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Morning Spice by
Ginger Now E.P.F. since it was introduced was perhaps quite a boon to those outside Government Service. The private sector to a large extent played a secondary role as an employer except for the plantation sector and summary justice and the law of the jungle were the order of the day except with the more reputed commercial and industrial concerns in the country. The E.P.F. was welcomed by all and sundry in the smaller places as they were sure of some sort of income when their working careers ended. However things change with time and E.P.F. will have to be looked from another angle as well. The drawback about E.P.F. is that it could only be drawn once someone reaches a certain age or in exceptional circumstances. Todays economy has undergone such a change that once some one serves a working unit for some time that individual acquires certain skills and know-how that permit many employees to strike out on their own. What they often lack is a little working capital to get started and it is at this stage that they should be allowed to draw their E.P.F. or in the alternative hypothecate it to the bank and get the full value of their E.P.F. and pay only the interst they receive at the time of withdrawal. In any case if one wants to leave the services of an employer he should not starve till he is fifty-five. Go in for exercise machine The main thing about an exercise machine is that you have to get the right machine and get the maximum benefit from it for your investment. All machines don't burn your calories at the same rate. The treadmill for instance burns them faster than any of the others then comes the stair stepper, followed by the rowing machine but the cycle burtheeast. Test matches We need a good pair of fast bowlers no doubt. However we don't breed the type of men that make good fast bowlers all the time and that is why we should be on the look out for a regular right arm leg spinner. Upul Chandana is good on his day but he does not get much spin on the ball. We need someone who can make it bite or spin enough to beat the bat. While endorsing fully the views of the Train Traveller Kandy and Wimal Kulatunge of Gampola appearing in The Island of 26.9.98 where the former refers to the Railway track and the latter to the train service between Kandy and Nawalapitiya. I wish to express my views too having served in the once safe way the then Railway. None is so blind and deaf as those who have eyes and ears but do not see and hear. All letters written by people who really love the country seemingly goes unheard unseen. Seeing is believing, therefore I request any high official MP or Minister to travel by the observation saloon Kandy to Colombo and Galle to learn the exact condition of the rail track and coaches. Passengers get jolted to such an alarming extent, they leave their seats and stand or move into the luggage portion of the Brake Van to reach the destination with all the limbs intact. The defects on the coaches are numerous due to the utter negligence of those directly responsible for their maintenance and upkeep this in addition to a bad track leaves the doors wide open for derailments and disasters. The controllers and station masters are as helpless as the train crew. They are all sandwiched between the desruptive elements of all political party trade unionists who will not hesitate to show that might is right. The passengers are guided by the Time Table, therefore their grievances are genuine. It is up to the Running Shed staff to put all their shoulders to this big wheel in order to make it turn smoothly. What is the exact position of Loco Foremen today? They are scared to report a worker as they fear repraisals immediately and or after, which could either be physical or political harassment, all these started with the introduction of the thrice accursed political trade unions by all political parties - a shortsighted policy, which has only made the tail to wag the dog. Unless this trend - lawlessness intimidation and insubordination which is the root cause of political interference is arrested early, it will prove to be a costly faux-pas to both major political parties. It is time they did some soul searching on behalf of the people of this country. D. Ranaweera A state-owned newspaper of the 28th September reported that Dr. G. L. Peiris, Minister of Justice and Mr. Tyrone Fernando, had, in the course of the debate in Parliament, on the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill on 24th September, crossed swords on the meaning of collective and ministerial responsibility. The Minister of Justice had, very correctly in my view, asked what Mr. Fernando was doing at the time when Attorney-at-Law, Mr. Wijedasa Liya-narachi, was brutally murdered, despite repeated entreaties by H. L. de Silva, President's Counsel, then President of the Bar Association, to the government, to save his life, when Udugampola was promoted despite the Supreme Court passing strictures on him in the Pavidi Handa case, when the policeman, Ganeshanathan was promoted and his fine paid by the Treasury despite an adverse judgement in the Vivienne Gunawardena assault case. I go along entirely with the observations the learned Dr. Peiris has made, but as a member of Avadhi Lanka, which seeks to promote public morality and civic responsibility what I would like to ask the Minister of Justice is what he did during those dark days when horrendous crimes were being committed, in complete violation of all legal and more particularly moral norms. On his own admission, Dr. Peiris has been a university teacher for 26 years. If I am not mistaken