Y2k bug: lots of bark, little byte

By Ayesha R. Rafiq and Faraza Farook

Sri Lanka rolled over to the 2000 without complications in computers despite over Rs 2.1 billion being spent in preparation to tackle possible problems caused by the 'Y2K bug'.

"Highly vulnerable areas including aviation, sea and airports, telecommunications, electricity, health and the banking sectors have not reported any faults," a spokesman for the Y2K Event Management Centre said.

Flights which were grounded from 10.00 p.m. onwards as a precaution resumed at 8.30 a.m. with a SriLankan airline flight to Japan.

Cathay Pacific Airways was the first aircraft to enter Sri Lankan airspace as the new millennium dawned. The flight from Hongkong to Johannesburg entered Sri Lanka airspace at 3.08 a.m.

Banking sources said that none of the Automated Teller Machines were affected.

There was some panic as cellular phone networks were jammed Friday night but it was soon discovered that the problem was due to a large number of people rushing to wish friends and family a happy new year.

Major organisations and mission critical centres were on red alert from December 31 and would be until tomorrow, the first working day for the millennium, to deal with any unforeseen problems the dreaded Y2K bug might cause, Professor V.K. Samaranayake, Chairman of the Council for Information Technology (CINTEC) said.

Sri Lanka was rated second among the better prepared countries to deal with the Y2K bug, ahead of countries such as Japan and New Zealand, and due to the relatively low use of computers in the country, among the countries listed to suffer the least number of Y2K disruptions.

The World Bank provided Sri Lanka with grants of approximately US$ 29.5 million or over Rs. 2.1 billion.

The larger portion of the grant was awarded to the banking and financial sector, which was feared to have the most repercussions in the event of a Y2K breakdown. Some customers had closed their bank accounts in the fear of financial complications while some banks were warning their customers to carry out any major financial transactions by December 30.

Hatton National Bank Assistant General Manager U.A.C. Obeyesekere said two staff members were posted throughout December 31 at every branch with an Automatic Teller Machine.

For those staff members forced to give up the biggest celebration of the millennium in favour of their jobs, several companies compensated them with an incentive payment. Some compensation packages were reported to be varying from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 20,000.

Council for Information Technology (CINTEC) Chairman Professor V.K. Samaranayake said that international transactions may be restricted due to the global nature of the problem.

"All banks were instructed to keep ready hard copies of the bank statements ready and post them to customers before December 31, instead of the following year as is the practice, as a contingency against the Y2K bug'," Prof. Samaranayake said.

CINTEC which had set up an Event Management Centre manned by their own staff as well as representatives from mission critical sectors such as health, airports and seaports, police, electricity, legal, defence, immigration and emigration and telecommunications to co-ordinate dealing with any Y2K breakdowns, had also telecast a six series television programme, providing information to the public on the Y2K bug.

Many organisations had received Y2K compliance certification from manufacturers of computers. In those cases where the manufacturing companies were no longer in existence, the World Bank funds were used to provide financial help to organisations to either replace or update their computers.

Computer virus protection software sales boomed during the last week, as the public were alerted to the problem of Y2K viruses in addition to the 'bug'.

The most popular virus protection software 'Inoculate IT', was selling for Rs. 4,500 on average while a rescue disk which would enable users to boot their machine from the diskette was selling for Rs. 3,000. Some computer companies were also giving away a Y2K update patch which ensured the quick Y2K compliance of personal computers.

Computer companies were advising their customers to date their computers back one month to avoid the viruses. Warnings were also issued against indiscriminately opening New Year cards on the internet or e-mails notifying users of Y2K breakdowns as these could be disguised viruses.

The health sector was of particular concern as it obtained Y2K compliance late in the year and even upto December 31, limited feedback had been received from private hospitals, nursing homes and laboratories, according to CINTEC.

Several hospitals were having technical support teams on stand-by from December 31 evening to January 1 afternoon, while switching to manual procedures as much as possible. All hospitals were equipped with additional power generators and water bowsers. Representatives from the Ceylon Electricity Board as well as bio-medical engineers were on stand by at the Colombo National Hospital. The transport, electricity, petroleum and telecommunications sector meanwhile were given the green light.

