Letters to the Editor
View(s):Steering public transport to meet challenges of ‘new normal’
In the light of the President’s clarion call to public sector employees to leave behind the two-year ‘COVID’ related setbacks and get ready to work with renewed energy, under the ‘new normal’, it is imperative that we find more short, medium and long term solutions to make people stronger in facing the difficult periods ahead and preventing future uneconomical ‘lockdowns’. The health authorities have noted that, the limited success of the last poorly observed ‘lockdown’ was mainly due to the stoppage/curtailment of public transport. However, without an efficient public transport system, the country cannot get back on its feet! Therefore, it has become necessary to rationalise public travel in such a way that life becomes easier and more productive for office workers and schoolchildren while reducing the incidence of infection via public transport between Districts/Provinces.
My suggested steps were published in the press and copies were sent to the authorities last year. Since the ‘COVID’ challenge is continuing, I wish to reiterate the following long-term simple, cost saving, mitigating steps for implementation as practically as possible.
Office workers
1) As far as possible, deploy them in their respective offices located closest to their residences within the District/Province. The transfer policies may have to be duly amended if necessary. The resulting reduction in inter-District/Province travel will reduce traffic congestion and overloading while making ‘contact tracing’ and monitoring easier for mitigating the incidence of ‘community-transmission’.
Additionally, the employees will save time, energy and money.
2) Implement flexi-hours for both public and private sector workers. This will reduce rush hour traffic, ‘over-loading’ and traffic congestion resulting in fuel saving, better time management and higher productivity.
3) Expand current arrangements for ‘working from home’. Also, the present arrangement for workers to report for work on alternate days can be continued as desirable. These steps will improve productivity of staff while reducing over-loading and traffic congestion. Sri Lanka’s burgeoning public sector exceeding 1.4 million employees, works out to one employee per 15 people in a population of 21.5 million. In many other countries the corresponding figure is above 250!
4) Make train/bus season tickets available online or at designated supermarkets/shops as in other countries so that the workload and the health risk of the conductor/ticket collector can be drastically reduced. In many countries the issue of tickets is handled by the driver.
5) Factories/public/private sector institutions can given incentives to provide van/bus transport to their employees wherever possible.
When the above steps are implemented, the transport sector, with their existing movable assets and rolling stock, would be in a position to deliver a more satisfactory service to the commuters and also save foreign exchange spent on fuel.
School children
1) The elusive policy to send children to schools in their locality, if implemented from next year will surely reduce traffic congestion on the main roads when the schools re-start. The school bus/van service can then be confined to the locality and the need for parents to drop their children at school before leaving to office will also become redundant. Parents/children will save travelling time and money which can be spent on studies, homework and extra-curricular activities.
2) Schools also should adjust their opening times in keeping with the flexi-office hours of the public/private sector in the areas.
Let us avail ourselves of these ‘blessings in disguise’ that have come to our doorstep in the wake of the pandemic.
Bernard Fernando Moratuwa
Thoughts on mandatory forex repatriation and optional conversion
The Central Bank has recently announced that exporters will have to repatriate their proceeds (after deducting overseas expenses) and convert them to Sri Lanka Rupees.
While repatriation seems reasonable in the current economic situation, CBSL should not make conversion to Rupees mandatory as the Repatriated Foreign Currency will already be in the banking system of Sri Lanka which can be utilised for imports and debt payment. CBSL could give the option of conversion to LKR or place the foreign exchange in deposits or government bonds for a specific period, for the repatriated foreign currency.
If this is not done, the business community and investors will lose confidence in the economic policies of the government. I am sure the main objective of the government to get the foreign currency repatriated will be achieved by the above recommendation.
P. Perera Via email