he was Vice-Chancellor of the Colombo University during that dark era. It is my view that, all professionals, teachers, especially those in Universities, bear a tremendous responsibility in ensuring that political leaders are shown the folly of their ways. It is also well-known that at that time, the present Minister of Justice, had the ear of the then UNP leadership, especially the ear of the then President of the country, the late Mr. Premadasa. Did Dr. Peiris so much as whisper to the president that many of the things his government was doing at that time, did not have, to use Dr. Peiris' own phraseology, even a 'vestige of moral justification?' I could not agree more with Miss Leela Isaac, a fellow member of Avadhi Lanka, who wrote recently, again with reference to an observation made by the Minister of Justice, that 'Lilies that fester are far worse than weeds.' Stanley Gunaratna I was horrified to learn from the media that a government minister was seeking permission for the setting up of a vast fire arms factory with the intention of arming the Sri Lankan farming community. It is said that this is vital for the protection of their crops. With the out of control poaching situation (with elephants in particular being decimated) this will surely be the final countdown of our magnificent wildlife. There is also the very real danger of weapons falling into the hands of subversives, terrorists, and criminals. Sri Lanka is a majority Buddhist state where compassion to all living creatures is still part of the common man's world view. I humbly suggest that there is a more humane method of protection for protecting farmers' crops. Instead of a gun factory let the state sponsor a complex to manufacture modern thunderflashes. Thunderflashes are very powerful fire crackers that will scare away even the most dangerous animals. They can be distributed at cost price or even free of charge to the farmers. The factory can also be used to manufacture parachute flares for the security forces (night illuminations). I appeal to the president to veto the plan to set up this dangerous weapons plant and ask the minister concerned to consider the more humane alternative. S. L. David, The claims on the plugging of Samanalawewa leak I write in connection with the prominent article written by Dr. Leslie Herath on the 22nd September 1998 misleading the common people. A 'plug' is a device to stop or block liquid flow totally. To date this leak at Samanalawewa has neither been stopped, nor reduced in the way claimed by the writer and Mr. Ganesharajah by the laying of the so called wet blanket. The money wasted by placing 250,000 cu.metres of mud into the reservoir bed designated as a 'wet blanket' has so far covered around 10 metres of the bed at those locations around 700 metres to the right on the up-stream of the dam to the detriment of the reservoir storage and generations living in the Valley below .The leak is continuing at 1800 litres /sec (or 1.8 cu.mecs.) even today. Mr. S. Ganesharajah, the Project Manager of the C.E.B. contacted me on the telephone on Friday the 25th instant referring to a letter I had written in the Ceylon Daily News of the 10th September 1998. He stated that the leak has been reduced from 2.2 cu.mecs. to 1.8 cu.mecs.- a reduction of 18 % as claimed by him. This statement while giving the lie to Dr. Herath's 'Plugging' theory, is purported to get credit for some small degree of effectiveness of the 'Clay Blanket'. The true facts, as they really are, contradict this claim. The recorded history is that when the Right Bank burst open on the 23rd October 1992 a phenomenal leak of over 7 cu.mecs. finally settled down to an average of 2.2 cu.mecs after the 13th November 1992. with the reservoir being held at a level around 430 MSL. This leakage flow was subsequently monitored by the site staff as time went by and I have some extracts of same. By the end of 1994 the fluctuating leakage flow was showing signs of slow reduction. It was averaging 2cu.mecs notwithstanding sporadic variations of the reservoir levels even higher up to 440 MSL. At the time of the landmark 'Seminar on the Samanalawewa Leak' conducted at the BMICH on the 13th January 1995, Mr. Ganesharajah in his recorded speech and the Geologist in his submission stated that the leak was 2000 litres/sec(2 cu.mecs) as at that date. After this Seminar the CEB bulldozed its way in respect of this 'clay blanket' despite local expertise suggesting alternative measures to investigate further by best available means to locate the source or origins of the leak before adopting this 'blind man's buff' called the clay blanket. What they are now doing is like firing salvos of gun fire into the waters of a large Tank with the object of random hitting a man-eating crocodile without really finding where the creature is hiding within the rocky terrain - A hit and miss exercise- at tremendous costs without any finite end in sight within the programmable future. After this Seminar in January 1995 the leakage continued to slowly and steadily decrease due to natural causes arising from facts of hydro-dynamic flows within cavernous regimes... At the beginning of 1997 the leakage fluctuated around a smaller reduced volume of 1.8 cu.mecs., that is, 1800 litres /second with small up and down fluctuations as the reservoir level varied from 430 to 442 MSL. This reduced discharge of 1800 litres would still keep slowly reducing by virtue of the natural behaviour of conduit and channel water flows to reduce itself by silt and mud accumulation with time - clay blanket or not. This 'clay blanket' came in after the fact much later in 1998. To say that the clay blanket