Citizens' MAIL
A big bouquet to Construction and Engineering Minister, Wimal
Weerawansa who has ambitious plans to upgrade and develop the city of
Colombo.
If one travels along any main highway in Colombo, even the Galle Raod,
one will notice modern buildings that have sprung up along the roadside
and between them one cannot but help noticing the shanty type,
dilapidated old structures that have been operating as 'tea boutiques'
and 'eating houses' for donkeys years.
Why are the owners of prime properties, in prime locations neglecting
their valuable assets without developing them and instead allowing them
to spoil the landscape of our city? The answer is very simple, as
Minister Weerawansa will soon find out. These undeveloped structures in
prime locations fall under a category called "rent Controlled Premises"
created by an ingenious act of legislation in the 1970's. The Rent
Control Act which prevents the owner of the premises from evicting a
tenant or increasing the rent from what it was in 1972, favours the
tenants.
In fact this, the Rent Control, is one of the only 'thoroughly
outdated' legislation still in force while several others were abolished
after the country entered the era of free and open economy. One can
quite understand if premises occupied as residences by poor families are
still allowed to be governed by this Act, but some of them which are
occupied as business premises by boutiques and eating houses are running
thriving and profitable businesses.
Good luck to Minister Weerawansa on his efforts, Maybe he might be
able to abolish the Rent Control Act."
S.P. Dayananda, Nawala
President Mahinda Rajapaksa should be congratulated for his wise
decision to have a separate Ministry for Rehabilitation and Prison
Reforms. Under the new Ministry a lot of programs have been launched to
revamp and update the prisons in keeping with the modern ideology in
that regard.
Until this new Ministry was formed the so called Ministry of Justice
and Prison Reforms did nothing constructive until its separation. High
officials of the Ministry of Justice had been to various countries to
study the prisons but had done nothing. Most of them and their ilk
enjoyed all perks at the expense of the public funds. If a survey is
taken to ascertain who and who has gone abroad during the past five
years it will be clearly seen how favouritism works in the Ministry of
Justice.
What was reported in the press on or about September 18 or 20 with
regard to the foreign trips in the Ministry of Health is equally
applicable to the Justice Ministry. There may be other Ministries with
similar injustices. The Public Administration Ministry should take steps
to have a fair mechanism to distribute Scholarships, Foreign Training
etc. to prevent evil and unfair selections by the hierarchy of officials
according to their whims and fancies.
A Tax Payer
The postal administration under the direction of the Post Master
General has printed and issued in the name of two private individuals
postage stamps for their private use.
They are also providing personalized stamps which includes a postage
stamp of the value of Rs 5 together with a similar stamp size photo of
the person requesting same at a cost of Rs 500.
These issues are all illegal issues as the Postal Ordinance nor the
other laws of Sri Lanka do not provide for such issues.
The Philatelic Code of Ethics for the use of Universal Postal Union (UPU)
countries state under rule 7 that "Postal administrators shall not
produce postage stamps or philatelic products that are intended to
exploit customers." These stamps should be forthwith withdrawn and an
inquiry into the state of affairs at the PMG's office and the Philatelic
Bureau be undertaken immediately.
If the UPU considers these stamp issues do not conform to the UPU
rules they could suspend the member country which would result in the
UPU refusing to accept mail from Sri Lanka for distribution among its
member countries.
Oliver T Goonawardena
Moratuwa
When I left Ceylon as it was known then in 1972, to trot overland
around half the globe with little money, I adopted the way how Robinson
Crusoe hid his dynamite in more than one place which he brought ashore
from the wrecked ship.
The authorities concerned who were responsible for the three dynamite
containers which exploded in Batticaloa recently and the others in
future should follow Robinson Crusoe's example in not keeping dynamite
together in one place.
Susantha M Welgama
Colombo
Read your lovely article and it is so true. Listening to the song
Susil posted brought back so many memories and the tears to my eyes.
