• LTTE-consummate liar on Air Force bombings

• Uniflow system in Colombo welcome

• Human Rights Watch

• Commemorative holidays

• Why this discrimination to the surveyors?
  
  
  LTTE-consummate liar on Air Force bombings

CLEVER lying has been developed into a fine art by the LTTE. This is particularly seen after an Air Force bombing sortie.

On every single such occasion, the TamilNet creates civilian casualties. This is obviously intended for the international community and the casualties reported are so cunningly put that many seeing this manufactured news may be convinced that the bombing are solely for the purpose of targeting civilians.

If any reader with a sufficiently developed intellect will ask himself the question - is the Air Force spending millions of rupees on each bombing raid, risking the lives of its trained pilots, risking very costly planes for the sole purpose of killing 10 - 15 civilians?

Why should the Air Force send costly planes into the air to kill civilians from the air as it could be done so much easier on the ground and at much less cost and risk. Or is it that the Air Force bombs carefully avoid Tiger targets but go in search of civilians! How daft can the LTTE be.

Has it been observed that on every occasion that the Air Force bombs, there are no terrorist casualties or damage to terrorist installations, but solely civilian casualities. Was there a single occasion that the LTTE admitted casualties of their cadres or destruction of installations?

How many readers examine the LTTE reports critically, especially when the media also gives headlines to the Tamil-Net reports. It is high time Keheliya Rambukwella gives wide publicity to this feature at a media conference. The patently false picture created must be vividly explained.

S. L. P. - Boralasgamuwa

Uniflow system in Colombo welcome

CONGRATULATIONS! DIG Traffic, Police Department, Colombo Municipal Council and the Road Development Authority for introducing a uniflow system in Colombo after many years.

Uniflow is seen in Fort/ Kandy for over a decade. Uniflow is common in crowded cities of the world where flyovers are not available.

Let's go a step further. Remove the Center Median. Resurface all Uniflow roads with just 50 MM of Premix rolled down to 30 MM as done in other countries.

In this country Resurface is a big exercise as 200 MM is laid with a very inferior Premix, which corrugates due to heat as the size of Grit is too small and Density is insufficient.

The CMC/RDA officials must observe the road surface of the intelligent world.

Construct busbays on left side making it compulsory for buses to drive in to busbays for loading and unloading without obstructing the uniflow.

Make bus only lanes as in Bangkok keeping sufficient room for a bus to overtake a parked bus in a busbay. Have only two bus stops for one KM stretch of the road.

Install synchronized colour lights for pedestrian crossings overhanging on centre of road that operate on request 2 per Kilometer, 50 Meters away from Bus Stop.

Colour lights must be timed to be Red, sufficient for a person to cross from one side to other briskly. This is how pedestrian lights work in other countries.

All pedestrian colour lights in this country are Red for too long for vehicles and most drivers discard the respect for pedestrian colour light.

Make the diameter of colour lights minimum 25 cm to be visible.

Most colour lights of this country are too small and the brightness is not enough to draw attention. Have colour lights with timers at pedestrian crossings for pedestrians.

Make all vehicle lanes other than bus lanes 1.8 meter.

Keep a sidewalk of minimum two meters on either side of the road to enable pedestrians to walk freely without obstructions jutting out from shops, restaurants tyre / cycle repair shops etc.

Get rid of Lottery booths and small unauthorized set ups on sidewalk. CMC, RDA must be vigilant and free from political interference to keep the sidewalks for pedestrians and not for business.

Enforce no parking of any vehicle inclusive of bicycles on sidewalk.

Have shade trees planted on either side of the road and maintained to grow straight to a minimum height of 16ft above ground and then branch out. Keeping minimum 50 cm breathing space for roots. I have seen MCs of Korea wash the trees and leaves during summer.

Most countries that have winter special grooming of roadside trees are done.

This is how trees are maintained in countries with intelligent officials. Our Local Authorities are famous for cutting down trees planted by the British. Not planting and maintaining.

Let's make Colombo a better place to live, work, drive, walk and pollution free.

