Over to you Minister of Irrigation and IGP

The signboard erected by the Irrigation Department at the north-end of Kandy lake specifies the date of completion of the clearing programme of the Kandy lake. However, though, the dateline has elapsed, the rehabilitation is not even a quarter completed.

The stream that fed the lake from the hills at Periswatte, through the Mahamaya Girls’ College, playground is now a deep death trap. The pathway provided from one side of the lake to the other side opposite Mahamaya College Auditorium too has given way at the point of discharge of the water of the stream to Kandy lake.

The playground is now one heap of earth mounds with trees growing indicating the period of neglect. Schoolchildren of both Mahamaya Girls’ College and D.S. Senanayake College, situated beside the lake are denied usage of the playground.

The walk path around the lake too is repaved only in parts. The trees that have fallen into the lake have not been removed. Opposite the Buddhist Publication Society, just by the bend of the road are two huge trees, that kiss the vehicles that take the turn.

These two trees have to be removed immediately. Most of the trees around the lake are aged and falling down. There is no scheme to plant new trees.

The most ugliest scene that the seats around the lake are places for romantic pursuits of the young and this scenario, is most inappropriate as the walk path is used by children attending schools, devotees to Dalada Maligawa, and other senior citizens for their constitutionals.

The stretch of the walk path from opposite the Queen’s Hotel to the Police post has become the selling point of book marks and young girls and boys with tills coughing up coins for some unknown objectives. The residents feel that they are engaged in collecting money for anti-social activities or for the purchase of drugs.

It is high time the Police took these young men, who also enter buses with tills in the guise of University students and collecting money for some Kala Ulela as a pretext. In case these new breed of collectors are taken into custody, the Police would be able to bust a huge racket.

Rohan L. Jayatilleke
Kandy