Taxi drivers, female office clerks, housewives and all others in the
milieu are now the cats' whiskers on cricket. They have collectively
taken the cricket selectors to the cleaners for not having played Vaas,
Murali and Malinga against Australia in a game that was of no
consequence to either side.
Sri Lanka are in the Caribbean, ladies and gentlemen, not to win a
battle but to win the war.
The selectors in their wisdom garnered over the years very correctly
rested our key bowlers without exposing them to a dress rehearsal which
the Aussies would dearly have loved to have studied the venom and the
wiles of our strike bowlers.
Michael Holding who in his playing days was known as 'Whispering
death' has decried the decision of the selectors on the grounds that
bookies were given an edge.
Who cares?
Are the bookies to call the shots at team selections? Come, come, Mr.
Holding, your death that whispered is nothing now when you cast
aspersions in an area that is sacrosanct to the selectors.
Ian Chappell also has cavilled, he who got his brother Trevor to bowl
under-arm the last delivery against New Zealand to prevent an attempt at
a six for New Zealand to win the game.
Gamesmanship is only for the chosen few, it would appear and Chappell
has conveniently confined those sins of omission and commission into the
limbo of his ailing memory but the sin lives on in recorded history as
when he drew flak from the editor of Wisden and the sports scribes of
the Daily Telegraph and London Daily Mirror.
Messrs Holding and Chappell will do well to crank their joint memory
to the Australia-WI game of 1999 when Steve Waugh's side made heavy
weather, labouring on purpose to overhaul a modest 110 runs.
Waugh shifted his priorities to support WI into the Super Sixes at
the expense of New Zealand who had to bat at a break-neck speed to
overcome the Aussie trap.
What was that outside the cookery books about sauce for the goose
being sauce for the gander?
SHARM DE ALWIS,
Kiribathgoda
---
Pavements are normally built for the total benefit of pedestrians on
public roads. In Sri Lanka, while the officers and the authorities
responsible for such vital tasks seem to display a Nelsonian eye, they
are unquestionably denying pedestrian rights in doing so.
In certain areas, traders encroach upon pavements to display their
merchandise and three-wheeler drivers find it comfortable to use those
as their parking bays!
This not only becomes a hazard to vehicular traffic but endangers
pedestrian life and compels people to walk all over the road.
The road stretch from the Borella Bo Tree junction along Dr. N. M.
Perera Mawatha is a blessing in disguise where new pavements have come
up with the extension of the new Peliyagoda 'dual carriage way'.
But the whole idea of having pavements, between the bus stand
junction up to the railway crossing (towards Nawala Road roundabout) is
lost when these are not maintained, but allowed to deteriorate beyond
incredible limits (starting from the bus stand where many people walk
about).
Workers from various authorities after digging a pavement surface for
some remedial urgent pipe work and/ or to lay underground cables, do not
seem to be bothered about a complete repair after the digging. Instead
they just leave broken 'uneven tracks' in the middle of the pavement,
filled with only soil, making the sharp and jutting out surfaces from
the existed pavement becoming hazardous.
Is it then the lack of responsibility on the part the supervisors or
engineers who are responsible for digging the pavements not ensuring
that their workers put back a dug out area to the original good
condition?
Is anyone made accountable for leaving such half finished jobs? Don't
any inspectors do their normal round of evaluation after a job is
completed and attend to any half-done assignments in the same way 'pot
holes' are detected and repaired?
In Western countries, a pedestrian having an accident on a pavement
due to uneven surface or broken pavement can take legal action against
the local authority and end receiving substantial compensatory
pavements.
This is an urgent area that needs attention of all those who are
responsible. After all, what is the whole purpose of having a pavement
if pedestrians have to jump, fall and do a tango while trying to walk
safely on a pavement?
DR. TILAK S. FERNANDO,
via email
---
Amendment to the Banking Act had been passed in the Parliament in mid
2006 to safeguard the interest of the depositors, so that the public
will have confidence in carrying out transactions with the banks without
any fear of losing their money.
Thanks to the services rendered by former Minister Wijedasa Rajapaksa
and Ven. Athureliye Rathana Thera MP and also Vicknarajah spent his time
to help the Pramuka depositors.
The depositors headed by Palitha Gamage had to file action in Courts
against the injustices caused to the depositors. Each member of the
Depositors Association had to spend several thousands of rupees to run
the Association and file several court cases to prevent liquidation of
the Pramuka Bank and then to get it re-opened.
The Association still continues spending and the Bank which was
closed in 2002 is still not re-opened.
Although the authorities promised to re-open the Bank in March 2006,
the Bank could not be re-opened as the Central Bank had not submitted
suitable proposals, and not found a building for the new Bank and the
Pramuka depositors are still being penalised.
Pramuka depositors have made a very big sacrifice from 2002 to 2007
by getting the incorrect procedures rectified by Court actions and
Amendment to the Banking Act.
The Central Bank had misled the depositors by recommending Pramuka
Bank and publishing in the newspapers a few months before closing it and
thereby tempting them to make further deposits.
So it is a failing on the duties and responsibilities on the part of
the Centra Bank for not getting these mistakes corrected or at least for
not pointing out to the Government the injustice done to the depositors
when a bank is closed for no fault of theirs.
Considering the fact that the Central Bank staff enjoy the biggest
benefits with at least double the salaries and pensions drawn by the
Government officers with similar qualifications in addition to EPF, ETF
with bonus and concessions for loans and free medical facilities etc.
which a Government or private sector officer does not enjoy, it is very
wrong on the part of the Central Bank to penalise depositors for
mismanagement of Pramuka Bank by its Board of Management.
When the ABN Amro Bank of Sri Lanka was closed, all depositors were
refunded fully with their deposits plus interest.
The depositors of Pramuka Bank appeal to President Mahinda Rajapaksa
to intervene in this matter and grant immediate relief to the Pramuka
depositors by refunding their entire deposits with all interests accrued
up to now. Or in the alternative at least to refund the interest fully
up to now without any delay for the time being.
Although the Depositors Association agreed in March 2006 to withdraw
their deposits one year later in March 2007, there is no need to wait
for one year as already that one year had lapsed.
The entire country is benefitted by the Banking Act except the
Pramuka depositors.
D. D. Meegoda,
Ratmalana |