Being a Burgher myself I felt so proud of our Burgher boy! We may be Sri
Lankans living away from our homeland and memories of the good old days
before strife and dissension entered out lovely land are always good
memories.
Those were the days my friend. Anyway the people in our lovely island
will have to learn from past mistakes and move forward in harmony.
The war is over and there is hope for the future I guess. Susil
deserves a big bouquet of flowers and much more. We welcome all his
posts on Facebook and share them with friends and family. So more power
to his fist I say..the pen is always mightier than the sword. In this
case Facebook is!!
Lorna Ariyawansa
The Central Bank was established on August 28, 1950. It completed 60
years on August 28, 2010 and various functions were held to celebrate
the occasion. Central Bank pensioners also participated at those
functions, although the Pensioners Association was not invited to attend
those functions that were held at the Rajagiriya Training School.
I understand that the current employees of the Bank were given two
increments in their various grades in addition to paying them one
month's gross salary to commemorate the occasion.
For this 60th anniversary the poor pensioners had been ignored by the
bank management forgetting the fact that pensioners have done yeoman
service to the bank at the initial stages.
Some of our pensioners had 40 years service with the bank. Our humble
request made to the management to consider a payment to the pensioners
as well, has fallen on deaf ears.
I wish to mention here for the Golden Jubilee of the bank, the
pensioners were paid Rs. 5,000 each.
I wish to bring this situation to the kind notice of the President.
Poor Central Bank pensioner
Doctors in America have discovered that plastics when heated release
a toxin 'Dioxin'. The same thing happens when frozen too. Polythene and
P.V.C. are also plastics. Doctors have advised not to heat or freeze
food or drinking water in plastic containers since this releases the
highly poisonous dioxin into the food or water in the containers.
Oncologists have advised not to consume even drinking water in a plastic
bottle that is exposed to some heat such as sunlight. Some details of
this are found in the Sunday Observer - Magazine, January 03, 2010.
Doctors have found dioxin causes cancer, specially breast cancer. In
Sri Lanka the health authorities have found out that thousands of small
children are suffering from some form of cancer, the situation is worse
in the case of adults. Since cancer is not curable with medical
treatment and such treatment is expensive and painful it is much better
to take preventive measures.
We find today that even the feeding bottles of infants, water bottles
of schoolchildren are made of plastic. Most houses store drinking water
in PVC tanks which are exposed to the sunlight. Some common food items
which are mostly consumed by children such as milk, curd, yoghurt,
margarine and ice cream are packed and sold in plastic containers. At
some stage of production these foods are subjected to heating or
freezing. Even hot meals are packeted in polythene.
It is high time for the Government Health authorities to intervene
and do some extensive research on the subject and take suitable
preventive measures and also in the meantime advise people regarding the
use of plastics before the situation gets out of control and the entire
nation is exposed to an incurable disease.
K M Gunaratne
Moratuwa
With the most recent increase in the price of flour supplied to
Bakeries by Rs.3 per kilo the All Ceylon Bakery Owners' Association
fixed the new price for a loaf of bread to be above the existing price
by Rs. 3 and bakery owners have been advised to sell bread accordingly.
This is most unreasonable as 1 Kilo of flour is not used even to make a
loaf of bread of 450 grams.
According to the Association about 75 percent of the bakery owners
are producing bread below 450 grams. Taking into consideration the
foregoing facts I wish to request the Trade and Co-operatives and
Development Minister and the Consumer Affairs Authority to fix a
uniformed price for a normal loaf of bread with the weight instead of
allowing bakery owners to exploit consumers by selling bread with
different weighs and prices. It is suggested that the standard weight of
a loaf of bread be 450 grams with the price at Rs. 42 so as to cover all
coasts and taxes as well, if any bread with lesser weight is sold, the
price should be proportionately reduced.
H W Goonesekera
Since the outbreak of the 'Dengue' epidemic, the State and the health
authorities have educated the general public on the health hazards of
this disease and have requested ratepayers coming under local bodies to
keep their premises clean. This can be done by the discarding of all
unused tins/cans and unwanted receptacles etc. which are lying in their
households/premises and also to clean up their gardens to prevent the
dengue mosquito from breeding in these receptacles.
