Budget 2019: All citizens are not government servants
I wish to draw the attention of the President, the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and all those involved in drafting the Budget proposals for 2019 to the basic fact that all citizens are not government servants.
A budget is meant for the whole country: for all the citizens. In every budget there have been proposals beneficial only to government servants, sidelining the rest of the citizens. In an earlier budget, the salaries of government servants were increased by Rs. 10,000. Did the government servants appreciate it and vote for the Government thereafter? On the contrary, because of the bias shown there was a sense of disgust among the rest of the community.
Parents should treat all their children equally. Similarly, the government should treat all its citizens equally. There should be no favouritism or discrimination.
Increasing salaries is not the answer, it does not help everybody. Remove or lower the taxes on daily used items like food, phones, etc and bring down the cost of living, which would benefit all.
If the present ‘heads’ cannot think of ways, bring in an innovative head who could think ‘out of the box’ and ‘out of the set track’ to deliver the goods.
M.N.de Silva
Moratuwa.
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Residence flooded due to illegal obstruction of rainwater line
It is over 10 years now since our approved rain water line has been illegally obstructed by an individual with no action being taken by the Chairman, Urban Council, Boralesgamuwa, to remove the obstruction and open up this line.
We have been appealing since March 2008 for justice and undergoing considerable damage due to this illegal unauthorized construction.
My house gets flooded whenever it rains and our lives are in danger as the rainwater which gets stagnated is weakening the foundation of my residence.
This criminal and inhumane act, illegally obstructing an existing and approved continuation of our rainwater line constitutes a grave infringement of our human rights!
Due to the stagnated rainwater in my premise:
A member of my family slipped and fell and broke her knee cap and had to undergo a lengthy and painful surgery.
Three others including a 7-year-old child have been infected with the deadly Dengue disease due to the stagnated rainwater.
Does it take over 10 years for the citizens of Sri Lanka to get justice in this country?
We urge the relevant authorities to take immediate steps to open up this illegally blocked rainwater line before another, more catastrophic incident occurs.
Shabbir Mohamedally
Pepiliyana