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| Sunday, 26 October 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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CMC under microscope by Carol Aloysius The quality of four of Colombo city's essential services - Health, Public Utilities, Education and Transport, for years the butt of ridicule and criticism by long suffering residents, has been put under the microscope for the first time. A trail-blazing Report Card has published an opinion poll by a selected number of residents, to alert City Fathers in Colombo of the gaps that need to be filled in these services with the hope that they will take remedial measures to give residents better services in the future. Health Long waiting queues at hospitals for treatment and to obtain medicines, (89.5 per cent) govt - 79 per cent private) inability to obtain a bed in government hospitals, ill-treatment by hospital staff including doctors in both government and private hospitals, absentee doctors and doctors not arriving on time, lack of wheel chairs and stretchers, badly maintained equipment in government hospitals, were the favourite complaints of the respondents in the area of Health. Common reasons given for visiting a government medical institute were that they were less expensive and convenient. Only 20.8% said they visited the institute because it was recommended to them. Those who sought treatment at private medical institutes did so for convenience and because they felt that they could receive better and quicker services. Education Delays in obtaining school uniforms(73.1% complained of a problem of obtaining the school uniforms),inadequate classroom space ( 29.4%) unclean schools (30.3%), unpunctual teachers(29.5%), inhuman punishments meted out to students (12.8%), lack of sports and other facilities (28.2%), inadequate lab facilities (20.7%) non-usable text books (26.1%) featured prominently in the list of grouses regarding Education. Transport In the area of Transport, residents complained mostly about overcrowded buses, not able to get a seat for the entire journey, refusal of conductors to give them tickets, failure of bus drivers to stop at regular bus stands, long delays in taking off. Respondents however paid a bouquet for the Public Utilities provided for them by their City Fathers - especially in the area of garbage clearing. Public utilities According to the Report, an overwhelming majority (84.3%) made positive comments on the regular clearance of household garbage while 63% said that the garbage on the roadside in their neighbourhood area was also cleared at regular intervals - a welcome change from the past. Road maintenance and the condition of roads - a favourite butt of criticism in the past, in a welcome turnabout, received praise from the respondents with 47.1% expressing satisfaction with the condition of roads in their neighbourhoods and 39.4% saying they were happy with the maintenance of these roads. The highest dissatisfaction with utilities however was with the current spraying operations conducted by the CMC, and the state of drainage systems in Colombo city. States the Report: "Only 18.5% of Colombo residents declared that their neighbourhoods were sprayed with mosquito repellents on regular basis, "it adds." Satisfaction was also low among the residents of the city with the drainage systems in their neighbourhoods. Only 35.8% indicated that their neighbourhoods had an adequate drainage system, while a mere 20.8% said their drains are cleaned regularly, and only 23.1% said that their drains functioned when it rained. The 611 respondents (both male and female) were aged 15 to over 66 years and drawn from various occupations and varying degrees of literacy making them a representative cross section of the population. They included executives, professionals, clerks, agricultural and fisheries workers, armed forces, housewives, retired persons and unemployed persons. The Report Card on four Essential Services in the City of Colombo was written as a public service delivery package by the Centre For Policy Alternatives with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). An interesting point that emerged from these interviews was that although most certainly upset by shortcomings, the vast majority of respondents had not bothered to make their complaints known to the authorities concerned in an official manner. This they said was because many of them felt that such complaints were `pointless', or did not know where to complain or else simply did not have the time. In the case of absentee teachers or inhuman punishments to students and lack of adequate facilities in schools, parents confessed they had opted to remain silent in case of reprisals from the teachers and school authorities where the students would suffer. The survey was conducted by Social Indicator (SI) an independent social research organisation which conducts polls on socio-economic and political issues, operating under the Board of directors of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA). Using structured questionaire and face to face interviews, it fills a long standing vacuum for a permanent, professional and independent polling facility in Sri Lanka on social and political issues, states a note on the back cover of the Report. As the Report points out," Poling is an instrument of empowerment, a means by which the silent majority of the public can express their opinion on issues affecting them". |
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