Sunday, April 30, 2017
Saturday, April 29, 2017
சமரன்: மே நாள் வாழ்க! மக்கள் ஜனநாயகப் புரட்சிக்கு அணிதிர...
சமரன்: மே நாள் வாழ்க! மக்கள் ஜனநாயகப் புரட்சிக்கு அணிதிர...: கருத்தாலும் கரத்தாலும் உழைக்கின்ற உழைப்பாளி மக்களே...!! ஒவ்வொரு ஆண்டும் மே முதல் நாளை மேதின தியாகிகளை நினைவுகூரும் நாளாக கடைப்பிடித்து ...
Friday, April 28, 2017
சமரன்: மே நாள் 2017- கழக ஆர்ப்பாட்ட பொதுக்கூட்ட அறிவிப்பு...
சமரன்: மே நாள் 2017- கழக ஆர்ப்பாட்ட பொதுக்கூட்ட அறிவிப்பு...: சென்னை - செங்கல்ப்பட்டு தர்மபுரி - பாலக்கோடு கடலூர் - நெல்லிக்குப்பம் சேலம் - மரவனேரி திண்டுக்க...
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Jaffna University students remember Meethotamulla victims
Jaffna University students remember Meethotamulla victims
A ceremony commemorating the lives of those lost in the recent Meethotamulla garbage dump tragedy was held at Jaffna University today.
The event was organized by the Arts
Faculty Students Union.
Dean of the Faculty and Students Union leader expressed condolences to those killed and lost their relatives in the tragedy.
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Forgotten people of past tragedies still await help
Salawa explosion: Angry residents blast compensation schemes
By Sandun Jayawardana
A picture of destruction: Salawa, June 5, last year. Pic by Indika Handuwala
Although the explosion of the ammunition store at the Salawa army base on June 5 last year only claimed one life, the incident damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 houses. The Government set aside more than Rs 1.2 billion for compensation.
While rebuilding continues, compensation has caused anger, with some victims having rejected estimates of property damage done by Valuation Department officials.
Sriyakanthi Godagama lived in a house near the army camp. She told the Sunday Times that authorities had compensated many but the varying amounts has caused friction.
“Some people have fallen out with others over the fact that they had received more money. Some residents have even formed separate victim associations.”
Mrs. Godagama said compensation her family received was inadequate. The family had not been able to so far move back in to their home.
Compensation for damaged or destroyed vehicles is a another troubling issue.
Ms Godagama said her vehicle, which was fairly new, suffered considerable damage. Hers was among 49 vehicles that were damaged. “We keep going to the Assistant Government Agent’s Office. But, they tell us that no money has been allocated for damaged vehicles.”
She said this was unfair as insurance companies were only paying out a small portion and they had to bear most of the cost.
S.S. Miyanwala, Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management said Rs.1,258.7 million had already been awarded as compensation for the Salawa disaster. Some 200 houses had suffered severe damage, he added. Owners of businesses have also been compensated.
Some have rejected their compensation packages. “They are not satisfied with the amounts they were awarded. Their appeals are currently being heard,” the secretary said.
Mr Miyanwala said the Ministry of Disaster Management did not handle the matter and the Finance Ministry had not made a separate allocation. He said since the vehicles were insured, it is likely that there are some complications.
Koslanda disaster: All but 30 victim families resettled
It is now two-and-a-half years since a landslide in Koslanda, Meeriyabedda left 39 people dead on October 29, 2014. The disaster left hundreds displaced — their houses and property buried. Many were later housed at the disused Mahakanda Tea Factory, which was converted into a welfare camp.
The families languished at the camp for well over a year. After several false starts, authorities finally made progress in building permanent houses. A batch of 75 houses were handed over to the families late last year.
Haldummulla Divisional Secretary Shiromi Jeewamala said the last of the displaced from the landslide were settled in the new houses on October 22, last year, almost two years to the day after the landslide swallowed large swathes of Meeriyabedda.
While all those who lost houses due to the landslide have been resettled, the Divisional Secretary said there was still an issue surrounding about 30 families who live in two sets of line rooms near the site of the landslide. The area has been designated as a ‘danger zone,’ meaning that these line rooms were vulnerable.
