Over the skies of Kandy

Dr Sudath GUNASEKARA (SLAS)

The Daily News on August 18 published that the Ports and Aviation Ministry will renovate 13 inland airports to boost the domestic air transport system.In addition we have airports in Hambantota and Iranamadu as well.

Domestic airports were constructed many years ago. Under the proposed renovation program the runways of these airports will be lengthened and widened to accommodate medium scale aircraft. This is welcome.

But it is sad we don’t have made this facility available to people in places like Kurunegala. Mahiyangana, Nuwara Eliya and most of all Kandy, the second most important city. Kandy was also the last capital of the Sinhala Kingdom and for that reason and its historical, political, cultural and scenic value.

It should have been given top priority in providing this facility long time ago. I don’t think any other city in the periphery attracts so many people throughout the year.

Moreover the congregation for Sri Dalada Perahera of August has no parallel.

The location of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth of the Buddha, the palladium of the Buddhist world , temples of the two Buddhist spiritual leaders of the nation, Malwatta and Asgiriya, the world famous Peradeniya Royal Botanical garden, the Peradeniya University and the scenic beauty of the city and its environs also attract millions annually to this city.

By road from Colombo or the Bandaranaike International Airport to Kandy takes almost four hours. By train it is three hours or more. Isn’t it shocking and a crime for a person to waste four hours on the road to cover 115 km? There has been lot of loose talk on highways being built and railway improved. But most are fairy tales.

To make development a reality, rapid and safe transport in this modern world is a sine qua non. Apart from the dire need for development it also constitutes a fundamental human right of the people who live in these areas. Efficient and good transport will increase mobility and it also minimizes congestion in urban centres.

It will also reduce rural -urban migration that creates innumerable environmental, health, housing and social problems in cities. An improved network of transport is the quickest answer for this problem.

With some of these problems in mind and the development needs of the region, I proposed in 1979 to open an airport in the Pallekele area in the Dumbara valley. But no one took it seriously. In mid 1990s the then Central Province Chief Minister also had called for an airport for Kandy.

He is no more there to agitate for it now. It is extremely sad to note that todate nothing has happened. Since 1979 much water has passed under the bridge. District councils, Provincial Councils, Pradeshiya Sabhas and many authorities have come to power.

The number of political and administrative institutions has multiplied by many folds. Number of politicians and public officials have multiplied at the ratio of one to 15 or 20.

Modern buildings have come up to house them and public expenditure has increased by leaps and bounds.

The people of the Kandyan Kingdom were the men who fought against three colonial super powers for over three centuries to save the Motherland. They were the people who sacrificed and lost every thing near and dear to them, including their land, forests the heritage and their lives.

Their lands were grabbed by the British and they were made paupers and destitute on their own Motherland. Their paddyfields, gardens, cattle and places of religious worship were set ablaze and their irrigation canals, tanks and structures were all ravaged and destroyed in the 1818 so-called rebellion.

All young men above 18 years were killed. Even white men such as John Davy have left appalling accounts on these devastations and crimes of the colonial invaders.

After that their henas, grazing lands, gardens and sometimes even paddyfields were acquired for coffee and tea and were chased down to the valley bottoms hemmed in between mountains and reduced to abject poverty.

Thereafter their watersheds protected by their forefathers from the dawn of history, that provided water for the paddyfields in the entire country were razed to the ground by the British to plant their coffee and tea.

Labour was brought from South India as slaves to work on these newly opened plantations. Over a million of them have today become the virtual owners of lands.

In 1949, a commission called the Kandyan Peasantry Commission was set up to study the plight of these people and to propose ways and means of alleviating them.

But after 60 years of self-rule by our own people today their problems like landlessness, poverty and other social problems like roads, sanitation, education are worse than in 1949.

Therefore they were the people who suffered worst in history and even today they are the most neglected lot in the country.

The majority are below the poverty line. Even today most villages in the hill country have no proper access or even drinking water for most part of the year.

It is in the context of this historical social injustice and pathetic background politicians, policy makers and planners have to plan for development of these regions. In this scenario an airport to Kandy or Nuwara Eliya is only a drop in the mighty development ocean.

Many more things have to be done. An overall master plan need to be drawn up incorporating all sectors of physical and social development and implemented with the least amount of delay to rectify the historical injustice done to them both by the British and our own Governments since Independence.

The whole country owes them so much, so difficult to be repaid, even for generations. In this backdrop an airport to Kandy will serve as a gateway for rapid development of the hinterland of Kandy City in particular and the hill country in general.

The proposed 13 airports

* Polonnaruwa
* Hingurakgoda
* Palali
* Rathmalana
* Koggala
* Katukurunda
* Weeravila
* Trincomalee
* Sigiriya
* Batticaloa
* Ampara
* Kankesanturai
* Vavuniya