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| Sunday, 6 March 2005 |
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Letters |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Please forward your letters to [email protected] in plain text format within the e-mail message, since as a policy we do not open any attachments.
I was saddened to read the notice signed by Aruna Amarasekara, the Director General of the Telecommunication Commission calling for a public hearing on Calling Party Pays System. He puts out a lot of jargon without examining the basics thus insulting the intelligence of the general public. He takes great pain to justify what the Commission and its staffers in the notice describing the methodology of calculation. When the figures came out by the consultant to be credible, the raw data of costs of every operator which should have been made use of should be made public. Does the report which he made available to the public in February 21, 2005 reveal these figures? I am quite confident that in the name of confidentiality these are not made available. He invites written submissions on the acceptability of the cost model and the methodology. It should be clear to Amarasekara that no one can comment on the acceptability without the disclosure of the entire process of calculation. Madhavi Panchaligam, "An Icelander among the ceasefire monitors" I am Saman Jayawardene from Talawakelle, working in Iceland, I read all the newspapers which are on the net since I arrived here. I was delighted to read the above titled article. What the writer said was very true. This is the country of Vikings. I live in 850 km east of Iceland where the Tem. is 10-25 during winter, and the summer time lasts less than 3 months. I'm not aware of any other Sri Lankans who are working in this country as I have not been to the Capital, Rekajvik very much except when I go home every 5 months. As it was stated in the article there are many volcanoes and my company, Impregilo of Italy, is working on the largest Dam in the Nordic country. I have been here since Dec 2003. We stay in camps which are located 40 km away from the largest glacier in Europe. In our project, there are various people from all over the world (400 Portuguese, 350 Chinese, 60 Pakistanis, 5 Indians, 25 Nepalis, 2 Sri Lankans (Incidently 2 Sri Lankans are the Camp Manager and Asst. Camp Manager) and people from UK, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Colombia, Panama, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Morocco, Philippine, etc. and the nearest town is 125 km from our camp which is like Nuwara Eliya for me. I appreciate your paper very much which is the only way to get news from my lovely country. Saman Jayawardene, My sister Thanalukshmi Thurisamy who was born in Balangoda on December 24, 1938 and her birth was registered at the Kachcheri in Ratnapura. My sister now has reached the age of 65 years, who has lost her identity card, birth certificate etc. when she was in Jaffna during the conflict between IPKF and LTTE. She was displaced during this period due to the war. She cannot remember the number of the ID as well. Her husband was drawing the pension, since she has become very feeble and sick. The husband died suddenly. She has three sons and a daughter and she has the Marriage Certificate of hers and Birth Certificates of the children. Since her birth place was Balangoda, she had twice applied to Ratnapura Kachcheri to issue a certified copy of her birth certificate. The replies stated the files to be missing. This reply was not helpful to obtain an ID. As a result of this she is unable to draw her pension or vote. Virtually she has become a non-citizen. The Legal Department of the Registration of Persons too did not give me a clue on how to obtain an ID. Could the Registrar of Persons give us guidance on how to obtain an ID. K. Sivalingam, My Car registration number 32-9574. I paid Rs. 5000 diesel tax in advance for the year 2001/2002 before I went abroad. The budget of 2001 did away with the tax after my payment. On my return, I made several inquiries from the Ministry of Finance, and the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. Along with my claim I submitted a photocopy of registration, receipt of payment, insurance certificate addressing it to Commissioner of Motor Traffic. When these taxes have to be collected there is urgency to do so and perhaps penalties for any delay. Should not the refund involve a quantum of interest for the delay? Letters were sent to Commissioner of Motor Traffic on June 2, 2002, October 20, 2002 (under registered cover), June 28, 2002 and July 15, 2004. Up to date, no reply or action was taken by the Commissioner, now it's 3 years since requesting for the refund, who has the money? C. Senanayake. It was reported that three men who acted as brokers to obtain illegal visas for Sri Lankans to America had bribed two US officials who acquired sudden wealth. The US Justice Dept. had conducted a full investigation and ultimately all criminals were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment and the illgotten money confiscated. I would like to spotlight a similar incident which took place at the Embassy of Japan in Sri Lanka a few years ago. There was much talk of corruption in the Visa Section which was investigated which resulted in termination of one Mr. Luduwyke of the Visa Section along with some locals and Japanese in the Embassy who were involved. A genuine traveller is made to walk from pillar to post by the Visa Staff at the Japanese Embassy and finally rejected and no reasons were given. But some applicants with a shady past and with bad records are issued visas. Nimal Perera, |
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