Authorities have advised them to move out and the Government has offered temporary shelters. However, residents have refused, demanding permanent houses, Mrs. Jeewamala explained.
Accordingly, the Divisional Secretariat has written to the Government requesting permanent houses for the displaced through the Indian housing project, implemented through the Ministry of Estates and Infrastructure Development. The residents have also agreed to move into these permanent houses once they are built. “We are hopeful that those houses would be built by the Government soon,” she stressed.
Still not out of the floody hell
By Kasun Warakapitiya
H.A Susil Priyanka: No Hope of a house even after one year
Some of them have found their own accommodation and left while others live with friends or relatives expecting to find their homes.
Two of the families still live in tents which may not last for many months.
H.A. Susil Priyanka, one of the residents who spent a year in the tent told the Sunday Times only a few tents were near the garbage dump while the rest were situated at a temple in Kelanimulla. He said that the Government gave each resident a tent and a promise of a secure house.
“I have lived here for a year now. Yet, I received no house. During that time, one by one displaced people lost their hopes and went to rent houses.”
He said that both he and his wife had to brave mosquitoes. Water seeps into the tent on rainy days and rats crawl in, too.
He claimed that he lost his furniture and what he currently had, had been donated by private organisations.
“The Government did not spend a penny on me and my wife who lost everything, our dreams of living a happy life was shattered. During the day, it is hot and at night, extremely cold. We are fed up of staying in this place, but we only have this tent,” he said.
K. Gunathilakan who lives in Kelanimulla said that the Government last year promised many solutions for the flood victims but there has been no support.
Some flood victims still live in these tents. Pix by Anurada Bandara
He said that many officials visited them from time to time and told him he would be provided with Rs 15,000 to repair the damage to his house, which had been over eight feet under water.
Mr Gunathilakan who earlier worked as an employee a the National Hospital said that he lost his furniture, television and household items but the Government had not paid compensation.
“Disaster Management officials and representatives of the Valuation Department came to collect information, but we are yet to receive any Government support,” he said.
Another resident of the same area, Sunimal Shantha, said that some of the wooden houses were swept away by the flood waters last year. He said that the Government didn’t provide compensation for the houses which were damaged.
“Rs. 15,000 compensation had been proposed. It has to be given but my house underwent more damage including severe damage to the roof,” he said.
Ariyaratne Gunathilaka, said that she and her mother left their house leaving behind valuable furniture during May 15.
“When the water receded my house had pockets of water remaining in the living room. My couch was destroyed. All the chairs had been floating in the house and were damaged,’’ she said.
She claimed that the government officials told her that they will provide her a mattress, mosquito net and other household items as well as furniture.
Ms Gunathilaka said that in the first six months she waited for the government to pay compensation for the damage to the house and furniture, yet received nothing.
“I have no electronic household items due to the flood and have no means of providing treats like iced drinks,’’ she said.
She also said that her mother who waited for compensation passed away a few months back. “I am also 67 years old and can not go to local government authorities to demand our compensation money,” she said.
She also explained that the government did not advise her to leave or provide her a house in a safer area. So she requested government assistance to repair her house.
K.G. Kalyani, who also lives in a house close to the Kelaniya river, said she received only a mattress and a mosquito net and that was all.
“My house has lost half of the roofing sheets while the walls have cracked due to the floods,” she said. He TV was destroyed in the flood.
“My son and two brothers had to buy one because we could no longer wait for the Government. The Government has forgotten us already,” she said.
Aranayake landslide victims: Buried in unfulfilled promises
By Pradeep Kumara Dharmarathna in Aranayake
Many survivors spent Avurudu in welfare camps. Pic by Saman Wijaya Hemmathagama
Hundreds of residents displaced due to the landslide at Samsara Kanda in Aranayake were compelled to spend their National New Year in welfare camps this year. There were no Avurudu sweetmeats for them. The residents spent the day in tents. Living in the shadow of the deadly mountain, they wonder when they would ever be able to move into a permanent home.
Over 4,000 people were displaced by the Aranayake landslide on May 17, 2016. Thirty-one died, while six others are still listed as missing. The landslide destroyed 72 houses. A further 288 houses suffered partial damage.
