Letters to the Editor

 

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Commuters herded like cattle
The successive govern-ments and their ministers of transport may come and go, but commuters continue to suffer as bus fares keep increasing. Sometime ago, a lorry driver and a cleaner were fined for overloading goats. Apparently there is a specified space per goat when they are being transported.

However, I do not think that there is specified space per commuter when commuters are loaded into public or private buses.

Very often, we barely manage to keep one foot on the floorboard of the bus while the other is dangling or on someone else's foot.

Despite all these hardships, on the slightest provocation by the commuters or the traffic police, the bus operators go on strike. The bus commuters are mainly middle class workers. They are made to suffer these hardships because they cannot get organised as a group to protest against this injustice. Trade union leaders and party leaders also do not think that workers have a right to travel in a decent manner to work and back.

Trade union leaders only think of their subscription fees and want to show their strength at May Day rallies.

If there was a decent transport system, more would travel by public transport and it would save millions of rupees. There would be a better output as people would get to their workplaces happily and on time. It seems that we might have to wait until a worker who has travelled by public transport becomes a minister of transport to solve these problems.

In this paradise isle, animals have better rights than the citizens.
Tissa Perera
Kottawa


The mess piles up
I recently tuned onto a TV channel discussing the garbage problem in Colombo and the suburbs. Considering the piles of garbage found all over, we should admire any official from the ministry of Environment and Natural Resources for having the courage to appear on TV for a discussion.

The poor representative from the ministry had no defence . She had been in the Ministry for 10 years. She deserves a medal for bravery.

She had come with a heap of papers setting out various proposals to solve the garbage problem. I believe that all those papers too would eventually end up in a pile of garbage.

The presenter should have ascertained the dates set for the implementation of proposals, and thereafter, arranged another discussion after such dates, to analyze the reasons why the programmes were not implemented. Anyone who passes the new CEA premises at Battaramulla can see for themselves the keenness to keep the environment clean. Adjoining is a canal breeding mosquitoes. Fortunately, the water is so polluted that dengue mosquitoes cannot survive there.
Citizen Perera
Colombo 4


Playing pandu
A recent newspaper article mentioned that Rs. 450 million was paid to contractors for the construction of the Dambulla Cricket Stadium, and a further sum of Rs. 64 million is to be paid "for the re-levelling and re-laying of the grounds and completion of unfinished work".

For re-levelling and re-laying to be necessary so soon after construction, the work has obviously been shoddy, necessitating an additional expenditure of Rs. 64 million. Can a poor, developing Third World country afford to waste such colossal sums of money? It must not be forgotten that to create the Dambulla Stadium, 63 acres of forest cover were destroyed. Our politicians certainly seem to have got their priorities mixed up.
C.B. Perera
Colombo 4


Police, get your act together
Present day politicians are in the habit of instructing OICs of police stations to protect their supporters. If the police do not adhere to the politicians' request, the OIC is transferred to a remote area.

The sad truth is that the police do not enjoy the goodwill of the public anymore.

The police should first attempt to win the people's confidence by practising self-restraint.

Recruits to the police should understand the problems of the public and the country. Police personnel should be first trained how to obtain public co-operation in the discharge of their duties.

The need of the hour is to maintain law and order in the country, and through the appointment of an Independent Police Commission to ensure minimum political interference.
F.A. Rodrigo Sathianathen
Kelaniya


Tied to a cylinder and a heavy price
The users of Shell LP Gas continue to pay a higher price than users of Laugfs LP Gas. The main reason is Shell Company's refusal to permit Laugfs to accept their cylinders.

It prevents their customers from buying gas from Laugfs, or from any other competitor.

Although Shell authorities claim that they would refund the money if the cylinder is returned, the amount they refund (Rs. 1,300/-) is much less than the amount originally charged. A vast majority of their customers were customers of the then government-owned Gas Company, before it was sold to Shell.

We have been using LP Gas since the 1970s and cannot trace the deposit receipt for the cylinder. Therefore, we cannot return the cylinder to Shell, and they will not make the refund as we have no receipts. Even if the money is refunded, the amount is much less than the purchase price of a new cylinder from Laugfs. Through its refusal to permit the exchange of cylinders, the Shell Company continues to fleece its customers.

The price of a Shell Gas cylinder containing 13 kgs which was Rs. 320 upto December 1999 was increased to Rs. 335 and revised to Rs. 365 in January 2000. In February, they effected another price increase. Since then, there have been at least five price increases, the latest in June this year where the price was raised to Rs. 514 for 12.5 kgs. Thus, over a short period of 2 1/2 years, Shell Gas has increased the price by more than 70 percent.

We learn that another company is to market LP gas shortly at a much lower price. But, of what use is it to those who have been forced to buy Shell Gas due to their hold on the cylinder? The Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs should introduce legislation to enable the domestic LP gas users to go to any dealer of their choice, without being tied up by a cylinder. Otherwise we will be fleeced, disregarding all ethics.
V. Silva
Kandy


Highway to progress
A reader has called for a halt to the construction of expressways in Sri Lanka. In his opinion, this is wasteful expenditure, and funds could be used for more beneficial purposes. Does it mean that hospitals are more useful for economic development than roads and highways?

People visit hospitals only when they are ill but roads are accessed in day-to-day activities.

The writer has referred to the Katunayake Expressway where the work is already in progress, and the Colombo Outer Circular Road (COCR) which is in its designing stage. The Katunayake Expressway is something long overdue. The COCR was first planned in the '60s. It was intended to be the ring road of Colombo to divert vehicular traffic going through the city to outer destinations. Unfortunately, the project remained shelved. The results are self-explanatory with the never-ending traffic jams and motor accidents.

If the COCR and the inner circular road were constructed at that time the present problems could have been avoided to a considerable extent. These two roads should, therefore, be constructed early. The COCR has not been planned as a toll-levying expressway, but a free modern highway with a dual carriageway with three traffic lanes on each side. It would merge with the southern expressway at Kottawa and proceed northwards, finally joining the Katunayake Expressway near Wattala.

Our road network, especially in the western and southwestern part, is woefully inadequate to cope with the heavy volume of traffic. The sooner we construct the southern expressway, the outer circular road and the Katunayake Expressway, the better it would be. This would also spur economic activity and attract investors. I hope that the authorities would start these projects without further delay, even at the cost of cancelling other non-productive programmes.
P.G.A. Henry
Matara


A case of subverting the truth?
In focusing on the controversy involving the former Air Force Chief, people have lost sight of the other main actor, DIG Colombo, Bodhi Liyanage.

This DIG who periodically makes statements on his attempts to eradicate crime appears to have been willing to cover up a crime. This may be because the perpetrator happened to be a Service Commander. He even denied that it was the SLAF Commander who telephoned him at the time of the accident. Can Mr. Liyanage make a public statement that any citizen, regardless of his rank, has the privilege of telephoning him at any time to seek assistance over a traffic accident?
Palitha Hewage
Colombo 13


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