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Pension anomaly request for redress

Question: I retired from Telecommunications Department on 24.09.1996 as Librarian Grade 1. My pension No. is 730885. I receive my pension from Divisional Secretary, Thimbirigasyaya. My revised pension was not received until March 2010 as per circulars 2/97, 2/97 (II) and 2/97 (III). I made a request with my peer officer who was in the same grade and drawing the same pension amount as mine at Telecommunications Department to request the relevant Divisional Secretaries to revise the pension as per above mentioned circulars. Copy of the request sent to Telecommunications Department and copy of the letter sent to Divisional Secretary by Telecom Department are enclosed.

After making several requests to Accountant at Divisional Secretary's office at Thimbirigasyaya my pension was revised in March 2010.

According to my March 2010 pension voucher, a copy of which attached herewith my monthly pension amounts to Rs 10,915.89. I earnestly wish to bring to your notice my peer officer who was in the same level and who was receiving the same pension amount as mine and retired on the same date, who was drawing the same pension amount as I was drawing has received Rs 11,171.32 as her revised pension amount.

I have already made a request to Divisional Secretary, Thimbirigasyaya to rectify this matter and pay me the correct revised pension. Copy of this request letter is attached herewith for which I have had no reply to date.

I shall be very much grateful if you could kindly let me know my correct pension amount which will enable me to keep the Divisional Secretary Thimbirigasyaya informed.

B D L Fernando - Wellawatte

Answer: We contacted the Divisional Secretary, Thimbirigasyaya who was very cordial and referred us to the Accountant. When we contacted the Accountant of the Thimbirigasyaya Secretariat, quiet contrary to the Secretary the Accountant was very harsh. According to this Accountant, they have nothing to do with the calculation of the pension amount but only responsible for payment of pension monthly. The Accountant says that you have to take up your matter with Telecommunication Department. The Accountant hardly gave us a hearing, thus we are not sure whether her position on this, matter is correct. We suggest that you contact the Telecommunication Department and clarify and if possible get your pensions amount corrected by them. Or you can speak to the Divisional Secretary on 2501153.

Law and Learning

Question: I am a regular reader of your page entitled 'Professional Association' which is published every Thursday in the Daily News. My family members are involved in law medicine, engineering Accountancy Agriculture, Veterinary Surgeon and other fields in Singapore. However Sri Lanka does not have a Forensic Engineering Faculty. We gained independence in 1948. When are you going to have a faculty of this nature? My late father was a Secretary of Courts in Singapore and Sri Lanka from 1935 - 1960 but, his ideals "Work is worship, Duty is god." Always stand for truth and Justice. If Justice is delayed Justice is denied.

My father had worked round the clock without rest. He was therefore honoured by the Government in 1950 with the titles of Muhandiram and Justice of the Peace. Please be good enough to publish the enclosed article on 'Law and Learning' taken from the book entitled 'Immoral.' It will encourage budding Lawyers, all students and also the future generations to maintain law and order and to lead a righteous life which will make them to come up in their lives.

Subramaniam Kanagarajeswaran - Colombo 4

Answer: In Sri Lanka we neither have a faculty for Forensic Engineering nor a Department covering this area. If you know of any University having a faculty for Forensic Engineering we would like to hear from you.

As requested by you we will publish these interesting quotes under law and learning as forwarded by you. It will be of interest to the public and the professionals.

Law

1. Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets breakthrough. - Jonathan Swift

2. Laws grind the poor and rich men rule the law. - Goldsmith

3. Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny - Edmund Burke

4. Be you ever so high, the law is above you. - Thomas Fuller

5. No man is above law and no man is below it, nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it. - Theodore Roosevelt

6. Useless laws weaken necessary ones. - Montesquieu

7. We do not get good laws to retrain bad people. We get good people to restrain bad laws. - G. K. Chesterton

8. In law nothing is certain but the expense - S. Butler

9. What is a law if those who make it become the forwardest to break it. - J

. Beatie

10. The execution of the laws is more important than the making of them. - Jefferson

11. Where law ends, there tyranny begins. - William Pitt

12.Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. - Benjamin Franklin

13. Ignorance of the law excuses no man: not that all men know the law, but because, 'tis an excuse every man will plead and no man can tell how to confute him. - John Seldon

