Housing solution: Two-bedroom homes for Rs. 3 m on instalment plan
8) “Even my best friend, the one I trusted most, the one who shared my food, has turned against me.” (Ps. 41.9). “All those who hate me whisper to each other about me, they imagine the worst about me” (Ps. 41.7). “I know that I will not be disgraced, for God is near, and he will prove me innocent.” (Is. 50.7,8).
9) “The Lord reached down from above and took hold of me; he pulled me out of the deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemies and from all those who hate me.” (Ps. 18.16,17). Then the awesome truth of God’s words came to pass.
The need of the hour is to provide a house for every Sri Lankan family. Landlords demand high rents and big advances, so renting a house is not a good thing. Land prices are also very high. Middle-class people cannot buy or build a house with what they get as monthly salaries. Private companies advertise houses in the newspapers, but these are from Rs. 8 million to Rs. 15 million. Can a government servant or someone in the private sector buy one of these expensive houses? No, of course they cannot.
The Government should build twobedroom houses, priced at Rs. 3 million each, and sell them on a hire-purchase scheme. This would help the middle-class fam- ilies.
The late President Ranasinghe Premadasa launched several housing schemes and gave these on hire-purchase schemes so that families could have a house of their own. I appeal to the Housing Minister, Mr. Wimal Weerawansa, to follow Mr. Premadasa’s good example.
Mrs. Iranganie Jayatunga
Raddolugama
Today I counted the news items in one of our dailies. For every 10 pieces of bad news (murder, robbery, scams, etc.), there were only two pieces of good news, and those two news were tucked away in Page 4, while Page 1 gloried in tales of murder and mayhem.
There are 20 million people in this country. Does it matter that a married woman’s lover was attacked by her husband? Is that national news? Why should the misdeeds of a few police constables be national news? What about the thousands of policemen who stand in the sun and rain day in day out to serve the country?
Why is it that the stupidity of our politicians gets front page coverage? If we ignore them, they will stop acting like clowns.
Some newspapers have dedicated a column to the crimes committed daily in the country. I never read this column because, first, it is depressing, and second, it covers only a fraction of what is happening in our blessed country. Why not have a parallel column about people who do good every day? Let’s also read about people who return found money, the good acts of three-wheeler drivers, the community efforts of a village. Believe me, good things happen all the time, but no one bothers to report them.
Let us relegate the politicians who misbehave to the last page, and give prominence to the good acts that happen daily. Let the newspapers give us some happy and cheery news first thing in the morning.
Dehiwela