The much awaited Provincial Council elections are to be held in the
North in a few months time. Political parties are getting ready for the
event. At present there are nine Provincial Councils in Sri Lanka.
Provincial Councils have turned out to be white elephants and seem to
serve no useful purpose. At present there are nine Provincial Councils.
I think the solution is to move the goalposts. We should go back to the
age old division of the country - to the three divisions of Ruhunu Rata,
Maya Rata and Pihiti Rata.
The Ruhunurata extended from the Bentota river to the Mahaweli in the
East.
The Pihitirata also known as the Rajarata, included the Jafffna
peninsular and reached the area around Anuradhapura. In the ancient
periods, we had a Yuvaraja in Jaffna. So, we can have Provincial
Councils, but they will be bigger in extent and will eliminate the
present nine provinces, which was a division by the white rulers and is
not sacrosanct.
A fact that everybody seems to have conveniently forgotten is that
there were some fifty three thousand Sinhalese people living in the
Jaffna District who were evicted by the LTTE.
Some had been born there and had no relatives in the South. They also
should be given their voting rights.
Dr. Chandra Weeraratne
Ratmalana
Vehicles manufactured before 1974 are exempted from the vehicle smoke
emission test.
This has not been reviewed on any yearly basis. It would be realistic
if vehicles which have exceeded 25 years from the date of manufacture be
exempted from the smoke emission test, since these are very old
vehicles. Spare parts too are difficult to obtain and only a few
vehicles are to be found on the roads.
The owners of these vehicles too, are leading a retired life and most
cannot afford to buy a new vehicle.
Compelling a vehicle emission test for vehicles that are older than
25 years is similar to trying to transform an elderly person to be a
youth. I appeal to the authorities concerned to make an in-depth study
of this suggestion for implementation.
Karalasingam Sivalingam
Nugegoda
The long awaited implementation of the Trilingual Education Programme
under the government's Ten Year National Plan took a steady start in the
North with the official launch by the Governor for the North. The
programme was launched on April 26, 2013 at Mankulam Maha Vidyalaya in
Mullaitivu. As a fitting start to the occasion, the Zonal Director of
Mullaitivu, Malini Weniton made the welcome speech in all three
languages followed by a speech by the Provincial Director of Education
V. Selvarajah, stressing the benefits of learning all three languages.
Provincial ADE for Sinhala Ms. Sutharshi, made the Vote of Thanks in
Sinhala and Tamil.
Speaking on this occasion, the Governor said that the event marked an
important day in the lives of the younger generation of today as it
heralded a new era where there would be no linguistic barriers for
people to communicate better with each other in their day-to-day life,
if the trilingual education programme is implemented successfully
according to the intended systematic plan. He went on stressing the need
for learning all three languages for the peaceful, harmonious
coexistence of all Sri Lankans.
In spite of all these efforts and good work of the Governor and the
officials, we may not easily achieve the goal of making the North a
Trilingual Province without the genuine commitment of all concerned
towards this good cause. Therefore, we should not look at the trilingual
initiative as a political ploy as it is a national plan and is being
implemented in other parts of the country, too. What we should do is
have a neutral view on the initiative beyond all our political
affiliations, if we are really concerned about the peaceful, harmonious
co-existence of our younger generation as Sri Lankans without any
linguistic barrier for communication, follow the strategy plan that is
being implemented to make us all trilingual for the common good.
S.A. Croos
Mannar
The Commonwealth is a fabrication of the British hierarchy to keep
together the colonies which they exploited, to keep their home fires
alight. The British leadership gave up their colonies when Mahathma
Ghandi and Jawaharlal Nehru of India demanded independence. Sometime in
1946 all colonies were given Independence from the British Throne. So
was Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Subsequently finances piled up in the vaults of
the government Treasury and Lanka escaped from the stranglehold of
foreign power. After some years of governance by the United National
Party, during which very little was done to develop the country, came
S.W.R.D. Bandaranayake who formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, having
left the UNP led by D.S. Senanayake.
Conspirators assassinated him, but his wife Sirimavo took over the
reins. Before long little Sri Lanka was known by countries that mattered
and could help. However the UNP led by J.R. Jayawardena engineered its
victory and the rule by the UNP continued under Ranasinghe Premadasa
until he was assassinated by the LTTE at a May Day procession that he
hoped to lead. The vacancy was filled by ex-President Chandrika
Kumaratunga. She served two terms as the President. In November 2005
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected to lead the country as its
President. Despite other contenders, he is now serving his second term
as the President of Sri Lanka and has developed the country to heights
never imagined before.
Ivor Samarasinghe
When we consider the increasing rate of daily accidents, it is high
time for the populace to ponder seriously, the general safety rules
regarding housekeeping, road safety, passages, work place, work groups,
gates, staircases and escalators, swimming, sports and athletics,
industrial safety and health. Citizens, both young and old should
observe the important information on safety rules and comply with the
precautionary measures for personal safety and health.
The authorities concerned should extend safety and health training
and awareness programmes with health checkups to lead citizens to be
familiar with and perform safe behavioural principles by keeping
individual hygiene, strictly to prepare for danger or hazard to avoid
injury in their environment before, during and after work.
Personal protective equipment is very important and a must in the use
of machinery an equipment, especially in construction site safety.
Prevention of work related illnesses such as, oxygen deficiency,
hazardous gas concentration, improper ventilation methods, noise induced
hearing loss, heat stress induced disorders, organic solvent toxicities,
health effects caused by dust, vibration disorders, heavy metal
toxicities, muscular-skeletal diseases due to over-exerting,
construction site safety due to work, assembly and transport of
scaffold, steel bars, machinery, lifts, hoists, cranes, and concrete
casting iron work using hand carts or pump cars should be given
preference.
In short personal healthcare and precautions from accidents should be
the ‘Morning Prayer’ and ‘Daily Bread’, right throughout the seven
stages of man.
Ivor Hapuarachchi
The Galle Road at the Nagas junction in Kalutara North and at the
Pohoddaramulla junction goes under water during rainy days. This causes
extreme inconvenience to motorists as well as pedestrians.
It is said that this sad situation is due to the non-availability of
a proper drainage system and parapet walls built by people living close
to the Galle Road, which tend to block the flow of water.
The situation which prevails on the Kalutara North Galle Road is much
worse due to its poor maintenance and large size pot holes.
Wayside dwellers of the Kalutara Galle Road have expressed their
disappointment that the responsible authorities despite several
reminders have neglected repairing these areas, yet nothing seems to be
happening.
H.L. Sunil Shantha
Kalutara Central Special Cor.
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