of 250,000 cu.metres of mud laid from 1998 onwards, as blind man's buff, costing the country over Rs. 2500 Million so far, is the cause for this progressive reduction in flow is incorrect and said by self interested parties in collusion with some of those in power. To add to this fact, there is this information revealed that the Hon. Minister for Power has authorized the continuation of this exercise of clay dumping leading to further filling the reservoir by twice the previous amount over the next year or two. If this is true, this is a calamity that the engineering community having the welfare of this Country at heart find it difficult to accept in silence knowing that the powers that be have been sadly misled into this decision by a manipulating coterie of individuals challenging the wisdom and wealth of experience of the knowledgeable Sri Lankan sector of the engineering profession. In the name of rupees and sense, cannot the media please plead with the Hon. Minister to appoint an independent panel of observers to study the truth of the Claims made by the CEB and its coterie of supporters before proceeding with this wasteful exercise further??. . Eng. D. V. A. Senaratne, It was revealed in Parliament on 8.10.98 that Hingurana Sugar Industry has now fully collapsed. Over 30,000 farmer families have become destitute. All sugar related economic and agricultural activities have ground to a dead halt. Members of Parliament vociferously called for action. Although acting Minister of Plan Implementation promised to find a new investor soon, it will not be possible for any local investor to take up such a huge task in the present declining economic climate. Even if one is found, he will not succeed in the venture because of present chaos in the industry. No investor from overseas who is familiar with sugar will ever buy Hingurana under the present shoddy conditions that it has been put to under so-called rehabilitation by the current management. This is very sad indeed for, not only because Hingurana had the longest history in local sugar production dating back to Gal Oya Board days but it was an area where successive governments provided much infrastructure for the purpose. It is very sad to think of a huge factory cum distillery which can produce nearly 200 tonnes of sugar and over 9500 litres of alcohol a day coming to a grinding halt. Such huge investment just idling in a country where millions are jobless and billions of rupees are spent annually to import this basic necessity of the people is a good illustration of tragic apathy of the government. It is not only terrorists who destroy peoples property but so are governments through their incompetent appointees. A country which lets billions of worth of capital investment to idle and depreciate is certainly heading for doom. This obviously does not happen overnight. This is nothing but sheer incompetence of the top managers of Hingurana and the Ministry of Plantation Industries. Country knows it has an old and ailing minister. These are facts of life. But it should not let whole of sugar industry go sick. The track record of last four years shows that it is to demand too much from the incumbent minister to set it right. It was about 2 1/2 years ago that this industry was revested in the government with much fanfare and slogan shouting. It was said that this had been 'destroyed' by the then privatised owner and under the competent authority it will be restored to its formal glory etc. At that time it was functioning. Sugar and liquor were produced. Farmers supplied cane. There was activity in the area although there were complaints of lack of payments in time to farmers and employees. Government was quick to take over the industry for it belonged to a supporter of the previous government. But now it seemed to have boomeranged on the government itself. Its Competent Authority has done the trick. His two and half years of restoration has lead to a complete shut down of the Industry! That is the situation now. This was the main economic activity in the area. The area benefited from the annual turn over of about a billion rupees. After two and a half years of government rehabilitation and having spent millions of rupees of tax payers money, whole of Hingurana Sugar industry is now dead. Neither a grain of sugar nor a drop of liquor is produced. Farmers have become beggars with no one to turn to while over 1200 employees of the factory are being paid by the government coffers. This is the rehabilitation under the Competent Authority. His rehabilitation was to bring to a halt even the remaining activities within the last two years! Should the tax payers of this country tolerate this nonsense anymore? Two and a half years with government backing is more than sufficient period to revitalise and get in to production of an already existing industry. It is high time government took notice of its incompetent appointees before it is too late as no buyer in his proper sense would want to burden himself with an industry which has been closed down for years. The potential investor may fear that such an industry will not yield any profits for at least the next five years. I am sure this will be another sugar mill turning bitter as previously happened in Kantale. Both of these are now closed. It is the people of this country who now pay salaries of the employees of both these factories. Kantale experienced same plight in 1992. Sugar industry as a whole has declined since 1994. A pattern is now emerging that successive governments and its incompetent political appointees des-troy existing industries one by one. People have now not only to pay more for their