|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Tuesday, 26 February 2002 |
 |
|
 |
Letters | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Sports Obituaries
|
It has been reported that the last public examination for recruitment to the Foreign Service has or is to be cancelled on account of certain representations made to the Government. Seventeen were to be recruited and those seventeen would without doubt file Fundamental Rights cases in the Supreme Court claiming that they are being denied entry for frivolous reasons without a full inquiry in to the matter. Coming as it does so close on the heels of the Supreme Court decision in the Police case, one might be forgiven for thinking that the same thing has happened again, In fairness to the officers concerned an impartial inquiry should be instituted immediately before the Government takes any precipitous action which would without doubt result in fundamental Rights cases being filled by the seventeen who have been selected. Such action would without doubt have adverse consequences for the country. From all reports it is indeed a curious situation. Applications had been called for and an exam had been conducted by the Department of Examinations. Interestingly though, it is the Ministry which knows best the type of Cadet they are looking for, the Ministry had not been consulted on the areas, that should be covered in the question papers, as is the usual practice. However, that may be, what is of interest is that though only 17 were to be recruited (under normal circumstances five times that number would be interviewed) over 200 candidates had been called for the interview. The Interview Board had comprised of five senior Secretaries of Ministries. As is the practice the marks obtained at the a written examination had not been made available to the interview board. The practice is for the interview marks to be sent to the Department of Examinations where the interview marks are added to the exam marks and the consolidated list sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It must be said, to the everlasting credit of former Minister Kadirgamar that since he came into office there was no interference in selection. He more than anyone else sought to create a thoroughly professional Foreign Service. Considering the embarrassing record of political interference in recruitment during the Hameed years, it does not auger well for a new UNP government to be seen to intervene on the basis of mere hearsay. The integrity and professionalism of the Foreign Service which are pre 1978 and post 1994 values must be safeguarded. The Government should, before cancelling the previous examination, hold an inquiry at the highest possible level with men of integrity forming a Board of Inquiry before taking any precipitous action to cancel the last selection. Any Investigation or Inquiry need not take more than two days of their valuable time. CC - via e-mail
Apropos the article on above (DN Feb 15), while agreeing with the views expressed therein, I wish to mention that among the urban poor, expenditure on account of food gets a position of priority lower than expenditure on clothes,shoes and the like, just to " keep up with the joneses" as the saying goes. Quite often T.V. programs in the morning hours after breakfast, extol the need to include meat, fish and eggs in the diet of children, quite unmindful of the fact that vegetarian meals are nutritious. This line of advice is taken by allopathic medical personnel in this country, turning a blind eye to views to the contrary expressed in journals of repute concerning allopathic medicine. Dissemination of such advice in question and answer T.V. shows is of benefit to the trade in non-vegetarian food and to the detriment of the well being of people who do not read but get themselves glued to the T.V. shows. Furthermore, medicine is not the exclusive preserve of practioners of allopathic medicine, which impression is conveyed by inference. There are instances where cow's milk is not good for some children,who may find goat's milk the appropriate substitute. Vegetable gruel is desirable as a food and need be taken on an empty stomach. But, introducing it into food provided for children whilst being in school is questionable and I feel it has made "Kola Kenda" as vegetable gruel is often called a joke. Multi-national commercial enterprises may reap the benefit of such exercises. If parents adopt life-styles based on meeting actual needs and not to satisfy wants created by others,it will go a long way to ensure the intake of nutritious food and keep children healthy. Of course, the lead by example must come from the top strata that set the trends. ALBERT P. WICKRAMASINGHA - via e-mail
Roads are being opened to Jaffna and other areas held by the LTTE but the highway adjacent to the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy remain closed to traffic. All entreaties have fallen on deaf ears as the inconvenience and unnecessary expenditure incurred by the average road user to go round the lake due to this ineffective restriction, is not felt by the custodians of the Shrine. These people and their kith and kin have passes and use the road with a great show of their pomp without feeling the pinch of the cost of fuel and waste of time. The police are helpless with more vehicles than roads in Kandy. D.B.T. - Kundasale
