When will the Municipal Council of the historic City of Kandy get a
good Land and Planning Officer?
For people like me who were born and bred in Kandy, it is heart
breaking to see these sort of shortcomings taking place in the Kandy
Municipal precincts. We have to put this situation right.
The Land and Planning departments are two key money making
institutions in the Municipal Council,
There is a officer in the Lands Department who is reported to be
making lots of money, with the help of two high ranking government
servants.
Adding to this, there is another officer who has joined the UDA and
who deals in land and planning affairs who is making a fast buck.
It will be ideal if changes are made in the Planning and Lands
Department by introducing two new faces. A high ranking officer who is
also a long standing officer deals with all affairs.
This officer has got the best of everything that the council has to
offer, including duty free vehicles, free land, several loan facilities.
He is now allegedly trying to jump over to the Public Service
Commission.
The chief who is there is on three months extension after retirement.
Today, no one can get a plan passed without oiling the palms of those
responsible.
It is imperative that a check be conducted on the manner in which how
these top officials accumulated their wealth. This will help put the
record straight.
From a Rate Payer
While on my way to work by car at about 7.30 one morning,along the
Thalawathugoda-Madiwela-Pitakotte road, a Honda CRV bearing registration
no: WP HZ-2121 overtook my vehicle travelling entirely on the wrong
carriageway meant for oncoming traffic.
When vehicles came towards him, what the driver did was to swerve to
the left to avoid a head-on collision, but in the process he nearly
knocked my car.
I saw this happening to many other vehicles too ahead of mine. I am
writing to you so that the Traffic Police could bring such flagrant
violators of traffic rules to book thus allowing the law abiding
citizens to use the public roads peacefully.
Major Derrick de Silva
(Retired from the Regular Army in 1977)
The government brings in laws and people break them with impunity.
The police cannot be bothered to abide by laws.
The partitioning railings were put up along the islands and
boulevards in Wellawathe so that people do not cross roads at odd
places. We used to see people jumping over these at various places and
crossing roads for their convenience.
Now there are neat gaps in the railings at regular intervals as seen
in this picture and people just pass through them and still cross roads
at odd places.
I wonder who makes these gaps, by removing the bars, done so neatly
without any damage to the rest of the railings.
Sent by: Dr. Mrs. Mareena Thaha Reffai,
Dehiwela
A landlord who has allowed a co-operative society which is under the
purview or supervision and control of the Central Province
Commissioner/Registrar is facing a danger of losing his property despite
the fact that the tenant and those under the company have already left
the premises having closed their business and deserting the premises
even without informing the landlord and also dumping its used appliances
into the premises thereby preventing the landlord from making any
improvements and do other needful for his progress.
When they left having closed their business the property was
completely damaged to the extent that the property became not fit for
any human habitation. The inmates, if any have to live in the darkness
among termites, ants, reptiles, mosquitoes producing (dengue fever) and
bats which have made the property their own legitimate abode.
When the co-operative ltd has left the property they disconnected not
only their three phase electricity but also caused the residential
electric connection to be disconnected and left their things destitute
too in the darkness.
This business establishment put the land lord in an embarrassing
position besides causing immense financial and mental damages and
sufferings. Due to the awful management of this company all the five or
six employees have voluntarily retired or left leaving behind the
Chairman appointed by the Commissioner and an Acting General Manager. I
came to know that he was taking things out of this premises the purpose
of which is not known to anyone. When they closed the business they left
the premises with arrears of monthly rents accruing to about two hundred
thousand rupees.
The landlord previously reduced the rental from Rs 13,000 to Rs 4,000
without any advance payment which remains unpaid perhaps in order to pay
the salary of the employees for their existence. The surroundings of the
buildings is also full of bushes, weeds and wild plants grown to three
feet height. The walls, floor and the roofs were all damaged and remain
unattended.
The building is devoid of light and security but the irresponsible
officers dumped all the discarded properties inside the building, on the
veranda and even in the yard. This has prevented the landowner from
making any improvement. The things were not removed because there is no
any other suitable building that could be used to store them without
paying the rents. The tax assessed on their business by UC have not been
paid for a long time and the UC has already issued the warrant to seize
the movables. Also is has issued a new assessment sheet for the ensuing
year on the same basis. Many a person supervising this body including
officers in SLAS ranks seems to be unconnected and carefree about the
things left destitute and get rusted and the injuries caused to the
particular landlord and others in the neighbourhoods.
The Multipurpose Co-operative Society Ltd Nawalapitiya which ran the
business in this premises previously handled matters diligently and when
it closed business it duly informed me (Landlord) to take over the
building but the Nawalapitiya Milk Producers Society, at its board
meeting has atoned me as its landlord and got my licence, or permission
to continue its business in one half of my premises while the other half
was reserved for me.
The modus operandi exercised demanding the title deed, registration
entries and even title report by the Commissioner who once denied any
responsibility in this matter seems to get the matter delayed by
dragging on the act of removing the discarded things from the premises
thereby causing further loss to me.
Is there any officer in Sri Lanka in Ministry level who could help
mitigate the loss caused to this poor landlord and get him suitable
relief for the sufferings?
M Sivalingam
It is unnecessary to explain the traffic congestion and the parking
problem faced by the motorists in Nugegoda town.
From the inception, the area beneath the flyover on the High Level
Road (on either side of the intersection) was used to park vehicles.
However,for the last several months this area is encircled by choir
ropes preventing vehicle parking. A shoddily done sign board on either
side of the junction states that the area is reserved for Road
Development Authority (RDA) vehicles.
First of all, the makeshift boundary and sign boards are eyesores
nullifying the efforts of the authorities to beautify the roads and
public places. Secondly, as a frequent traveller through Nugegoda town,
I have never seen any RDA vehicle parked there and to my knowledge no
RDA office is situated in the vicinity.
The responsible authorities should understand that the ultimate aim
of public institutions should be making the life of the ordinary citizen
easier and not to burden them with more and more restrictions.
A similar flyover at Dehiwala Junction is open for public vehicle
parking.
If necessary, the parking could be regularized by employing a parking
attendant generating revenue for the government. If the RDA requires
some space for parking, may be one or two parking bays could be
demarcated and reserved for them.
Kumar Edirisinghe, Kalubowila
I enjoyed reading this episode of Tilak Fernando's life abroad
series. Thank you for its publication. It is an apt presentation of our
idiosyncrasy regarding the use of English in our everyday conversation
and our eagerness to show to others that we are clever people above the
hoi polloi.
May be its the insecurity of an island population against the global
world.
We did try in the 60s and 70s but that was not what people wanted.
Back again to the days when proud parents say to each other how
difficult it is for their 'clever kid' to speak in Sinhala.
Lots of funding goes to language labs to master English while our
children will never know the prose of Saddharma Ratnavaliya nor the
lyrical poetry of the Sandesa Kavya. Not even Madol Duwa except the
translation of course!
Dorothy Van Arkadie
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