Readers thoughts Woes of the Colombo City

The digging ‘culture’ of the Water Board in the Colombo city except on main roads, are terrible. In case a main road is dug, a solid repair is done for fear of being questioned by the higher authority. All by-roads, lanes, passages etc. are dug for laying pipe lines and are not closed and tarred properly. After a rain the earth gets loosened and they become somewhat a ‘shallow drain’. They do a shoddy repair without caring about the nightmare of the motorists. As our VIPs do not use these roads, they are unaware what a great inconvenience the people of such areas are undergoing.   

Apart from that, it is the duty of the area engineers of the Colombo Municipal Council to inspect their respective areas, whether the roads are safer for the tax payers. But they are least worried. Those engineers are never questioned by any higher authority of the CMC or the Local Government.   

Just after a rain we could see ‘ponds’ on the roads for several weeks and no action will be taken to find where the blocks are and clear the stagnated water. 

 
To make things worse, in the name of city development, pavements are dug and left as they are for months. When the new mayor assumed duties we thought the CMC would work in full swing and would give surprise visits to project sites to check their improvements, negligence and the like. But seems to be attending to the opening of trivial matters, distributing of books or something, without caring about the convenience to the residents and pedestrians.   

So many street lights are not functioning in the city for many number of months. Except for a couple of high-mast lamps, all others are totally out. I think, as they are high, the authorities could not raise their heads and see for themselves. Nonsense! If the Street Light Unit attends one full week repairing them from zone one to zone fifteen, within four months all the dark areas could be seen bright at night. Here too who is checking the duties of the Street Light Engineer. The regretful matter is even if informed by phone or letter of a repair needed for a malfunctioning lamp, nobody cares.    Last but not least. There is an unused, bigger steel post planted decades ago on the middle of a 3-foot pavement at Mahavidyala Mawatta, Colombo.13 (closer to Kingsley Theatre). As it is an obstacle for the free movement of the pedestrian, I wrote to the authorities as follows. There is a similar one near the Water Tank.   

01st Letter to Commissioner (CMC) on 18.07.2016 (Regd No.83441)   
02nd Letter to Electrical Engineer (CMC) on 16.08.2017 (R/No. 6956)   
03rd Letter to Minister, Local Govt. on 05.02.2018 (R/No.0943)   
04th Letter to Minister of LG again on 04.06.2018 (R/N. 8609)   

Almost two years and ten months have elapsed, and still it stands there waiting for an opportunity to grab an innocent life! Surely, on that day the authorities concerned are answerable for it. At least, will this letter be effective?   

‘Man of Action’ late Ranasinghe Premadasa comes to my mind when I come across negligence of the state institutions, specially of the CMC.   

Nazly Cassim
Colombo 13.