As we all are aware, the mosquito lays its eggs in water and not in
heaps of rubbish or waste matter. It is the fly which breeds in rotting
rubbish which may lie unattended in premises or on the sides of the
roads, if not removed daily/regularly.
With the 'Dengue' eradication program gaining ground in every town
and village, ratepayers are making a determined effort to keep their
households/premises clean.
As a result, we observe that the majority of the households cleaning
their premises and pruning down their flower plants etc. They leave this
refuse along the sides of the roads near their premises, to enable the
garbage lorries to collect it.
As we have heard, the prime responsibility of a local authority is to
look into the sanitation of the town, it is for this purpose, I presume,
that the ratepayers in a local body have to pay an annual tax to
reimburse part of the expenses incurred to maintain the street sweepers,
staff and other paraphernalia involved in this exercise.
In the Ward in which we live, we observe that a small garbage truck
is being utilised by our local authority to collect the household
garbage or garden refuse. This vehicle too does not come regularly to
remove the street sweepings collected by local body street sweepers,
household garbage or other discarded refuse by the ratepayers living
along the roads. This practice of collecting garbage/garden refuse has
been done by the MC/UC from the time the local bodies came into
existence.
Even on days when the garbage truck goes along the roads, we observe
that the labourers who are detailed for this job, do not remove all the
garbage or other refuse matter lying on the sides of the road, which
they are duty bound to do. Due to the lack of space for some reason,
they are seen collecting some polythene bags with household garbage and
some refuse and leaving behind other refuse lying along the sides of the
road for another day.
The authorities responsible should request them to do at least two
trips a day, on days when there is more garbage Ratepayers feel that it
may be due to the lack of proper supervision by the sanitary department
of the local body, that this job is not being attended to properly by
the garbage collectors. It may also be due to lack of a sufficient
number of trucks that this job of removing street refuse is lagging.
Since late, we have heard that the law enforcement officers are also
taking action, in some places, to charge householders who place some of
their garden refuse which cannot be kept in their households due to lack
of space or other reasons, as has been done all these years. They may
not be aware that the local authorities are bound to remove the street
refuse.
I think it is not fair to hold these ratepayers responsible, since it
is the duty of the local body to deploy garbage trucks daily to collect
any garbage or household refuse lying along the streets. The ratepayers
are paying an annual tax to the local body for this service.
The Local Government Authority should see if it is feasible to get
the local authorities to issue large refuse bins to their ratepayers (on
charging a fee), so that they could keep their collected garbage closed
in their premises to be collected by the garbage lorries going along
their streets daily.
L Lekamwasam
Ambalangoda
Cruelty is shown towards animals, birds, children, women etc and it
is the duty of society to prevent same. However, it should be noted
there are some acts of cruelty which cannot be prevented as they are
linked with national income.
Bull fight - Spain
It is admitted the national income of Spain depends on tourists who
arrive there to watch bull fights. These animals are grown with strict
regulations (meals, drugs etc) and are not allowed to lead a normal
life. Once they enter the arena they should be killed. They are torched
and speared with their necks cut off. Even if they escape in the arena
they are shot to death. Though animal lovers of the world has protested
to the Spain govt. to stop this, the government is unable to adhere to
the request since it is a national income earner.
Sumo fighters - Japan
Sumo fighting is an attractive art watched by tourists. People are
selected and are made giants with extra meals and drugs to be trained as
sumo fighters. They do not lead a comfortable life and I understand they
die early (before 40 years) due to heart attack, blood pressure etc.
Race horses - world
Horse racing is very popular all over the world. They are selected
when they are young and continuous training is given with restricted
meals etc. They are not allowed to lead a normal life. The horses do not
benefit even if they win a gold cup. On the contrary, if they fall and
injure themselves, they are shot to death.
Circus
Here also animals are caught and are given extensive training for
them to exhibit their talents according to human fancy. They are
tortured and it is understood that these animals are unhappy in
captivity.