14. Probably all laws are useless; for good men do not want laws at all and bad men are made no better by them. - Demonax

15. The greater the number of laws, the greater the number of offenses against them. - Havelock Ellis

16. The will of the people is the best law. - Ulysses S. Grant

17. A law is not a law without coercion behind it. - James A. Gardield

18. Petty laws breed great crimes. - Ouida

19. Everyone is innocent until he is proved guilty. - Proverb

20. Law-makers should not be law-breakers - Proverb

21. There are not enough jails, not enough policemen, not enough courts to enforce a law not supported by the people. - Hubert H. Humphrey

22. A State is better governed which has but few laws and those laws strictly observed. - Rene Descartes

23. Laws are always useful to those who possess and obnoxious to those who have nothing. - Rousseau

Learning

1. Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous. - Confucius

2. Learning, the destroyer of arrogance, begets arrogance in fools, even as light that illumines the eye, makes owls blind. - Panchatantra

3. Learning is a treasure which accompanies its owner everywhere. - Chinese proverb

4. Learning makes a good man better and an ill man worse. - Proverb

5. Men learn while they teach. - Seneca

6. Wear your learning like you watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out and strike it, merely to show that you have one. - Chesterfield

7. All wish to be learned, but no one is willing to pay the price. - Juvenal

8. We need but little learning to live happily. - Montaigne

9. A little learning is a dangerous thing. - Alexander Pope

10. There is no royal road to learning. - Proverb

11. Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity and a provision in old age. - Aristotle

12. Learning is wealth to the poor, an honour to the rich, an aid to the young and a support and comfort to the aged. - Johaun Kaspar Lavater

13. Learning makes most men more stupid and foolish than they are by nature. - Schopenhauer

14. Three foundations of learning: seeing much, suffering much and studying much. - Catherall

15. Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 18. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young. - Henry Ford

16. The brighter you are, the more you have to learn - Don Herold

17. All learning is vain except to know Him and to serve Him. - Guru Nanak

18. A little learning is a dangerous thing, but a lot of ignorance is just as bad. - Bad Edwards

19. Never learn to do anything; if you don't learn, you'll always find someone else to do it for you. - Mark Twain

20. When you feel that you know nothing then you are ready to learn - The Mother

21. Much learning does not teach understanding. - Heraclitus

22. I am eager to learn, but I am no prepared to be taught - Winston Churchill

23. They know enough who know how to learn - Adams

24. The great art of learning is to undertake but little at a time - John Locke

Donation of eyes and body parts

Question: I am 80 years. I wish to donate my eyes and other organs that can be of help to others. Please, guide me on this issue and list out any Government institute that handles this question.

Your services are deeply appreciated.

U. De Silva - Mount Lavinia

Answer: You can donate your eyes to the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society. There is no age barrier to donate one's eyes. However body parts will be accepted only from those below the age of 70. This too can be donated to the Eye Donation Society. You have to register yourself with the Eye Donation Society by filling their form.

You could get a form by writing to them (Sri Lankan Eye Donation Society) at 120/12, Vidya Mawatha, Colombo 7. Tel. Nos. 2698041, 2692051 and 2698040.

After you are registered, your kith and kin have to be informed that they should contact Eye Donation Society preferably within an hour of death have to be removed within three - four hours.

This has to be done before the body is handed over to the undertakers. Alternatively you can donate your body in cases of normal death only (not accident etc.) for medical college studies.

Registration of religious centre

Question: Being a member of a religious and charitable centre, I give below the background to enable you to clarify the issues raised below.

Centre activities commenced three decades ago without being registered at the Registrar of Companies.

However, Centre has been registered at Hindu Religious and Cultural Affairs Department in an around 1988.

