It is all a load of tripe if you ask me!
All right... so lots of little cabbages
sprouting here, there, everywhere, do not want us mammals to consume beef.
They should sing their thanks to the Kandy Municipality, for nothing deters
the consumption of beef than the price one is forced to pay for a kilo.
The butchers of the Kandy market shrug. Oh, they will continue to sell
beef. It's what they have always done... and no, they cannot give beef
at the so-called "controlled" price of Rs. 80 per kilo.
"How can we?" they counter, "the Municipality fleeces
us. Do you know how much we have to pay for our stalls?"
There are ten beef stalls in the Kandy Central Market. The procedure
is as follows: First, there is a non-refundable tender form fee of Rs.
500 plus GST Rs. 62.50. Then, there is a refundable tender deposit which
is ten percent of the minimum bid. The deposits are as follows: Eight stalls
(Nos 155,157,158, 164, 167, 168, 172 and 175) Rs. 20,000 each. For these
eight stalls, the minimum bid each must be Rs. 200,000 plus GST Rs. 25,000.
For stall No 162, refundable tender deposit is Rs. 78,050 and minimum bid
Rs. 780,500 plus GST Rs. 97,562.50. For stall No. 163 refundable tender
deposit is Rs. 46,080 and minimum bid Rs. 460,800 plus GST Rs. 57,600.
So what have we? Butchers have paid the Municipality Rs. 3,485,092.50
and can expect in all their refundable deposits amounting to Rs. 284,130.
Now this, mind you, is the tendering. Bids can go much higher as one would
expect. Butchers have also to pay a monthly stall rental of Rs. 850 plus
GST Rs. 106.25. The duration of occupancy of stall is two years.
Let us take stall No 162. with two years rental, the butcher pays a
total of Rs. 97,962.50. He will need to sell 1,224,531 and a quarter kilos
of beef at the Rs. 80 controlled price to break even. He must also pay
for transport, labour and also put up with periodic closures of stalls
on religious occasions. He must also face the vilification of the anti-beef
brigades. And it's not that people do not eat beef. A lot of people do,
and the stall owners say that they also provide the Police kennels.
So the beef-eaters will continue to grumble. They pay too much, they
say. The butchers shrug. "The Municipality skins us," they say.
"We have no choice." Beef is now Rs. 125 per kilo if you're lucky.
Supermarkets sell at around Rs. 180. And how come, if the Municipality
makes a packet out of the stalls, there are some members who go along with
the views of the anti-beef wallahs? Strange place, this Kandy. All a load
of tripe if you ask me!
"Underneath the Heavens"
Young Milani Joseph is one of the sales team of Vijitha Yapa Bookshop,
Kandy. I suppose it is the very atomosphere of books all around her that
has drawn her to write... and she does have a mind of her own when it comes
to penning her many moods. Her poem, "Underneath the Heavens"
is included in the prestigious UK publication, "Songs of Senses"
(Spring '99 issue) which is published by the International Poetry Organization,
UK.
I am sure we all share in her happiness and it certainly does well for
this country that more and more young people are being recognised abroad
in the field of the arts. Congratulations, Milani, and keep writing.
The Badaweli Ganga
What do the undertaker establishments do with the stuff that is taken
out of a corpse that is to be embalmed? It was a sorry revelation indeed,
to be told by a prominent Kandy doctor that, in and around the Katugastota
area, human intestines and internal organs are not being disposed of in
the proper manner. There is no reason why all this must not be buried...
and yet, the horrible fact is that bags of this muck are tossed into the
Mahaweli Ganga. (And yes, it is muck, isn't it? Maybe it is all this muck
within that makes us so mucky on the outside at times!)
In Katugastota, the Rotary Club is fighting a never ending battle to
keep the town clean, green and pleasant. Even the attempt to keep the banks
of the river beyond the bridge in a state of pleasant order is constantly
sullied by the owners of eating houses and shopkeepers who dump their garbage
on the banks. Also, this green area has become a sort of community toilet.
The Rotarians have been to the authorities and have been told, rather
apologetically, that nothing should be done to upset their voters! A point
well taken. After all, what is more important? The vote of the environmental
terrorist or the health and cleanliness of a city?
Kapok into plywood
A plywood Processing Plant is to be set up at Hapugastenne Estate which
is part of the Udapussellawa Plantations Group of James Finlays Plantations
Holdings Ltd. The company has found that, besides overmature rubber, kapok,
hitherto considered of no use even for fuelwood, can be peeled for plywood
of 5mm. thickness.
the Plantation Company aims for self-sufficiency in plywood which will
do away with the need for importation of sheets of made-up tea chests.
Recently, at Yatawatta Estate, Matale, which is also a part of the Udapussellawa
Group, both rubber and kapok were felled to be peeled for plywood.
Parkers and hawkers
A recent street survey conducted by University students has revealed
that 65% of street side parking in Kandy is confined to the same vehicles,
day in and day out, where the same space is occupied throughout.
Obviously, the survey reveals, these are the vehicles of the owners
of the shops and establishments who must keep their vehicles in front of
their establishments from opening to closing time.
In asking around the shops in Trincomalee Street and Kotugodelle Vidiya,
shopkeepers have one doleful complaint. "Business is bad," they
say. They don't seem to understand that business is down because would-be
customers have no place to park.
Another funny side of the survey is that shops also permit hawkers to
set up outside their premises, and the hawkers are not to be trifled with.
Anyone daring to utilize a parking space where they do business is crisply
asked to move out. "You are blocking my business," they growl.
"Your business? Is this piece of pavement your shop?"
"Yes! So you get out!"
"And has the Municipality given you a licence of this shop of yours?"
Of course not, but then, the Municipality is like Shere Khan, a toothless
old tiger that is afraid of getting its tails singed. And so it goes on.
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