The above examples clearly show that cruelty will continue despite
efforts taken by interested parties.
S R Balachandran
Colombo 6
This refers to a news item in the Daily News of September 15.
Cleaning of stagnated canals is a solution to the Dengue problem, which
would in return make the environment pleasant and beautiful. The above
exercise would also help fight diseases, mainly Dengue keeping the
people healthy as well.
Canals, once cleaned, could be used as a mode of transport, for both
goods and people easing congestion on the roads to some extent, mainly
in the cities. Accordingly, it is regrettable that the above resources
of great importance to a country has been totally ignored and neglected
in the past creating a liability out of an excellent asset. However,
similar to all other works, this work too should receive routine
maintenance for the smooth working of same, adding beauty to our
country.
Tommy Wanigesinghe
Kurunegala
The Palai Central College in the Kilinochchi district is in a
deplorable state. It was reported that all school buildings have been
destroyed during the conflict and still they are beyond repair.
The only two buildings which are functioning now, are with cadjan
roofs. They too were earlier destroyed by LTTE shellings and they have
now been replaced with cadjan by schoolchildren and the teachers.
While President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Economic Development Ministers
Basil Rajapaksa make a lot of sacrifices for the country's prosperity, I
am confused why the Kilinochchi Development Committee does not look into
the Palai Central College's innocent children and their school.
H L Sunil Shantha
Kalutara
I refer to the letter addressed to the Editor of your newspaper under
the caption 'Keep areas around parks and hospitals free of hawkers'.
While appreciating the good work done by the Colombo Municipal
Council under the able leadership of Colombo Special Commissioner Omar
Kamil in the recent past we also understand that the displaced hawkers
must also be provided as alternative opportunity to derive their income.
All over the world hawking is done on the sides of the main roads
without interrupting the pedestrian traffic in the pavements or foot
walk. When trading takes place either in a shop or alongside the
pavements an economic activity is taking place where it benefits both
the buyer and the seller.
The General Hospital has around 15,000 beds and there is a daily
in-flow of around 50,000 people in that area who come to see the
patients etc. The majority of them come from outstations to see their
warded loved ones. It is a known fact that they come to Colombo and buy
the necessities like fruits, soaps, plastic containers etc only after
they alight from their buses in the vicinity of the Lipton Circus to be
taken to the patients.
By eliminating the hawkers totally from this area deprives an
important service been provided to thousands of people who were used to
doing their trade for many decades. On the other hand by throwing out
these vendors, we deprive them of providing their valuble services as
well as their income and making them destitute which may result in them
becoming paupers or robbers.
The President has always had the small man at heart and is very keen
to ensure alternative avenues of income are made available for these
people. Let us find avenues for these vendors and give them the
opportunity to continue their trade in the surrounding areas while
ensuring the pavement is free for the pedestrians.
F R Rahim
Colombo 10
The UNP crisis worsens and deepens? The so-called democrat Mr Clean
is embroiled with great pride and egoism. I presume the final nail is at
his doorstep and if he doesn't decide to graceful unclean himself he
will become the joker of the pack. The usual seeni bola and toffee katha
of creating two Deputy Leaders is the ormal, usual and well seasoned
great escape farce talk? Normal kiyana katha?
A certain politician was very handsome though he was dressed in
national attire temporarily? I am now contemplating, wondering and
guessing whether he will decide to temporarily wear a pyjama sarong?
Li Kuang Shu
Kandy
Just fancy the American State Department's grief at the Sri Lankan
Government's constitutional amendment to extend the period of office of
President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
This smacks off the reactionary attitude of the State Department.
Noted linguist, Prof. Neom Chomsky always debunks whenever the State
Department reiterates its foreign policy.
No wonder, how depressed the US State Department would have been when
the Sri Lankan Government wiped out the LTTE menace. Lock, stock and
barrel.
Sic Itur Ad Astra.
Elmo Fernando
Kalutara North
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