Citizens’ Mail
The step taken by the Higher Education Minister to provide leadership
training to university entrants from this year, is a very timely and
praiseworthy decision. University graduates are the future leaders of
our country.
They should have to promote human friendly, positive attitudes and
feelings of patriotism in themselves. Mere academics without meaningful
vision of life are useless to any country. University students should
not harass their juniors physically or mentally. If they develop a
non-violent mentality before starting their degree courses, undoubtedly,
brutal ragging would disappear from the university system of our country
automatically.
Many university entrants who underwent this leadership training had
praised it. They had expressed their personal views on the usefulness of
this programme to both print and electronic media. After listening to
their conversations, I came to the conclusion that this training
programme is beneficial.
Therefore, as a university student, I wholeheartedly approve this
programme of leadership training for university entrants launched by the
Higher Education Minister. This will help undergraduates to face future
challenges of life with confidence. Morally developed future leaders
will steer the country towards prosperity with justice.
May all undergraduates or our universities be a blessing to mother
Sri Lanka!
S M Anupama Priyadarshanie , Unvieristy of
Kelaniya.
I returned to Sri Lanka after a long stay abroad expecting much
improvement after the war. Everything was very much improved and
positively moving towards the goal and expectations of the President.
But it was noticeable that the state services have not improved
adequately.
Arriving at the BIA, the first encounter I had with the lady officer
at the immigration counter made me rather disgusted due to the official
uniform she was wearing. I thought it was an official uniform because
all other women in counters were waring the same type. The material of
the uniforms looked very cheap and the design too did not have the
desired quality. In contrast to the other hostesses who were in the
airport along with those women in various stalls who were dressed
smartly. it was a sheer disgrace to see the women at the immigration
counters wearing a much inferior quality dress. However, it was good to
see that they were all wearing the Kandyan sari.
Knowing the Sri Lankan trend in the government sector, I guess that
there is some under-hand racket going on with the uniform supplier and
the officers in charge of the supply. This may not be noticeable to the
higher officials and the politicians who enter the airport through the
VIP channel.
Providing better quality uniform should be a must when tourism is
booming rapidly and more and more foreigners visiting the country, to
keep our nation at peak.
Dr. Ranjini Gunawardana Kandy
Is the Transport Minister aware that many private bus conductors do
not issue a ticket to the commuters and can they take the law into their
hands? If all members of society ignore the country’s law, what will
happen? Is the law applicable only to CTB buses and not private buses?
The commuters should get a valid ticket with the correct fare, date
and destination similar to the ticket issued by CTB buses. The practice
of delaying the buses both by the CTB and private at all bus halts
should be done away immediately to help commuters to reach their
destinations on time.
D E Abeyweera, Kelaniya
There could be a number of such instances of wonderful opportunities
for the people, and this is one such opportunity by the Colombo
Municipal Council at No. 332, Duplication Road, Kollupitiya right
through the week.
People who need attention appreciate ayurveda attention present
themselves for this selfless service given with much dedication and
ability.
This wonderful service by the Colombo Municipal Council including
other parts of Colombo, is a tremendous comfort and a health security
for the citizen-they can never be in want of healing attention and
services.
Some of these wonderful gestures and services are often unknown to
most citizens, and therefore inquiries from others could be most helpful
in discovering the closest ayurveda dispensary.
Cedric De Silva Colombo 03
This is with reference to a letter which appeared in this column. In
addition to public servants, I would like to add that every employee who
deals with the public namely, salesmen in shops, bank employees,
receptionists, bus drivers, conductors, inspectors, soldiers, staff in
hospitals, pharmacies, restaurants and employees in private companies
too should be given ID with the photo and name at least in two
languages.
Hiding a ID must be made a punishable offence. I have seen some staff
displaying the blank side of ID,thinking they are clever. In fact late
politician S.J.V. Chelvanayagam wanted soldiers to be given
identification numbers similar to police officers.
S. Sripadmanaban
Is there any form of legal remedy available to Sri Lankan citizens
who are compelled to suffer the consequences of adverse propaganda
perpetrated by various parties hostile to our country? These parties may
be individuals, institutions or organizations, functioning both
internally or externally.
Such propaganda may be maliciously designed and based on fictitious
statistics, fabricated stories or even fake videos, such as those
attributed to some foreign TV channels recently. This material seems to
be cleverly fed into the print and electronic media and circulated
worldwide to destroy or tarnish our country’s image internationally.
Their adverse consequences may affect our political, business or
economic interests. For instance, an entrepreneur or an organization
engaged in the tourist industry or travel trade may suffer heavy
financial losses if prospective tourists keep away from the island due
to their influence.
In such situations, can an affected party in our country resort to
legal action locally or internationally and claim compensation from
those who are at wrong? Organizations like our Bar Association may
consider this matter as a patriotic duty. After all, these are the times
when words like ‘accountability’, ‘transparency’ ‘credibility’ and
‘human rights’ are flaunted about so frequently the world over. Those
who pressurise others must themselves be pressurised for accountability.
HSR – Kandy
The proposed pension scheme initiated by the government is
appreciated by me as an employee at a private establishment, despite the
protest by certain private sector employees.
Even though, there are some loopholes relevant to the private sector
pension scheme to be rectified, it will not affect the government and
other parties who agree with the pension scheme.
The government has to take steps to send circulars to all the private
sector employers to gather data from their employees who are willing to
contribute to their EPF and who are willing to depend on the pension
scheme and treat likely to their wishes.
Further, the pension should be entitled to the dependents at the
demise of the employee, and three fourth of the last basic has to be the
private sector employee’s pension.
Jayman Bandarawela
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