| News |
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| Child-sex
charge at Jaffna children's home The Magistrate's
Court stepped in following complaints from the public against the
Hindu children's home which had been functioning at Kaithady for
about ten years. On Thursday the Court gave an order that the 40 girls and 12 boys at the Kaithady home be sent to Uduvil children's home. It is alleged that some of the girls had been sexually abused by an elderly official of the home. There have been 40 girls and 12 boys in the Home. Among those arrested are an official of the home and two teachers. Batticaloa-Valaichchenai
rail service The construction of the track had begun on October 15 last year and was expected to be completed in 13 months but the work was hurriedly completed on April 12 in time for the deadline. The period generally allowed for a rail track to settle down had not been complied with in this instance, the train commencing its inaugural run, only hours after work on the line had been completed. Its first passenger was a district engineer who was required to issue the certificate of competence. The usual procedure of initially running service trains and utilising a trial run to check for any problems had been ignored and soon after the VIP train opening the track the next train was operated for carrying passengers. This train scheduled to leave the station at 6.30 p.m. on April 12 had derailed even prior to leaving the yard. It had taken almost three hours to get the train back on the track. The train had finally left the station at 9.30 p.m. but had derailed again for the second time. Even instructions that a joint report should be issued by the Operating Superintendent, Chief Engineer Way and Works, Chief Engineer Motive Power and Chief Engineer Signals and Communication prior to the resumption of the train services had been overlooked. The train which derailed twice on April 12, had suspended its service on April 13 and resumed once again on April 14. But this train too had derailed and for the third time on April 15. "The reasons for getting the track ready by April 12 was to help the public at New Year time, since the train is a very economical mode of transport," General Manager Railways Priyal de Silva told The Sunday Times. He said the rail track certificate had been issued with a restriction of 20 kilometres. The GMR said that however since workers had not reported for work it had been difficult to carry out the required maintenance work. "Now metal ballast and sleepers are being transported from Colombo to strengthen the track. This is because the LTTE had removed the metal ballast and the embankment had to be redone," he said. Meanwhile, Transport Minister Tilak Marapana has ordered an inquiry to ascertain as to what went wrong. Two members of the Railway Management Council, K.A. Premasiri and N.F.U.K. Fernando were assigned to carry out the investigation. However, the Minister is yet to receive the report on the track. Rs. 100 million given by NORAD had been utilised to construct the railway track and Rs. 78 million had been released from the treasury. However, further money is required to build workers' quarters etc. The services of this train has been suspended until further notice with instructions issued that the train should not run until the suitability of the track has been certified by a competent panel of officers. Incidentally, All Ceylon Railway Employees' Union General Secretary Sumathipala Manawadu in a recent interview with the Sunday Times alleged that US $ 200,000 was paid to International Rail Consultants for the consultancy services for the rehabilitation of the railway line along the 30 km track from Valaichchenai to Batticaloa despite cabinet approval having been granted on October 23, 2002 to select a domestic consultant. 350
vehicles a day at Yala this week With an average of about 350 vehicles visiting the park almost daily during the last few days, park officials were left with no other option but provide only a single tracker to guide five or six vehicles. Thus many others were deprived of travelling through the park without a proper guide. Tourists were among those who had no tracker to accompany them. Wildlife department officials said that usually there was a shortage of trackers to cater to the influx of visitors during the festive season and the unprecedented number visiting Yala sanctuary last week further complicated matters. This resulted in the Wild- life department being compelled to restrict vehicles to remain within the park for only two and half hours, the officials said. They said the shortage was also partly due to some of the trackers being on leave during the national new year holidays. 'Usually we have about 80 trackers, but during the new year holidays we have to manage with about 15 of them", a park official said. Visitors told The Sunday Times that there were too many vehicles in the park and this deprived most of them to see the usual number of animals that roam in the open. 'More often than not animals move into the jungle on seeing a vehicle passing by, as such no useful purpose is served in following behind the lead vehicle and in some cases about three to four vehicles travelled in a row', a visitor said. He said that among the vehicles were also large buses carrying between 30 and 40 passengers. Wildlife department officials said they had not imposed any restrictions on buses travelling into the park as locals travelled in some of these buses and it was a cheaper mode of travel. But, trackers said that buses around the park had been a problem as animals are disturbed when they sight large vehicles. With the large number of visitors and the shortage of trackers was a added burdened for the game rangers on duty, wild life officials said. In one of the incidents a group of visitors had assaulted a game ranger and causing a traffic block inside the park with vehicles being parked across the track. This unfortunate episode finally ended up at the police station with the two parties lodging separate complaints. According to
the game ranger the dispute arose after the visitors who were from
Mulleriywa were asked to remove their vehicle from a no-parking
zone. When vehicle was not taken away the game rangers had refused
to issue a ticket to this particular vehicle, but had allowed three
other vehicles belonging to the same group to proceed. A game ranger who visited the spot to settle the dispute was assaulted. Wildlife officials said that one of the main problems is because that at present visitors are only allowed into an area known as 'Block 1' having entered through the main gate from Palatupana in Tangalle. A Wildlife department official who wished to remain anonymous said that although there had been suggestions that the entrances from Lunugamvehara or the entrance from Dambakote from the Buttala side also be opened to the public, nothing has been done in this regard. Currently a
gate has been opened from the north eastern side of the park from
Katogamuwa, in Kataragama, but this road too leads to 'Block 1',
though originally the intention was to allow these vehicles to enter
'Block 2', the official said. They said that the Environment Ministry should take prompt action to improve the services provided to the public. If remedial action is not taken a large number of visitors visiting the park will return home disappointed. |
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