TISSA - via email

Human Rights Watch

It appears the New York based Human Rights Watch and related organisations avidly watch Sri Lanka and keep a close count of the innocents who die in bombing and general warfare.

The Government of Sri Lanka is not at war with the Tamils or even with the LTTE. The Government being a Democratic Force has to defend every citizen from violence.

Bombs and bullets do not distinguish between the terrorist and the neutral innocent Tamil. The LTTE provokes by bombing and gunning to draw out the Armed Forces.

If the Security Forces do not retaliate they would be sitting ducks.

The LTTE schemers have successfully drawn out Brad Adams and Yoko Akasaka who may at the end recommend a UN Peace Keeping Force for Sri Lanka.

If that happens, Prabakaran and his cohorts would have won the battle for Eelam, and the North will be torn asunder from the South.

The North hopes to draw in the East where they have no clout. If anybody has, it is the majority Muslim and the lesser Sinhalese of the East.

Surely Adams and Akasaka have heard of the devastation in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Somalia, in the hope of ferreting out just one individual, named Bin Laden.

What wanton genocide! All for Petroleum and to keep the US Arms Industries afloat.

Against that ridiculous destruction of life the Government has to defend life and infrastructure which the LTTE is all out to destroy. It will be the farming community that will have to bear the brunt of it.

The UN should not be blind to the heinous, criminal, cruelty of the USA; But speak out loud.

Stanley WEERASEKERA - Dehiwala

Commemorative holidays

I write with reference to Dr. Sirisena's letter of January 11, 2007.

I presume Dr. Sirisena is a Medical Practitioner with wide practice.

It is disappointing to note that Dr. Sirisena has failed to observe that on Full Moon days.

1. Mental patients become more violent.

2. Asthmatic patients suffer greater discomfort.

3. Water bags burst to bring forth the offs-pring sooner than expected.

4. Patients with history of snakebites show higher degree of pain compared to incidence on normal days.

The gravitational effects of the Full Moon brings in its wake health hazards to all living beings.

The water content in the seas, rivers, lakes in plants and animals is absorbed by the full moon and drastic changes occur in these systems, so much that Eastern systems of Medicine like Ayurveda do not permit use of prescription for normal use on Poya days.

Violence in animals and human beings increase on Poya days and for this reason Poya day is unsuitable for normal activity such as Agriculture and allied trades.

Hence the Poya day has been observed as a holiday for thousands of years in the East and found more suitable for meditation and religious activity. Sunday is observed as a holiday due to our Colonial past.

So, let us have the Full Moon day as a holiday reserved for religious activity. Presidents and Prime Ministers have been trying their utmost to change the system of Poya Holidays due to pressure from the Mercantile Sector time and again and have been informed of the reasons for Poya Holiday by eminent Buddhist clergy and had no hesitation to abandon the idea without much fuss.

Let not any one advice the President to change the system now.

There is no special reason to have Sundays as holidays and is observed from the time when Empires flourished. Empires come and fade away but the Sun and Moon will endure forever.

S. SUGATHAPALA - Mount Lavinia

Why this discrimination to the surveyors?

The surveyors (Land surveyors) and the valuers (Valuation surveyors) are doing integrated service in this country.

The valuers are valuing the properties according to the survey plans prepared by the surveyors.

The State banks and the private banks in this country are advancing loans for various purposes by obtaining the survey plans on which they are doing the valuation and effecting the Mortgage Bond for the loans as per the survey plans.

But the valuers are allowed to do private practice in his country and almost all the valuers in the Government Valuation Department have registered in the Sate banks (Bank of Ceylon, Peoples Bank, National Savings Bank and etc.) and Private banks (Hatton National Bank, Commercial Bank, Sampath Bank, Seylan Bank etc.) as panel valuers earning extra income from private practice.

At the same time, the Government surveyors are also doing a similar type of technical work in the Government Service but not given licence to do private practice while in the service.

Therefore we request the Director of the Public Service to eliminate this discrimination between the Government Surveyors and the Government valuers and allow the surveyors also to do private practice by issuing survey plans to the banks.

SATKUNAM - Trincomalee