Over to you Mr. IGP...

By Prasad Gunewardene

The exact point is Kurusa Kanuwa Junction, Moratuwa. The location covers the roads and by-lanes leading to St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa on one side. On the other side are the lanes and avenues adjoining St. Joseph’s Church. This area is reigned and ruled by thugs, thieves, prostitutes and hermaphrodites. What causes more fear at nights to the residents is that the fixing of the ‘Circuit Breaker’ to the modernised electricity reading meters by the Ceylon Electricity Board. This has given easy way to robbers. They switch off the ‘Circuit Breaker’ before embarking on the mission.

In this area there are many so-called “Tourist Lodges”. Registration of some of these hotels are only known to those who operate them. With the sun-rise, prostitutes and pimps haunt the area. Even teenaged students are not spared. Towards the evening, hermaphrodites make the church parapet wall their resting places till older men arrive in cars to pick them up for ‘beach’ rides. Thugs force themselves into private gardens under the pretext of asking for water or to wash their feet to monitor households. They operate hand in hand with robber gangs.

Residents frequently telephone the Moratuwa police. The response is...”OIC not in”.....”No vehicle to come”.....”We will come later”. Over a period of time this has been the practice of the police.

Last week, a thug on a push-cycle forced himself into a house at Holy Cross Avenue (the lane by the church) to demand water. When the occupant refused access to the garden tap, the thug had left saying, “We’ll look after you in the night”. Her husband is disabled and the sons live elsewhere. The same night there had been an electricity failure in her house around 1.30 am. When she had looked out of the window she found that only her house was in the dark. She had called the police. The answer was-’ no vehicle available to come’. Then she had called the CEB sub office. They had arrived within minutes to find that someone had switched off the ‘Circuit Breaker’ fixed on to the meter.

Later, she found that two window panes had been removed in a room. The timely arrival of CEB men had saved this aging couple. The modernised Electricity Meter Reader is a danger, these residents complained to the Sunday Observer. These residents are unhappy over the attitude of the Moratuwa Police. They have now pinned their hopes on the new Inspector General of Police, Victor Perera.