By late May, 4,291 people from 1,426 families had been displaced. They were relocated to 23 welfare camps.
The National Building Research Organisation recommended the relocation of 571 families living in the danger zone prone to landslides.
Today, almost a year after the disaster, 469 families continue to remain in either temporary tents or semi-permanent houses, according to Aranayake Divisional Secretary Z.A.M. Faizal. Only 62 houses have so far been built for the displaced. Most of the houses have been built by private foundations. The Sri Lanka Red Cross is to build a further 100 houses for the victims in four stages, while the Chinese Government is to also to build a further 100 houses, the Divisional Secretary explained.
Mr. Faizal said the Government has also allocated Rs.1.2 million each for 100 families as compensation.
The displaced however, complain that though they have lived at the welfare camps for 11 months now, authorities have been lethargic. Construction of most houses was yet to begin while compensation was also slow in coming, they charge.
There have been further complaints regarding the alleged uneven distribution of monthly rations for the displaced.
Meanwhile, survivors continue to suffer from deep psychological scars as they grapple with the reality of living without their loved ones.
At the camp set up on the playground of the Hathgampala Vidyalaya, K.G. Piyasena, 62, told us that he was the only one in his family to survive the landslide. His son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons, aged 15 and seven, all died that day.
Mr. Piyasena, originally from the village of Siripura in Elangapitiya, said he had only survived because he was at a nearby shop that evening. “I heard a sound like the crash of a helicopter. When I rushed back, the entire area was covered with rubble and earth. I lost all my children,” he said, voice choking with emotion. “My two grandsons would wait for me in the evenings for me to bring them sweets. I have no one to buy sweets for now. I feel so alone now. I can’t imagine why this happened to people like us.”
H.P. Chandrika Priyadarshani, 33, remains distraught at having to live without her two children. It had been raining heavily for several days before the tragedy. The embankment near their house collapsed due to the rain and she said they had temporarily shifted to her aunt’s house further down the mountain.
“My brother called on the morning of the 17th and said he was coming from Kandy. I tried to tell him not to come because of the heavy rain but I had no money for the call. So, my husband and I decided to go to the shop to buy a phone card. My son tried to accompany us but I didn’t want to take him out in the rain. I was rather stern with him and told him to stay put. He then asked me to bring him a small torch. Hearing this, my little daughter also asked me to bring her Vesak cards.”
Mrs. Priyadarshani had left her husband at the shop and was hurrying back to the house when she heard a loud sound that frightened her and made her run back to the shop.
“When I looked back in the direction of the house, I saw the electricity poles were collapsing and the mountain coming down. It was over in an instant. I tried to run back to my aunt’s house, but a woman near me stopped me and said there was nothing I could do by going there. They were all gone.”
Sunday Times LK
Sri Lanka bans anti-garbage protests after dump disaster
 |
| ENB Poster Meethotamulla |
Sri Lanka bans anti-garbage protests after dump disaster
 |
A Japanese official with a disaster relief team surveys the site of a garbage dump collapse that killed 32 people on the northeastern edge of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on April 21, 2017.PHOTO: AFP |
COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lanka has outlawed protests over Colombo's garbage crisis following rallies over the city's waste disposal after a landslide at a giant rubbish tip killed 32 people and destroyed 145 homes.
President Maithripala Sirisena announced that anyone preventing city authorities from disposing of garbage could be prosecuted and face an indefinite period in jail, his office said on Friday (April 21).
"Any person who by word or deed causes a disruption of garbage disposal will be guilty of an offence,"the presidential order stated.
Armed with new powers, garbage collectors Friday began clearing the trash that has been piling up on Colombo's streets for a week since the city's main tip - a 90-metre rubbish mountain - collapsed on homes.
Authorities were forced to dispose of garbage at alternative locations but that had triggered angry protests by residents who blocked trucks from dumping rubbish.
Sri Lanka has ended a grim search for survivors after the landslide, and was now clearing the site at Kolonnawa outside the capital.
A team of Japanese experts who flew in this week to advise Colombo on how to deal with the aftermath were seen surveying at the site on Friday.
