The sudden price hike of fuel has sent the prices of all food items in the markets soaring. The results of the recently concluded local government elections showed that the people wholeheartedly supported the government ensuring its victory. But sadly there appears to be little relief to the people.
The fuel price hike has triggered the private bus operators to increase bus fares, causing hardships to the middle and lower income earners of this country. The school vans have already increased their rates.
Further price hikes are expected from the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) which will only add to the burdens of the people. The lame excuse the CEB and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) trot out is the heavy losses they incur everyday.
I would like to ask the Minister of Power and Energy as to who is responsible for the heavy losses of the CEB and the CPC. Corruption and mismanagement would be the main cause in these two ventures which burden the national economy of the country. In addition to these the SLTB and the Railways also run at a loss. It is astonishing that the government still has not taken any measures to make these state institutions profitable and provide relief to the people.
These state run institutions make a mockery of the Government’s move to acquire loss-making private companies through the takeover bill that was passed in Parliament.
Z.A.M.Shukoor,
Via e-mail
Gone forever are the days when elections were fun and harmless
Another violent election has come and gone.
I recall from my childhood days in the late 1950s how elections were really fun. Whenever a result was announced on the radio, ramshackle lorries gaily decorated in party colours would pass our home and the occupants would shout jubilantly, “Jayawewa”!
As children, we would come to the road and cheer with the crowds, waving paper flags. We did not have to fear for our lives, nor did we feel that our Dad, a police officer away on election duty, was in any way in danger.
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| Scene of violence at Kolonnawa: Aftermath of a shooting incident that marred the recent local elections |
We lived on Castle Hill Street (now Kotugodella Veediya), in Kandy. The late Mr. E. L. Senanayake was a friend and neigbour. He was a simple, peaceful, law-biding politician who walked about with no security with him or a gun on his person.
As far as I recall, my Dad never carried a gun to work. All the guns belonging to the police were stored in an arsenal at the police station.
Over the years something has gone wrong with our country. Our politicians do not know how to accept victory or defeat in the right spirit. Whether it be politics, education, sports, whatever, violence is the order of the day in our times.
Now our children witness elections accompanied by the sound of guns, and the sight of destruction to life and property.
It is unlikely that the good old days and the joyous sounds of “Jayawewa” will be heard again. Elections will only get more and more violent.
Valerie Y. Davidson,
Mount Lavinia
Lanka doesn’t need super expressways, thank you
Our people are consumed with the desire to ape the more advanced countries in whatever they do.
One good example is the building of expressways. Super highways are good for those huge countries, where the distance between one town and the next is 200 kilometres. In Sri Lanka, towns are at most five to 15 km apart.
In Sri Lanka, you can cover 15 km at a respectable speed, by car, bus or train, in half an hour. At this moderate speed it would take a day to cover 200 km in the bigger countries.
This is the main reason these countries build wide roads, or highways: so that commuters can travel at high speed to get to their workplace on time. These highways are not built to stage Grand Prix motor races.
Are such highways necessary or suitable for our country and its topography? No, they are not.
The Road Development Authority (RDA) is calling for an 80-foot wide highway. To do this, they will have to acquire built-up residential and business areas with a high land value. It is like having an ocean flowing through a town, carrying ocean-going liners, rather than having a river with small boats plying back and forth. Constructing unrealistic highways is only good for a display of false national pride and for holding Formula I races.
Are these wasteful projects launched to impress foreigners? Most of the foreigners who come here are holiday-makers who want to get away from highways. They come to relax and enjoy our cuisine, climate, and scenery. They do not come here to go racing along highways.
Uncle Sam,
Colombo 5
When the heart takes over
For the heart to take over,
Mind must be totally free from bondage.
Conditioned as a child and then a young adult
The MIND is restricted.
Tradition, society, religion and race
Tell you what to do, say and believe ...
Authority is never questioned.
You must not let anyone down.
Which includes your alma mater, your school.
Yet there comes a time
When the inner self, your heart
Speaks to you and makes you crave
To follow your own wishes.
It urges you to do what You want to do.
It prods you to become what You want to be.
The roots of your beliefs now turn away
From rules and restrictions.
If you let go of a life you have been conditioned
To lead by letting go old roots
New roots will replace them.
Witness then the real roots of your heart.
Listen to what they say and let go
The falsehoods you have been holding for so long.
When they fall to the ground, you are free
To follow your heart
Which is the core of You.
When it becomes one with the Mind...
Then you become You.
Punyakante Wijenaike
Front-row bus
passengers at risk
Private bus drivers are compulsive speedsters. They use certain stretches of road like a racing track. One such stretch is along the Galle Road from Moratuwa to Panadura.
This is an accident-prone area. I was in a speeding bus in which the driver suddenly applied the brakes, and a passenger in the front seat was flung towards the bus exit. He returned to his seat with bruises on his arms and legs.
There is no front railing to protect the passenger in the front seat. This seat is often occupied by senior citizens, disabled persons, ladies carrying babies and pregnant mothers.
The Transport Minister should do something about this high-risk front seat.
P. A. Binduhewa,
Panadura |
E-mail
