Letters to the Editor
View(s):Let’s get an independent body to reveal true state of affairs of the CB
According to the Central Bank Governor, the country’s Forex reserves which was at the nadir at US $1.6 billion approximately has moved towards the zenith with current reserves being at US $ 3.5 billion. The Governor has not revealed as to how he has got it boosted – certainly not through a Pfizer jab obtained from DGHS Dr. Asela Gunawardena!
As a layperson I think that the reserves may have been increased either by currency printing or through currency swap or the worst scenario – juggling with the figures violating Standard Accounting and Auditing Practices and Policies!!!
We can’t rely on the Bank’s internal audit as the Governor being a Presidential appointee will be pro-Government. How about an international company of repute carrying out an external audit and revealing to the public the true state of affairs of the Bank?
Mohamed Zahran Colombo
What is the correct choice?
There was a photo in a daily newspaper showing 1,000 Buddhist monks being given a sangika dana at a leading Buddhist temple.
At the rough cost of Rs. 1,000 a meal, this would amount to Rs. 100,000 not counting the costs for ata pirikara etc.
I ask, is this enormous amount of money well spent according to Buddhism?
I am personally involved in a project where we provide a cataract lens for a poor child who cannot afford the required lens. Though the operation is done free the child has to provide the lens. At present, the cost of a lens is Rs. 17,000. Hardly any child in need can afford that kind of money. If the child does not provide the lens on time, he/she is going to be blind. Yes, it’s as simple and brutal as that.
Even considering half the estimated cost of the meal Rs. 50,000, this would have provided three cataract lenses.
I ask you, according to Buddhism, what is the correct choice – three cataract lenses for three desperate children or a meal for 500 people?
It is the Buddha himself who said that looking after the sick is the greatest possible act of concern.
Dr. Asoka Thenuwara Via email
Decisions taken by those with little science background
Those in administration in state institutions, mostly arts qualified SLAS officers and directors with no science background, have messed up the environment as they are ignorant of ecology and ecosystems.
The human-elephant conflict needs to be solved by relocating humans and not elephants and not by building electric fences and trenches! Eventually elephants will be trapped in trenches as we have seen how they fall into wells built for cultivation. Who is advising this government? When the politicians are ignorant it is double jeopardy!
Financing these types of projects and building access roads to remote villages bordering reserves and elephant corridors is unwise. People should be relocated where hospital and educational facilities are available, with cluster settlements probably with low rise buildings built for them. Even estate workers could be moved into low rise apartment buildings, provided with proper facilities and utilities.
I sincerely hope this message gets the attention of the relevant authorities.
Sunil Vijaya Mount Lavinia
No wonder our Railway runs at a loss
More work, more trouble,
Less work, less trouble
No work, no trouble.
This adage was personified when I walked into the Mount Lavinia Railway Station on the morning of January 6, to dispatch some books to Badulla. The staff were very busy -reclining with their feet on the table. They informed me that the weighing scale had been broken for two months.
They further said that the scales at the Dehiwala and Wellawatte railway stations were also broken and advised me to go to the Ratmalana station which I did. There they took charge of the consignment but not before I had parted with Rs. 150 supposedly for them to purchase coir rope to fix handles to the packages. They also kept the unopened 2” sellotape.
One wonders why the railway is running at a loss.
Gamini Weerasinhe Via email
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