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
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
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
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
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
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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