Contingency plans included priority for power supplies, bank statements to be printed as hard copies and posted by December 31 to all customers, Information Technology staff to be on duty at all mission critical centres from December 31 to January 2, storage of water and fuel, and for all key institutions to maintain a round the clock check on the operations of all their critical systems and report to sectoral operation centres.

And with all systems going for the year 2000, Sri Lanka was likely to suffer little from the short sightedness of the early computer inventors and the dreaded Y2K bug.

Plans to beautify Nuwara Eliya gone awry

Text and Pix by Shelton Hettiarachchi Nuwaraeliya Correspondent

Attempts to beautify the town of Nuwara Eliya, so as to make it pleasing to the eye of the beholder, specially the foreign visitor eager to enjoy its salubrious clime have failed due to bureaucratic bungling with several of the projects being abandoned.

Many programmes to make this tourist attraction town beautiful down the last 20 years have thus proved futile inspite of the millions of rupees dumped in the cause both in foreign exchange and local finances.

Nuwara Eliya still remains a town that is an eyesore to the visitor. This is inspite of the manifold programs and development plans undertaken with expert foreign advice .

Among the latest in a series of bureaucratic bunglings is a Rs. 18 million project undertaken with Asian Development Bank (ADB) assistance for the collection and disposal of garbage in the town.

A site was selected for the purpose and the plan for the removal of refuse of the town which counts a population of 40,000 and was a huge problem, was considered to be a feasible project .

According to residents the refuse of the town was hitherto being dumped into the Bomburu Ella resulting in protests from the villagers in the Uva Paranagama region.

This forced the Municipal authorities to collect the refuse and dump it in the sports grounds that belongs to the Council. But the sight of heaped up refuse became an eyesore equally to the citizenry and the visitor. The Urban and Housing Development Ministry after much discussion with the relevant authorities decided to convert the refuse into much needed compost with Asian Development Bank aid.

A site was selected close to the Meepiliyamana reserve on the Nuwara Eliya- Hortontenna road. Work commenced on 8.01.98 at the site which was three and a half acres in extent. It was to cost Rs. 18.26 million.

The work was completed and handed over to the Municipal Council in February last year but after seven months it had not been made use of.

In September '99 the MC employed labourers on a daily basis to remove the garbage to the new site, a distance of 10 kilometres. But the garbage never became compost. Added to this the site became an environment unfriendly place to the villagers.

Flies were swarming all over and when it was brought to the notice of officials they remained silent. By now the wrath of about 100 farming families in Jayawardenepura was roused and they objected to the transport of the muck of the residents of Nuwara Eliya to their area.

The MC spent about Rs. 5000 daily countering the fly menace and started to bury the garbage in the site.

Meanwhile the refuse in the town kept piling up. Last month some officials went to view the situation.

The villagers put up posters requesting the President to help save their village. The officials gave varying statements but the truth was that Rs. 18 million had been wasted.

Mayor B.Seneviratne when contacted said that at the start they had objected to the idea but they were ignored. The site had cost the MC a tidy 9 lakhs by then. Now they had to find an alternative work site to dump the garbage, he said.

A UDA official in Nuwara Eliya said that she hoped to inform the Chairman of the UDA, of the impasse.

The official admitted there had been flaws in the initial preparatory work.

Environment management specialist Prof. Ms. Ajantha Perera said the fault lay in the non- preparation of an evaluation report regarding the work.

She said it was planning without thought that resulted in the failure of the plan and said the location of the site was a mistake.

It is feared that unless the program is stopped more environmental damage will be the result.

Review deal with CWC – Ravi

Parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake has proposed that the UNP review the memorandum of understanding with the Ceylon Workers Congress in view of a situation where most CWC members were elected on a UNP ticket but have been supporting the PA since 1994.

The MP made his proposal during a joint meeting of the UNP working committee and parliamentary group to work out new strategy following the defeat at the December 21 election.

Mr. Karunanayake said election results indicated there was a trend against the CWC in plantation areas and the UNP should look into the possibility of having an alliance with other parties.

No mandate to present package, says SVV

Sinhala Veera Vidana claims that President Chandrika Kumaratunga did not win the people's mandate to present the political package but instead won it to wipe out terrorism, and called on the Government to act swiftly.