I cannot help but compare the development of the Ridgeways of the Royal Colombo Golf Club with the immense development of the Cricket Grounds in Dambulla. Thilanga Sumathipala a positive man of vision set his eyes on Dambulla and progressively hastened the completion of a test arena which many including visiting cricketers observed was a smart and rewarding undertaking showing tremendous prospects of being extremely fruitful in the not too distant future. Colombo has two Test venues. Galle is positive but as Asgiriya has very doubtful weather patterns Dambulla in the dry zone would be an excellent addition. These four locations should bring Sri Lanka pride and recognition. I do not know the politics involved and what's transparent and what's opaque but I spare no time for those who behave critically without any base and show no reasons for their resistance to Dambulla being a test venue. I am now looking forward to the day when Dambulla and its neighbourhood will provide a Jayasuriya, Jayawardena, Vas or Murali and then. I hope I will be around to see those same critics who write and speak a lot of rubbish hang their heads in shame. I was delighted to see an important engagement there just recently when Kenya played our A Team. Having read the description of play and spoken with a few who witnessed the game, I have no doubt that the turf was blemish free and a tribute to Kumar Boralessa, the Turf Specialist. I trust the BCCSL will nurse this turf and its surroundings with purpose and care and give it the standard it richly deserves. Tita Nathanielsz - Kalubowila
Most Elders depend heavily on the Monthly Interest paid by Banks on their Fixed Deposits. These Interest Rates are fast decreasing, driving many an elder to penury, against spiralling cost of living; not to mention medication attendant with ageing. We implore of the new Government to be apprized of this situation and give these Elders some relief. Many receive a lump sum EPF, ETF & Gratuity payment at end of their employable service, and which after meeting whatever balance loans and obligations, are placed in Fixed Deposits. All Elders are not necessarily Pensioners. It is understood that in certain countries there are Special Interest Rate Schemes for the Fixed Deposits of Elders. We the Elders shall be grateful to the new Government if such a scheme is launched. To avoid misappropriation of such a Scheme several simple steps could be taken to avert. To name a few * Open Accounts on proof of identity of the elder and his spouse, and authenticity by age, - the N.I.C. could be used. * Relate Fixed Deposits to a sliding scale of interest rates, say in slabs of Rs. 200,000/=, with first slab drawing the highest rate of interest, say around 22%. * Decrease the Interest Rates by say, 2%, for every additional Rs. 200,000/= slab. * Limit the Fixed Deposits under this scheme to 5 such slabs, with any surplus being subject to the normal current interest rates as applicable. If need be fix the term applicable to a deposit to say, 2-3 years, subject to review. Please adopt this as another practical measure that alleviates the suffering of the Elders. E. D. W. JAYAMANNE - Mount Lavinia
Some Tamil and Sinhalese community leaders in Melbourne have gathered to form a working group (WG) to assist the Peace negotiations currently being launched by the Sri Lankan Government and LTTE. Formation of this WG is a result of a series of negotiations undertaken in October - November 2001 between some Tamil and Sinhalese leaders. The WG agreed to launch a series of activities to educate Sri Lankans in Melbourne through radio programs and newspapers, and to counter mis-information campaigns. Initially, the WG will launch some programs to provide assistance to North-East as a "Gesture of Goodwill". Sinhalese moderates agreed to assist this program through some Sinhala tele-dramas and films already scheduled to be screened in Melbourne. A radio announcement was broadcast on 11 Feb in ZZZ Sunday Sinhala Radio (8:00 am to 10:00 am) with regard to this project. Tamil community has expressed their appreciation to those Sinhala leaders attached to the ZZZ Sinhala radio. NALIN EDIRISINGHE- Melbourne
I draw your attention on a news item (DN Feb. 18) written by H. A. E. de Silva. I wish to give my clarifications on the issues raised by Mr. Silva. According to the news item the cashew subsidy scheme was suspended since 1999, but this is totally wrong information. The new cashew subsidy scheme was introduced in the year 1997 with Rs. 3,500 per acre for 8,500 acres in a year. Again this subsidy was increased up to Rs. 9,500 per acre from year 2002. Under new scheme cashew growers can obtain subsidy for their lands up to 50 acres. I assure you that no officer of the Corporation has said that 'Treasury is not releasing funds for subsidy payments'. The Corporation is providing plants for the cultivation under subsidy scheme and under which no payment should be made by the growers. Under subsidy scheme, subsidy holders should get the seedlings from the Corporation's nurseries. In addition to the cashew subsidy scheme, anybody interested in cashew cultivation can purchase the cashew plants from our nurseries. We are not making huge profits by way of selling our plants at a higher rate as stated by H. A. E. de Silva. Since 1995 cashew export has been declined due to high local consumption. That is the reason that export has been dropped. Please refer following data in this matter. Import of raw cashew is a temporary measure until local production will be increased. Cashew exporters are insisting that raw cashew import should be allowed to keep the export market constantly. Y. G. WIJERATNE ,General Manager,Sri Lanka Cashew Corporation