"We hope to be able to give a report by Tuesday," said Mitsutake Numahata, a Japanese official heading the delegation. "We are looking at what to do with the dump itself and the threat to neighbouring areas."
Local authorities have already declared areas around the vast tip unsafe for housing.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe promised survivors that permanent housing would be provided within a couple of months, and pledged to shift the dump elsewhere.
Parliament had earlier been warned that the towering mountain of trash posed a serious health hazard and that a long-term solution was needed to dispose of Colombo's waste.
A night of heavy rain, followed by an outbreak of fire, destabilised the 23 million-tonne garbage heap at Kolonnawa, causing its collapse.
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Meethotamulla - `குப்பை மலை` கவிழ்ந்து எண்ணற்ற ஏழைக் குடியிருப்பாளர்கள் நரபலி!
All those who died, died in vain – The Meethotamulla disaster
Apr 19, 2017 Sri Lanka Guardian Columnists, Feature, Mass L. Usuf, Sri Lanka
Many of people living there were literally buried under the decomposed, rotten and toxic garbage mountain that broke loose. It was unbearable to hear the heart-rending wail of the bereaved family members some of those who had lost their little children.
( April 19, 2017, London, Sri Lanka Guardian)
For the Sinhalese and Tamils, it was their New Year day. A day of joy and celebration. While around the country pots were overflowing with boiling milk ushering in the New Year, in Meethotamulla the saga was somewhat different. Many of people living there were literally buried under the decomposed, rotten and toxic garbage mountain that broke loose. It was unbearable to hear the heart-rending wail of the bereaved family members some of those who had lost their little children.
According to the Central Environment Authority about 7,500 tonnes of waste is produced in the country every day. Residents say that nearly 1,000 tonnes of garbage is added daily each day at Meethotamulla. The height of the garbage dump has now reached more than 300 meters. These people did not go to where the garbage was. The garbage was brought to where these people were living. A dereliction of the government’s duty and a gross violation of the basic constitutional rights of the people affected.
These people have been living here for several decades in inhuman conditions breathing in foul odour every day. The feeling is inexplicable. It stinks. They have been in this unimaginable and horrendous state all these years. Most of them have developed various medical complications. Where are the human rights activists? Where are the Politicians? Where are the environmentalists? Someone quipped, “The environmentalists are more concerned about fauna and flora than human beings”. The planned alternative landfill site at Aruwakkalu, North of Puttalam, about 170 kilometres away from Colombo did not take off the ground because they were unhappy. They said that the site is within the one mile buffer zone of the Wilpattu National Park.
Mr. President
Mr. President, you are also the Minister of Environmental Affairs. Around the second half of 2015, you spoke about having a National Strategy for environmental conservation and identified areas like deforestation, environmental damage, environmental degradation, natural resource damage and soil erosion. What you seem to have failed in doing is to identify the priorities in your list in the National Strategy? The garbage dump is not an issue that came up after you assumed power. It was very much there while you were with the previous government. Why did you not accelerate the implementation of your plan?
Way back in 2013 during the Rajapaksa regime some houses were damaged when the dump collapsed. Former MP Duminda Silva held a discussion at the Kolonnawa Municipal Council on issues arising from the garbage dump at Meethotamulla and promised to provide a solution to the problem within a month. He never did that.
Musali
As a citizen, I humbly ask you on behalf of the many who have been silenced by death, have you mismanaged your priorities? If your National Strategy is a long-term plan what have you envisioned for the short and medium term? On one stroke of the pen you deprived thousands of IDPs from returning to their ancestral homes and livelihood in Musali and adjacent areas. This was done in a mighty hurry.
In Meethotamulla while death and destruction was staring on the face of the departed souls and their bewildered kith and kin, you apparently did not have enough ink in that same pen to issue an order regarding the Garbage Dump issue. Or, was it a case where there was not enough pressure by the vested interest of the pseudo environmentalists and the self-serving politicians to look into the garbage problem?
Mr. Prime Minister
Mr. Prime Minister in February 2015, when you met with ‘The Peoples Movement Against the Kollonnawa Garbage Dump’, it is alleged that you had promised a solution within 6 months. Is not your six months too long, Mr. Prime Minister?
Which Law?
“Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Faizer Mustapha yesterday warned that stern legal actions would be taken against those who failed to segregate garbage in order to dispose it properly from November 01”. “In terms of section 272 (5) of MCO, the penalties for disregarding by-laws on garbage disposal are included a sum not exceeding Rs. 1000 for the first time offenders and the second or third time offenders will be fined a sum not exceeding Rs. 2000. Offenders who repeatedly disobey the by-laws will be fined a sum not exceeding Rs. 250.00 each time”.
(The Island, October 29, 2016).
Other pieces of legislations threatening action are Section 261 of the Penal Code on public nuisance, the National Environmental Act, No. 47 of 1980, disposing garbage which can harm the environment is illegal. In the same Act Section 23, if the garbage disposed in a public or private place is harmful to the health of people, the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) holds power to take appropriate measures.
Mr. Minister which law is applicable to the following :
1. To the incident that happened in Meethotamulla?
2. The dereliction of duty on the part of all those who were
responsible?
3. The failure to avert a disaster which was imminent and foreseeable?
“The Minister of Mega polis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka: He has said his ministry has already gone through a tender procedure and shortlisted seven projects for the management of solid waste at Meethotamulla (mountain) garbage dump, long an ecological problem and eyesore in Colombo”. (Sunday Times, July 24, 2016).
Mr. Minister, this is April 2017 what have you been doing for the past eight months? Did not you know that this was a ticking time bomb, the consequences of which would be calamitous?
What Do You Call It As?
Earlier this month the residents living near the Meethotamulla garbage dumping site took to the streets demanding an end to the torturous life they were subjected to. I do not know
what to call it as – hypocrisy, irony, political gimmick or sincerity – when United National Party (UNP) Parliamentarian S. M. Marikkar led the demonstration. He is part of the machinery. He represents these people. He is supposed to find solutions and not to demonstrate. Did he demonstrate because he cannot garner enough support with the powers that be? Then, dear Member, I suggest you resign. If you call yourself the servant of the public. Of what use is it, in continuing to be part of the government which does not help you to solve the problems of the people who trusted you and voted for you to represent them?
Can any of these institutions and the Ministers in charge of these – the CMC, Urban Development Authority (UDA), Western Province Waste Management Authority (WPWMA), Central
Environmental Authority (CEA), Kolonnawa Municipal Council, other local authorities plead ignorance of the garbage problem?
The people are disappointed and deeply saddened at the prevailing state of affairs. Those of you who are responsible will carry the guilt if you have some semblance of morals in you.All those who died, died in vain.
===========================
In 2012, I visited Madampitiya to help with research for a friend’s thesis. The subject was the spread of disease in this area, situated close to a garbage dump.The tiny lanes in between the houses were muddy and often, filled with filthy water. This happened because when it rained (as it had been shortly before we visited) the streets would flood, and spillover from the dump would wash into the streets and sometimes, people’s houses. In fact, you would often need to step off the road and balance precariously on the side of the concrete drains that had been built, and which clearly did not do enough to address the problem.
I vividly remember one of the families I interviewed, a knife grinder who took me into his house to show me his 8-year-old daughter’s hands. They were red and peeling – she had scratched her palms raw because of the mosquitoes. She was also home sick from school. The family couldn’t afford electricity – instead using kerosene lamps at night.
Not all the families I met were of such straitened circumstances. Others had homes that they had carefully built, saving up money, over years. One thing they all had in common was their distaste for the nearby dump. It was clearly visible from most of the lanes – swarming with flies, with the occasional pig rooting through the garbage. Even if you couldn’t see it, you could certainly smell it. The people I interviewed said the stench was particularly unbearable when it was hot, forcing many to close their windows and doors to avoid the smell.
Worse, respiratory diseases and skin rashes were quite common thanks to the proximity of the dump.
Over half of the people I met that day said they wanted to move somewhere else. Yet, there were also many who said adamantly that they wanted to stay. “This is our home. We’ve been living here for years,” they said.
All they wanted was for the garbage issue and all the associated problems it created to be resolved.
The Meethotamulla dump is located just 15 minutes away from Madampitiya. A former colleague who visited Meethotamulla in 2010 found stories very similar to those I had experienced, just 5 kilometres away. Children resigned to the smell. Families whose gardens were filled with black water. Drains filled with stagnant water. Disease.