Centre has its own Constitution and has power to raise funds and receive grants/donations from local and foreign sources.

All donations made to the centre are duly acknowledged and receipts are being issued.

Centre receives interest income from bank investments. The Centre plans to expand its activities and seek your advise on the following issues. Legal status of the Centre.

Whether the registration with Hindu Religious and Cultural Affairs Department is suffice to be a legal entity?

If the legal status is invalid, what steps /procedures to be adopted. Whether collecting of funds are legal? Whether Centre could acquire immovable properties?

Whether investments could be made at the bank in the Centre's name? Whether interest is exempted from taxation since the activities are religious and charitable in nature?

Whilst appreciating your kind services on this column, we await early reply.

KPE - Colombo

Answer: Yes, you have to register with the Registrar of Companies in order to have the legal status without which you cannot acquire immovable properties. For investment with banks alone you don't have to register with the Registrar of Companies as your current status of being registered with Hindu Religious and Cultural Affairs Department is sufficient.

If you visit the website www.drec.gov.lk which is the site of the Registrar of Companies you will get a better idea of what you can do, the legal status and the benefits to your society/centre by registering with the Registrar of Companies. Currently you don't have any legal status except that it has been registered or recognized as a society. You will have to bear the withholding tax on any investments and it is unlikely that you can get any tax exemptions. However depending on the type of activity you may seek approval as a tax exempted charity.

[Questions and Answers]

Bus fare change

Question: Being a regular public transport traveller, I wish to enlighten to Transport Minister or to the authorities concerned the daily LOSS of COINS each passenger has to sacrifice to the bus conductor. I have witnessed to see the conductors having change coins HIDDEN in their pockets and PRETEND to have no change thus avoiding giving out the change.

This happens mostly on all routes in Sri Lanka both in Private and CTB buses that when the following fares for e.g. are tendered no change returned:

If Rs 10 tendered for the fare of Rs 08 - No Change of Rs 2 returned

If Rs 15 tendered for the fare of Rs 14 - No change of Rs 1 returned

If Rs 20 tendered for the fare of Rs 18 - No change of Rs 2 returned

The above are only a few examples as there is much more fares involved. We could just calculate the amounts accumulated through this change coins to each bus conductor (whoever do not return the balance) a conductor is involved in about five trips a day up and down (i.e. 10 trips) on short distance routes and how many Re 1, Rs 2, Rs 5 and even higher denomination he does not return that will get collected at the end of the day. Only just a few conductors are really courteous to the passengers as most of the conductors are so discourteous to the passengers the way they react when the passenger asks for balance change. Either he will yell and say wait I don't have change, or will do so at the passengers' destination, whereas at the latter mostly the conductor tries to avoid the: passengers to whom change is due. It's a fact that whenever the passengers has the exact fare they will tender same to avoid waiting for the conductor to give back the change.

What I propose is that the bus fares should be based accordingly on the availability of the currency coins in our country. For e.g. all bus fares should be either Rs 10, 15, 20 and so on.

As this will totally eliminate the 'issue' of dealing with change coins which to be dealt between the passenger and the conductor. If not there are many instances where arguments arise in the buses due to this coins change. Trust this issue will be highly considered by the authorities concerned and a good remedy initiated for the thousands daily using the public transport.

M A J Samath - Gampola

Answer: Though you are one of those who send questions frequently, you don't appear to be reading the Daily News paper regularly. Sometimes it takes four to six weeks for a question and answer to appear in the Daily News OPA page.

Thus our suggestions is to regularly follow up on Thursday Daily News for your Q & A. We received the above question of yours previously in January 2010 and it was answered in the Daily News OPA page on Thursday February 11, 2010. Your suggestion will end increased bus fares, thus the remedy is worse than the problem.

The same problem exists with many items in the day-to-day life. For example the price of bread used to be Rs 38 and now it is Rs 42. Some bakeries take Rs 45 if you don't offer them the Rs 2 change. You seem to ignore that Rs 1 and Rs 2 coins are also in circulation for easy tendering of correct bus fare.