Don’t sell the land, use it as recreation space

The sale of the Welikade Prison land, after the shifting of the prison, would make big money. As the property is situated in a prime area, it would no doubt fetch a good sum, unless some who are involved in the sale manipulate it to enhance the bank balance of their family members as has been the practice in our country.

The residents of Colombo city and its suburbs need more areas with jogging tracks, football / cricket grounds, green turf, shady trees and many other facilities. The population in the city and the suburbs is ever increasing with new residential complexes / flats coming up in numbers. The Victoria Park opposite the Town Hall or the Galle Face Green, in time to come, would be congested with the visiting crowd. The people need a place for recreation, children need a green turf to run about on and the elders need a place to sit and stretch their feet.

I hope authorities will change their plans and not sell this property but use it for recreational purposes. Kandy

A little late in the day, nevertheless, the tough stance taken by the Government against ragging in universities is highly appreciated.

Ragging in universities should be stopped once and for all. Every government that came to power allowed this cancerous behaviour to snowball and now a monster has been created. The problem is that Sri Lanka’s university students are ignorant of what ragging is all about. With authorities tolerating sadistic ragging, students have unwittingly conditioned themselves to think that ragging freshers is nothing but to bring mental and physical pain to freshers. This seems to bring a great satisfaction to them. This I believe is a mental problem.

The vicious circle continues when the freshers who undergo sadistic ragging become seniors. They inflict similar or greater pain on freshers. This is all the more reason why ragging should be stopped.

When university students have a problem with the authorities, they often assume the moral high ground. Yet the same student leaders have no qualms over defending sadistic ragging. B. Joseph Wattala

It is disheartening to note that the Government has approved a proposal to provide luxury vehicles to Ministers ranging from Rs.30 million to 70 million at a time the country is facing a severe financial crisis. Do we have to spend such large sums on vehicles when a reliable car of a good make could be bought for less than Rs. 15 million?

Why cannot our Ministers travel in Toyotas, Nissans, Hondas or Mazdas? The most amazing thing is that the Opposition is not as vociferous as they are on other matters since they did the same thing while in government.

Our representatives in Parliament should learn from their counterparts in India where they use locally made cars and in UK where some MPs use public transport to attend Parliament. I.Marambe Via email