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I wish to thank the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Environment
along with the CEA for preparing laws to curb sound pollution in the
country. Sound pollution is one of the main public health issues that
has plagued Colombo in the past few years.
Exposure to noise can lead to annoyance, interference with
concentration and thought processes among students who study at night
especially, during the period of examinations. Sleep disturbance causes
fatigue, aggression, headaches, hypertension and heart disease. Sleep
deprivation can also lead to accidents and injuries, low out-put at
work.
Every day we receive numerous complaints but the existing laws were
inadequate to deal with it.
However, in the past on many occasions we had gone to courts and
obtained relief for the complainants. One of the main drawbacks was that
no immediate relief could be brought to the citizens at night time.
Residents used to contact the police with requests to intervene but
sometimes to no avail.
There are some sports and karaoke clubs which become very lively in
the evenings with stereo music especially during the week ends making
living in the vicinity impossible for the neighbours.
I also do not think any religious body should be against these laws
as all religions obviously were created to discipline the human beings
in the day to day life. India, Pakistan and Uzbekistan are some of the
countries in this region which have banned the use of loudspeakers.
DR. PRADEEP KARIYAWASAM
Colombo
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Capital punishment is given by a Court of Law after careful
consideration based on concrete evidence against any accused by learned
judges and lawyers once it is given. I cannot understand why it is not
implemented.
It is given to people who had committed serious crimes deliberately.
It is pointless keeping them in death cells spending unnecessarily on
them, as the crime rate is rising daily.
It is high time to implement capital punishment. Fix up dates and
start giving the capital punishment continuously until the punished are
over and give one day’s publicity about the implement of capital
punishment for others to know about it.
I am sure 90 per cent of the crimes will be reduced overnight and
also let public know that there will be no delay in implementing capital
punishment once the judgement is given for such, so that the imported
rope can be used before it gets decayed for the meant purpose.
No ruler will become unpopular as the results will be good so that
the peace loving people will back and commend such bold decisions, the
only way to combat crimes.
Deepal Hewavisenthi
Moratuwa
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A lot of heat has been generated by the debate between elected
Parliamentarians about luxury cars and car permits for elected
officials. The debate between elected Parliamentarians should not get
Buddhist monks upset.
I am not sure if politicians feel they are entitled to Benz cars but
there was a time leaders did not demand such prizes.
I know it is controversial to talk about the period Mrs Bandaranaike
was the PM from 1970 to 1977 because of economic hardships and food
queues but I felt that people ought to know a few things about cars
during her regime.
1. Before the 1971 JVP insurrection, she chose to go to work in her
old rickety Mercedes 180 and did not use a Government car until 1971
April.
2. After the 1971 terrorist event, her security detail felt she
needed a better car or a safer car for protection. She then started
using the Mercedes 280 that was seized from the North Korean Embassy as
a result of their involvement in the JVP insurgency.
3. After getting aid for the Non-Aligned Conference (1976) she
started using three of the vehicles that were either donated or were
sent as aid and used in the Conference. She never demanded nor imported
a brand new car for herself.
In fact, she was so strict, officials working under her had to appeal
to the Government and MPs to allow secretaries to just buy second-hand
cars from the Government stores for their use because at that time,
there were severe import restrictions (and hardships) in the country.
She may have been quite disappointed at some of the utter disregard
some who came after her had for matters like this or expenditures.
Another of her practices I recall is that she nearly always got the
Government to book economy class airline tickets for herself and her
entourages when she went abroad.
She felt that was a way to save money too. She may have been shocked
at some of the indifference to people’s time, massive expenses, high
handed allocations of property and rampant corruption that followed her
even in later SLFP led regimes.
Many were the criticisms (and fair) about economic policies but she
did lead by example. Even the ground of Temple Trees had manioc and
sweet potato planted during the food drive. I always refer to her as
true grit.
Times have changed and so have the security needs because of lethal
Tiger terrorism and their destructive bombs. Times were much simpler
then and Sri Lanka’s foreign policy as Mr Danapala said indeed were at
their zenith.
MANO RATWATTE
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