Boost for public transport system

The Government’s Eastern Resurgence programme to accelerate infrastructure development, restore public utilities and community services in the liberated Province has received yet another boost with the establishment of a fully operational public transport system covering all townships and villages in the East.

According to a news item in our inside pages on Thursday, several bridges in the region destroyed by the LTTE to block transport are now under reconstruction under the Nation Building Ministry’s supervision.

It is hoped that this bridge building would extend to the hearts and minds of the communities whose relationships had been fractured over the years due to man-made barriers.

In addition, all road development activities have begun in the region and the Transport Ministry is to operate a direct bus service from Colombo to Vakarai.

Road Passenger Transport Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna has also taken steps to augment the fleet of buses in the region and is to deploy 269 buses in the East by the end of 2008 up from the current fleet of 220 buses.

This is in addition to the progress in all other sectors that had suffered during the period of LTTE domination. Transport no doubt is an essential requirement in community life especially for a population which had been under virtual seige all these years.

It is hoped that the new bus services and road development activities in the region would result in more mobility of the people out of their restricted existence and freedom of travel which was a nightmare not many moons ago.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa no doubt is anxious to provide all the facilities and creature comforts enjoyed by the people in rest of the country to the liberated Eastern population without undue delay, a point he underscores at almost all public rallies and State events.

This he reiterated during his Independence Day speech too where he emphasised the need to empathise with our Northern brethren who had undergone much suffering and privations over the years.

The President is aware that only a complete overhaul of the lifestyles and the living standards of these people would transform them from their seige mentality and make them integrate with the rest of the country and this he has undertaken to do by providing them with all the amenities and facilities enjoyed by the people in the South, which had been deprived them of all these years.

This no doubt would change their outlook and ingrained attitudes and would go a long way in assuaging the hurt feelings and suspicion implanted in them over a long period.

Hence the urgency of the President to speed up the development work in the region so that the fruits of development could be enjoyed by this segment of the population who had known nothing but sorrow and oppression under the jackboot of the LTTE terror.

The people of the East may not even be aware of the strides of progress in the world outside their orbit to which they were confined by the LTTE and it is incumbent on the Government to ensure that these hapless souls catch up on what they have missed all these years and provide them with all the necessary wherewithal so that they would successfully integrate with the rest of the polity and be part and parcel of a single community enjoying equal rights and privileges.

While improving transport, road facilities and other amenities to the East, social interaction programmes between North and South are also needed as means of reinforcing the bridge building process that is at the heart of the President’s wishes.

The upcoming Local Government elections it is hoped would signal a renaissance of the Eastern population who will be provided an opportunity for the first time in decades to elect their own representatives and have a direct hand in the affairs affecting their own interests.

This would also auger well for the triumph of democracy that was stifled all these years and for the emergence of an independent and pro-active community that would spell a harbinger for national unity and integrity.