The organisation lashed out at President Kumaratunga's statement over BBC where she claimed that she obtained the people's mandate at the elections which enables her to go ahead in presenting the political package in Parliament without the 2/3rds majority.

It charged that President Kumaratunga's comments in regard to Sinhalese killing Tamils was an insult to the Sinhala race. "Sinhala Veera Vidana categorically states that we will support the Governm- ent or any individual who will wipe out terrorism and safeguard the country. " it said.

PA will decide either on election or referendum

By Dilrukshi Handunnetti

In the first flush of a Presidential victory, the ruling PA is reportedly weighing the pros and cons of either holding a general election to capitalize on the recent victory and increase its Parliamentary strength or to hold a referendum to extend the life of Parliament rather than risking the fragile balance of power in the legislature, PA sources said.

The SLFP Central Committee is expected to take a decision early this month on the strategies to be adopted with regard to elections, when they decide what the party's future activities should be.

With President Kumaratunga likely to be away from the country for further treatment to her right eye injured in an LTTE suicide bomb attack, the SLFP is also expected to undergo a dramatic revamping process bringing in more youths with a pro-package political stance, replacing some of the old guard with a view to strengthening the party at grassroots level.

However, party sources claimed that many SLFP strongmen have expressed reservations about attempting to obtain a 2/3rds majority in Parliament which is mandatory if the government wants to push the much criticized political package, in the backdrop of dwindling support from the minorities as evidenced in the voting patterns at the recent polls.

While PA General Secretary D.M. Jayaratne did not rule out the possibilities of holding a general election shortly as the legislature could continue till August this year, he did not comment on the possibilities of holding a referendum to extend the life of Parliament by another six years. With the electoral victory not being dubbed convincing despite the PA winning 17 out of 22 districts, PA party leaders are most likely to agree to a referendum which would retain the fragile balance of power in the legislature at present than making it any worse.

Journalist shot dead before live mass

An SLBC journalist was shot dead by a suspected LTTE pistol gang in Vavuniya town as he was making arrangements for a live broadcast of a Catholic midnight mass for the dawn of the new year.

The Journalist, Anton Mariyadas, 41 was with the SLBC northern service controller, S.Jeevaratna Kumar when the attack took place opposite the St. Anthony's church at Rampaikulam.

Mr. Kumar who had been sent from Colombo to co-ordinate the event escaped the gun attack.

Preparations were being made to provide a live broadcast of the mass over the radio service in the north know as 'Vanampady'

UNP to brief foreign missions on polls frauds

The main Opposition UNP will meet over 20 heads of foreign missions from key SAARC countries and Western nations to give them a detailed account of impersonations and general violations of the election laws during the recently concluded Presidential polls.

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, party chairman Karu Jayasuriya and parliamentarian Mahinda Samarasinghe who was recently put in charge of UNP's 'international relations' are expected to meet the diplomats at Mr. Wickremesinghe's Cambridge Terrace office on Tuesday.

Party sources said that the UNP organized this meeting subsequent to gathering documentary evidence from chief party organizers about various incidents that took place in their respective areas.

The same material is to form the basis for an election petition which the UNP is expected to file shortly.

Meanwhile, the UNP is also expected to brief IMF and World Bank representatives next week and organize an international level campaign to highlight what it felt were election malpractices committed by the PA administration.

Sources confirmed that the UNP decided to launch an international campaign to pressurize the government to ensure free and fair polls and to reiterate its commitment to a negotiated political solution and the UNP's willingness to assist the government.

Atapattu is back

Dr. Ranjith Atapattu, former health minister during the Jayewar-dene administration has been appointed as the UNP chief organizer for the Beliatta electorate in the Hambantota district.

Dr. Atapattu has returned to mainstream politics after a lapse of a few years.

A majestic honour

Clive W. Leach, Deputy Chairman of the Maharaja television and radio operations and Group director of the Maharaja Organization has been honoured in Her Majesty the Queen's New Year's Honours List.

He has been honoured with a CBE (Commander of the British Empire).

Mr. Leach in his television career spanning three decades was Chairman and Chief Executive of Yorkshire/ Tyne Tees Television plc.

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