sugar but bear the cost of keeping these redundant factories and political 'competent' authorities afloat! This is the bitter truth of sweet sugar. I do not think there are so called sugar industries of this kind anywhere in the world which do not produce a grain of sugar but exist in name only to be paid and supported by the tax payer! The government must give up from its habit of blaming everything on the past regime or the on - going terrorist conflict in the north. If the economic war is lost it will not only bring down the government but the country as a whole. It is in this context a fresh look at sugar industry is much needed. Perhaps a change of ministries with a young enthusiastic minister who could rise to the occasion to get competent people to restructure and revitalise sugar is the need of the hour. Over to you madam President. Dr. G. V. S. De Silva Appreciation It is 3 months since T.P. left us in a flash but left behind us warm and lasting memories of a dear and a helpful friend. T.P. adorned the public / private sectors as a shining example to all those who treasure hard work, honesty and devotion to duty for three decades. A man gifted with an unusual wit and humour when he had to address many a forum of Senior Management personal his wit kept audiences with roaring laughter and appreciation. I had the privilege of knowing him intimately as General Manager of State Plantation Cor-poration and me as the D.G.M. Plantations / Director of Regional Boards. In early eighties a powerful politician in the South through an officer on a plantation against whom I had initiated disciplinary action sent a petition to the then President, J.R. Jayewardene. T.P. was assigned to inquire into this matter; incidentally Government sponsored trade union (LJEWU) stood firmly by me much against the wishes of the powerful politician, a very rare phenomenon in our country. After due inquiry T.P. not only exonerated me but also went to the extent of commending me for the action taken to wipe out corruption. This amplifies that T.P. was an upright person who stood for justice and fair play, who did not do the biddings of politicians a rare quality in the present generation of public servants. During mid eighties the then Chairman of S.P.C. sent out a circular letter to the Principals of leading schools to recommend suitable senior students to be trained for a planting career. In response to this a principal of a leading school in Galle sent the name of an outstanding student as his choice, but this lad happened to be a son of a minor employee of a Government Department. His father felt his chances were remote, and having come to know me he appealed that his son should not be penalized on grounds of social deprivation. Thereupon I contacted T.P. and briefed him of the relevant facts. As anticipated by the father Board of Selection was not willing to select him because of his social background. Fortunately for the young lad T.P. happened to be on the panel and he questioned the validity of criteria of selection, in doing so he cited the case of a very able Prime Minister of similar back ground, consequently he was selected and proved to be a capable Superintendent. This shows the quality of the man, he was unique and bold enough to express his views fearlessly, which may not be palatable to some. As a Management Accountant he had no equal that I know of. The Ceylon Transport Board, which was, an ailing giant was converted into an economically viable venture within a short period of time. What is significant is that the C.T.B. being a service organisation and not a commercial undertaking of course he had the able guidance and the direction of late Mr. Leslie Goonewardane then Minister of Transport and the Hon. Deputy Speaker Anil Moone-singhe who was the then Chairman of the CTB This proves that efficient and dedicated men at the helm of affairs can turnaround undertakings for the benefit of the community without it being a burden on the country. When he was serving as G.M. of the S.P.C. his brilliance in financial management was amply demonstrated when it yielded a massive surplus in its operational activities i.e. the annual report of the S.P.C. for 1984 showed a net profit of Rs. 731 M. The published accounts of 1984 shows perhaps the strongest balance sheet as at 31.12.84 and it discloses a working capital of Rs. 985 M (almost a billion) credit must also should go to the Chairman late Mr. Kenneth Ratwatte who allowed a free hand to T.P. in the management of S.P.C. finances. Unfortunately T.P. was advices were not heeded in the subsequent years. Within a period of two years the working capital dwindled down to a low level of Rs. 160 M. T.P. had no say through sheer disgust he left the S P C. which culminated in his joining M/s Unilevers Ltd., a worldwide organisation, as their Chief Accountant Finance/Personnel Director. As a result of his acumen several public/private sector organisations sought his services and he was on the Board of over ten public corporations including the Open University and Medical Council etc. T.P. was an outstanding personality in the public / private sectors of this country. Had he lived for a few more years I have no doubt that his services would have been sought for by even organisations like World Bank or the I.M.F. His early demise is an irreparable loss to the nation. We share the great loss with his dear wife Asokie who was a tower of strength in all T.P.'s achievements and his son Chandima. We trust this appreciation will bring at least some solace to his wife, son and other members of his family. Kingsley Goonetilleke |
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