22nd March 1998

Are they harassing consumers?

When a "prospective consumer" applies for water connection to the Board he is expected not only to fill out an application form with all relevant details but also is made to go behind Grama Niladari and local authority to get it certified by them on two occasions. Thus a house-holder is required to go through this tedious, yet unnecessary procedure.

There are hundred and one remedies available to the Board, if there is a fraudulent application. The applicant is called upon to sign an agreement with the Board after proper identification.

The Board can send a copy of an application made to the Grama Niladari and the local authority concerned for follow up action, if necessary. Just imagine a house-holder who is an employee.

He has to waste two or three days leave simply to go behind officials and get it certified.

Is this not unnecessary tape which reduces productivity? Will the Minister of Housing and Construction or any top official look into this and advise outdated and impractical brains of the Board to do away with the burdensome, time and money wasting, unnecessary requirement of getting the application certified by Grama Niladari and Local Authority? Surely this type of bureaucratic bungling hinders the progress of this country.

Pro bono publico

Who's reaping the rewards?

I agree wholeheartedly with E.S.Liyanage on his comments entitled Big Racket Hits Beer and thank you very much for the accompanying cartoon.

Last December on my way to a holiday in Deniyaya I had to experience what ESL did in Colombo, sour looks and all, trying to find beer. In the end I paid almost double the price for a bottle of beer. What is most frustrating about the situation is the realisation that those huge advertisements are a fraud after all.

I remember very well, the article (I am sure it was in your paper) written by the CEO of a local brewery a few years ago extolling the virtues of reducing the exercise duties. I am sure he is aware of the present state of affairs of the industry as they employ Marketing staff etc. to look after the selling side. If he is unable to do anything to sort out the problem, in my view, his efforts to persuade the government to reduce duties could. I am sure be construed as misrepresentation of law. Could someone enlighten the readers on that please?

No one expected the breweries to increase their output overnight, after the duty slash, as these things usually take time. But three years on how are they going to explain the shortages to the consumer'? The public, after all, was expected to benefit from the duty reduction by being attracted to beer away from kasippu etc. Evidently, a bunch of racketeers and frauds are reaping the rewards of the reduction due to the inefficiencies of the breweries. Or is it the case that the brewery which acquired the manufacturing rights to a well known foreign brand creating an artificial shortage to push this pricier product which seems to be freely available in can form at a price of course?

P. Karunaratne

Udahamulla

This simply is not true

I have just returned from your wonderful country and I felt I had to share my thoughts with you. First of all, Sri Lanka has to be one of the most beautiful places on this earth.

We (four Canadians) had a wonderful tour of the ancient cities of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya then we went down to Kandy, next up to the fabulous tea country and down the other side to Tissa, and then finishing off our tour at Unawatuna where we experienced the best swimming ever. When we were in Kandy, we went to the lovely Peradeniya Botanic Gardens where we encountered lots of students who were up from Colombo.

The students were curious where we were from and we told them that we were from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The students asked us why our Canadian government is financially supporting the Tamils. We were all shocked that this is what they thought was true. I am personally going to contact my member of parliament and hopefully set this record straight. We were on our way to the airport last week and passed the train station only two hours before the bombing. We are all sorry to hear this dreadful news and our sympathies go out to all the people of Sri Lanka. I want you to know that I will continue to sing the praises of your country and hopefully some day there will be a peaceful solution. I want to return to beautiful Sri Lanka soon, it is a shame that you are so far away from here otherwise I would make it an annual trip!!!!

Jill Purdy

Canada

The Billion worth query

Let me answer Mr. Marapona's query about the size of Billion and the related confusions. The frequently used words in counting in our part of the World are Lakh which is a derivative of Lak from Urdu or Hindi which is the same as Lakshaya, and Crore which is also a derivative of Karore of North India which is Kotiya in our dialect. Million and Billion were not used here before and it came from the West.
The localized words are respectively Miliyanaya and Biliyanya.
The numerical values of these terms are
Lakh (Lakshaya) One Hundred Thousand 100,000 ,000
Million Ten Lakhs 1,000,000,000
Crore (Kotiya) Ten Million 10,000,000,000
(But the term Billion there are Two values )
Billion (UK) Million Million 1,000,000,000,000,000
Billion (US) Thousand Million 1,000,000,000,000
But in Mathematical Standardizations it has been adopted to have Thousand Million and Billion (US) (ignoring the Lakh,Crore and the UK Billion) We are aware that these standards are Included In Mathemetical and related curricula of our children

Badurdeen A.Azeez

Wattala

Honesty so rare must be appreciated

It was late. I had just finished a round of shopping for the coming week and was relaxing at home, when I noticed that my gold bracelet was missing .

A search of the house was of no avail. Then I telephoned the supermarket I had shopped at Park n' Shop, Kohuwela. To my utmost relief they said 'your bracelet is here. Come with the receipt to claim it.'

I was introduced to the sweeper, a young man, B.A. Shantha Kumara who had found the bracelet and handed it over to the management.

Shantha Kumara's honest deed must be recognised and appreciated.

Sandi. V

That disgusting jubilee litter

I was one those who braved the crowds and the dust to visit the Golden Jubilee exhibition at the BMICH in February. I was amazed to see such large numbers, particularly school children from distant places who had come to share in this celebration. Walking through the exhibition grounds, I couldn't help feeling that we had somehow, somewhere down the line lost the art and the skill of putting up a grand show. Where was the expertise that we had developed over many years of Gam Udawa exhibitions (although it is true that we have not had one for nearly 5 years)? Occasionally this was evident; it was good to see the Gam Udawa train back in operation in the show grounds.

I actually wish to highlight something that really disturbed me. The litter on the show grounds had to be seen to be believed. Paper cups, plastic bottles, lunch packets, polythene bags - it was utterly disgusting. They were strewn all over and piles of it in some places because there were no bins provided or not enough of them and those that were available were overflowing. This was supposed to be an educational experience to those who came, but it seemed as though the thousands of children who came were encouraged to have their meals and drinks and throw the left overs and garbage; what an educational experience.

The toilets told another sorry story. After 50 years of freedom we are unable to use public toilets and leave them in a state that others could use them thereafter. We need a major public awareness campaign in this area. There is a useful Korean example about educating people in public toilet usage. Perhaps our planners would care to find out.

Eksith Fernando,

Dehiwela.

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