meadows Dehiwala
 


Galle Fort culture needs protection

This has reference to the letter written by M.H.S, Galle on the above subject (DN November 4) who wishes to preserve the heritage of the Galle Fort from umbrella romantics.

M.H.S. would do well to visit the Galle Face esplanade in Colombo with its fair share of umbrella romantics who have over the years enjoyed their peaceful freedom of love under the sun and sea breeze - the young or old romantics under their umbrellas engaged in harmless petting, hugging and kissing under the privacy of their umbrellas.

M.H.S you would be well advised to visit the world reknown ‘Sigiriya’ and its world famous ‘Frescos’ of lively colourful Sri Lankan damsels ‘Al-Fresco’ topless if you wish - and this heritage site is a well-known venue not only for foreign tourists but also for schoolchildren visits arranged by schools who wish to impart our country’s rich cultural heritage to educate our forthcoming generations of our rich heritage.

M.H.S. you have to be more broad-minded and accept our ancient culture for what it is and desist from your sinful thoughts or attributing harmless romantic behaviour to be dubbed as sin.

If these umbrella romantics were prevented from their harmless pastime it would influence them to resort to renting out illicit cheap rooms in guest houses and hotels to carry out love trysts, which would be illegal and encourage a far worse scenario which would be more detrimental to our cultural heritage and society. “love does not breed hatred.”

Terrence B. de Silva Saudi Arabia
 


Buses to Nuwara Eliya

I am a frequent traveller from Colombo to Nuwara Eliya and vice versa. I give below the fare charged by the CTB, private non A/C bus operators and A/C bus operators for one way:

CTB buses - Rs. 180.00

Private non A/C buses - Rs. 288.00

A/C buses - Rs. 380.00

The fares applicable are those that prevailed before the very recent fare revision.

I am at a loss to understand why there is such a large variance among the three fares, specially the fare charged by the CTB, and why the fare charged by the A/C bus operators is so high. I think this huge variance in fares should be the same on other routes as well. The only difference, where the A/C buses are concerned, is the A/C and nothing else. Although it is named as ‘super service’ or ‘luxury service’, there is nothing super or luxury in these A/C buses.

The buses are very old, the seats are most uncomfortable and rackety, and in addition to the ‘jumping’ seats, which have no proper back rest, there are ‘montessori’ seats fitted everywhere space available in the floor board, which are worse than the ‘jumping’ seats, and passengers who occupy these sets also pay the same exorbitant fares. Even the normal seats are fitted so close that one cannot stretch out the legs properly, but travel cramped such long distances, sometimes carrying the luggage on their laps.

The passengers are left with no alternative but to travel in this way, due to scarcity of buses on this route. In addition to all these discomforts, the so-called ‘super service’ buses pick passengers on the way, and they are made to stand near the entrance cramped for space, which also adds to the misery of the long-distance travellers, who are already travel-weary.

I have seen a board inside the bus saying ‘only seated passengers’. Then how come standing passengers are allowed. The authorities concerned should take steps to restrict the number of seats in a so-called luxury bus, and the number of seats permitted should be exhibited inside the bus, and all these ‘jumping’ and ‘montessori’ seats should be prohibited.

Coming to the fares charged by the three category of bus operators, what is the logic in CTB charging comparatively such a low fare, when the private bus operators are allowed to charge such high fares and fleece the passengers. Why cannot the CTB also charge the same fare as charged by the private bus operators, or take steps to reduce the fares charged by the private bus operators.

In any case, CTB buses, on any route, are very few and far between. So, it does not matter to the commuters, as they invariably travel by private buses paying such unreasonably high fares, for this reason.

Although the CTB may say it is doing a service to the public by charging low fares, in fact it is not the case, as there are only a few CTB buses on the road, and people are forced to patronise private buses. Also, I would suggest that the fares applicable is exhibited in all private buses, may they be the so-called ‘luxury’ buses or ordinary buses.

C.W. Wattala
 


Sabotaging the Pooneryn Road

There are several ways in which a project can be sabotaged. The obvious way is to premeditate and carry it out. Another is through criminal negligence and yet another is with all the best of intentions in the world to hand over the project to somebody who is not competent in the mistaken belief that he is indeed competent. It is in terms of the construction of the Pooneryn Road to Jaffna that I write this article.

If the sea beach from Mannar to Pooneryn is safe for bathing and has clean firm sand with a pleasant environment and if the hinterland is fertile and has water then this would be a great attraction for tourists around the world and thus has potential for development to bring in valuable foreign exchange.

The Minister of Highways and Road Development T.B. Ekanayake has with all good intentions simplified the project by splitting it up to eight sections and handing over a section to each local contractor. His instructions have been to build a two lane highway which could be expanded to four lanes in the future.

There is no space here to explain why this is not the best as a permanent solution to a gentleman who is a layman but let us see the possible consequences of handing over this project to eight local contractors. Handing over any project to any contractor without detailed specifications and without effective supervision is a disaster to begin with.

It would be a horror of horrors if the local contractors selected would build the carriageway by rolling a few inches of metal and then spraying tar and sprinkling sand on it as has been the traditional method employed in this country to waste countless billions and billions of public money year after year by constructing unserviceable roads with pot holes that need constant repair and are still never up to serviceable standards.

What we all understand is that this road is required very urgently.