There was a proposal by the previous PA government to reintroduce death penalty as the deterrent punishment for homicide, because of the increase in killing innocent men, women and children, whether they are kith or kin, in the most gruesome manner sans human feelings of compassion towards the innocent victims. As a positive approach to this menace of inhuman conduct, it was thought that death penalty, once re-introduced, would be the best solution to such criminal behaviour, sometimes on the principle 'tit for that' (retaliation). In Sri Lanka, the suspension of capital punishment (death sentence) for a period of three years, was passed in the House of Representatives on May 17, 1956, when the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) government, headed by the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike came into power as Prime Minister. When he was assassinated on Sept 26, 1959, the Caretaker Prime Minister, the late W. Dahanayaka, repealed the suspension of capital punishment, by Act passed in the House on No. 24, 1959. The last to hang was Embilipitiye Chandradasa alias 'Honda Papuwa" (Good Heart), on June 22, 1976. Thereafter, no one was hanged and the gallows rusted on its hinges. Today, all criminals sentenced to death are on the Death Row but serving a term of life imprisonment, as the next alternative. Legally they have to be hanged on a directive by the President. ARYADASA RATNASINGHE - Mattegoda
I wish to make the following suggestions which would provide some degree of immediate relief with No Expenditure to the CEB either in terms of Time or money. (1) Waive all customs duties, GST, N.S.L. and other duties on CFL Bulbs and get the CEB/CWE/STC (in addition to Private importers) to immediately import sufficient stocks of CFL bulbs. (2) In the Budget to be introduced next month increase the duty on incandescent bulbs to make the purchase of such bulbs prohibitive. (3) Announce as a policy decision to phase out the import of incandescent bulbs after about 2 years or so. (4) In the case of the local manufacturers of incandescent bulbs give them B.O.I. concessions and a soft loan from A.D.B. funds or elsewhere to enable them to convert their factories to manufacture CFL bulbs within one year or so. (5) In the case of dealers carrying stocks of CFL bulbs imported paying duty suitable fiscal arrangements to be made to enable such stockists to seal such bulbs at the duty Free price and to obtain a duty rebate from the customs for the duty paid by them at the point of import. If the above measures are implemented immediately there should be a drop of about 30% of the total energy consumption among Domestic households-offices and work places and thereby obviate the need for the purchase of expensive power plants which would in any event take a year or two to manufacture. A. O. R. FERNANDO- Kandy
Adverting to the title to your front-page photograph (DN Jan. 31), one may doubt the very existence of any 'Road Rules' in Sri Lanka. A pedestrian who walks on the pavement or attempts to cross the road (even at a pedestrian crossing), may seriously doubt the existence of such laws. Along Galle Road, it is fashionable to cross the road anywhere, except at the pedestrian crossings. Could not the service personnel and police, (now in less active service), be deployed at these crossings, on a random, rotational, time and place basis, to apprehend those ignoring the Road Rules. The element of surprise, would net in most of the law-breakers. Impound the National Identity Card or the Driving License of the errant road users and levy a suitable fine of not less than Rs. 50/= to be paid at a Post Office and the Money Order produced at the Police Station to retrieve the impounded document. That irksome bother alone shall be an effective deterrent and promote road discipline. Those that fail to slow down/stop at crossings, the pedestrians crossing outside the pedestrian-crossings, those parking vehicles on pavements, and vendors and traders that encroach the pavement to stack their wares, must all be within this purview. This could be one practical step taken by the new Government to ease the agonies. D J - Mount Lavinia
The authorities should seriously consider the contribution of Raja de Silva of Dehiwala to the Readers' Mail (DN Feb. 12) and a reasonable redress should be granted to the employees of the private sector. It is a well-known fact that some businessmen do not reveal their real incomes to the Income Tax Department. Some have doubts as to whether some of the Legal Luminaries, Private Tuition Masters. Consultant Doctors and many other freelance professionals also belong to this category of businessmen. Through this ruse they pay very small amounts to the government coffers as income tax whereas they actually ought to pay much larger amounts. Or they evade paying any income tax at all. High officials in the Government and Members of Parliament including Ministers and Junior Ministers, drawing comparatively large salaries and enjoying handsome perks at the expense of the tax payer are themselves exempted from paying income tax. But an employee of the private sector has to pay income tax under the PAYE scheme if his or her salary is more than Rs. 12000/= per month. What can a man with a family to with a salary of Rs. 12000/= when the cost of living is already very high and skyrocketing regularly and fast. DAJA - Battaramulla.
|
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