At the time, around 800 tonnes of garbage was being dumped every day in Meethotamulla in Kolonnawa. While that is a large number on paper, it is another thing entirely to see it, as
I did. The mountain of compacted garbage was piled so high that standing atop it commanded a view of the surrounding area. Tractors rolled up its banks to deposit more garbage as I watched. In the distance were two buildings – a CMC official who was showing me around explained that this was a treatment centre and composting facility, built to try and alleviate the garbage problem. The buildings looked very small and far away from the top of the dump, where we were standing, and as the official pointed out, clearly more needed to be done to alleviate this problem.
The CMC Commissioner in 2010, Badrani Jayawardena said that the CMC took care to spread a layer of soil over the garbage before compacting it down, so that it was sealed. She added that the reason flooding occurred at Meethotamulla was not due to the garbage, but because it was a marshy area.
She also said that the dump would only close once its lifetime had been used up, and that dumping would only continue until 2013.
It’s 2017, and the mountain of garbage at Meethotamulla just collapsed, with the death toll now standing at 16 people.
As recently as March this year, residents were agitating against the dump. Officials meanwhile, have continually said they are working towards a long-term solution, with the help of foreign experts.
The issue of garbage disposal, and how to solve it, is complex and has long been debated. In 2015, there was a plan to transfer the compacted garbage at Meethotamulla to Puttalam, which came to a temporary standstill after environmentalists raised protests, as the new site at Arawakkalu fell within the Wilpattu buffer zone. The project was restarted at a different site, but with plans to allow the Meethotamulla dump to decompose. Other plans have included simply shifting the garbage to other areas such as Ja-Ela.
As Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Harsha de Silva pointed out, agreements were only signed to attempt to deal with this issue ‘a few weeks’ ago, despite this having been brought to the state’s attention numerous times in the past few years.
It is notable too that Minister of Disaster Management Anura Priyadarshana Yapa has not commented beyond an initial update on his official Facebook page, on the situation in Meethotamulla. In fact, de Silva gave a much more in-depth update on the problem on his Facebook page – despite disaster response not falling under his purview.
The Colombo Municipal Council meanwhile has promised to hold more discussions, including with the Minister of Disaster Management.Several politicians have made promises to resolve the issues faced by the residents of Meethotamulla – Duminda Silva, who promised to resolve the issues there ‘within a month,’ and Hirunika Premachandra, who after polling the highest number of preferential votes at the Western Provincial Council elections said she would ‘set the Kolonnawa electorate on the
right path’ and promised to work for their benefit, including solving the garbage disposal issue. President Sirisena himself promised to provide garbage disposal solutions via a proper
national strategy in 2015.
At the time, he promised this would materialise ‘within 3 years.’
These plans and discussions have led to little in the way of action at reducing the size of the dump in Meethotamulla, with the loss of lives as a result. While it is admirable that so many have come forward to volunteer, to post updates on what is needed, or simply to donate, the fact remains that this senseless tragedy could, and should, have been prevented.
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
சமரன்: 2017 - மே நாளில் சூளுரைப்போம்!
சமரன்: 2017 - மே நாளில் சூளுரைப்போம்!: 2017 - மே நாளில் சூளுரைப்போம்! அமெரிக்க டிரம்ப் கும்பலின் இனவெறிப் பாசிசத்தையும் மூன்றாம் உலகப் போர்த் தயாரிப்புகளையும் முற...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
"சயனைட்" நாவல் - ஒரு பார்வை
"சயனைட்" நாவல் - ஒரு பார்வை "தங்கமாலை கழுத்துக்களே கொஞ்சம் நில்லுங்கள்! நஞ்சுமாலை சுமந்தவரை நினைவில் கொள்ளுங்கள், எம் இனத்த...
-
தமிழகம் வாழ் ஈழத்தமிழர்களை கழகக் கண்டனப் பொதுக்கூட்டத்தில் கலந்து கொள்ளக் கோருகின்றோம்! -
சமரன்: தோழர்கள் மீது எடப்பாடி கொலை வெறித்தாக்குதல், கழகம்...