I do not know what types of specifications the Army has for roads designed for various loadings to be serviceable for a stated period of time but in the present situation I think it would be best to ask the Army to patch up the lengths of roads whose alignment is satisfactory for normal speeds as determined by them and make full use of this grand opportunity to bypass bottleneck bends and areas of ribbon development where it is impossible to have a serviceable road.

In doing so the army should be asked to provide a median at least 3 feet wide which will translate into providing an extra strip of road 1ft. 6 inches wide on either side. If we do not have sufficient personnel in the Army then a suggestion would be to reinforce with similar personnel from India and Pakistan both, if they are willing and pay them for the services rendered. Most of the accidents involve head-on collisions due to traffic crossing over to the opposing lane to overtake.

The Colombo-Negombo Road was the most notorious. After the introduction of corrugations at the centre of the road that would rattle a car (not a bus) crossing over it at high speed and the prospect of having to cross over back to the other side to avoid death for the driver himself the accidents on that road dropped considerably.

We can now see very clearly that the extra 1 ft. 6 inches width of road on either side is nothing compared to the benefits.

While this is being done we should plan the width of a wide corridor containing this road where within this corridor no new buildings will be permitted but those that are already there will be permitted to stay till some unknown time in the future when they may have to be demolished for which meaningful compensation will be paid.

Switzerland is beautiful but that is one kind of beauty prevalent throughout in that country but we can justifiably say that Sri Lanka is the most beautiful country on this earth because of the diversity of its beauty, the world’s best beaches like the beach behind the Ambalangoda rest house and either side of it used by the local authority there for the public to defecate on the sand and the variation of temperature from the warm tropics to the cool hills in such a small area of 25,000 square miles and yet why is it that all the roads are so very gloomy?

It is because the RDA is using the road specifications for the country that the British Colonial Government drew up in 1861 for bullock cart roads to take their produce to the harbour and horse drawn carriages for them to travel in.

In this specification the width of the road is not specified. Readers please note that the official width between the boundaries of all roads is the undefined width of the bullock cart roads of 1861.

Rather than rectifying the situation for the last 60 years the RDA has hoodwinked the nation by specifying distances from the centre of undefined bullock cart roads and permitted houses to come up by the roadside creating this thrombosis in addition to seriously affecting our economy.

I have exposed the RDA in a long article titled Sabotaging the Mahinda Chintana published in the Daily News in three instalments in 2008 on June 27, 28 and 30.

I brought this to the attention of the Country Director of the World Bank Naoko Ishii who said that I have raised a number of serious issues some of which have been discussed with the Ministry of Highways and Road Development, the RDA and the other development partners.

She also said that she has brought this to the attention of the Secretary to the Ministry of Highways and Road Development Amarasekere, Richard Vokes, the Country Director of the ADB, Kanedo, Resident Representative of the JBIC for their comments.

What I have divulged is vital information to the Minister of Transport T.B. Ekanayake. Has Mr. Amarasekere the Secretary to the Ministry kept the Minister informed? We urgently need to write a new Specifications for roads and their construction. What chances have we in getting that done?

L. Jayasooriya
 


Politics with an ulterior motive

A Government by the people, of the people, for the people is the criterion that enables the people to become the central figure or the sovereign power that selects a Government in a democratic state.

They possess the power to choose the Government that will work for their welfare.

And in a modern democratic state there is a time frame for the selected Government to work for the welfare of the choosers. If their work is unsatisfactory or is detrimental to the welfare of the choosers after the time frame lapses they change the existing rulers and select another set.

This is the main scenario that occurs in a democratic state like ours. (In essence it is the people that make the decisions or if we define in another way it is the people’s power that is most vital and not any other so-called force or identity).

Sri Lanka, at present is facing a similar situation. A Government selected by the sovereign power. The People is threatened by several forces some of which are internal, others are international. Both forces may be connected to each other in order to become a force to reckon with.

Although the threat is against the Government in the end it is against the sovereign power that selected the present regime. In the end the people are threatened.

At present the country is in the middle of a liberation war. The war that will ultimately liberate the northern part of the country from the clutches of “so-called representative terrorists of the Tamil Nation”.

They are terrorists and how can they represent the Tamil nation? And if they are the real representatives why are there so many divisions among the Tamil people? And if you really want to represent the Tamils why not take up the challenge to contest election and show the international world who have banned them that they are the real representative of the Tamil Nation.

Terrorism has affected the social life of all Sri Lankans - Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers etc. And it is also a threat to the negative forces that try to undermine sovereign power of the people.

Every political party is playing politics. That is normal in a democratic society. But playing politics with ulterior motive can be defined with the adjective ‘Durty’. It is ‘dirty politics’ that all these negative forces are playing at the moment.

The people’s power should prevail at any cost. They should decide whether to give into these negative forces and undermine the sovereign power of the people or to send them back to the dust bin of history.

J.P. Colombo
 


Pensioners living abroad

I fully endorse the writers views. There is no justification in placing the pensioners who retired before 01.01.2006 at a lower rate of pension and giving a less pension to those who have given full service to the Government.

Most of the employees who retired after 01.01.2006 had not even served the Government in full. The President should bring these old pensioners in line with the pensioners retired after 01.01.06.

Furthermore, pensioners who are living abroad are having a very hard time. Pensions are not paid in time and the Director of Pensions should explain the reason for delay. I have not yet received my pension for for October and November. The e-mails sent to the Director of Pensions are not replied.

I hope the pensioners will get some relief.

M.F.E. Peiris

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