The forgotten bank pensioners who retired before 2006
I agree whole heartedly with K.G.M. Perera with regard to ‘Foreign letters lost in the post’ (Sunday Times July 12).
The problem in the Foreign Mail room has been evident for some time. There are complaints from many around the country. It is not easy for a few minor employees to resort to such practices. Is there a well organised racket operating in the ‘Foreign Mail Room’?
The Head of the Postal Department should immediately investigate the matter and clear the name of the Postal Department.
Moratuwa
The Director General of Pensions has issued a press notice mentioning that the salaries of government pensioners who retired before 2006 have been duly adjusted and the relevant payments in this regard have also been paid to them with their August pensions. While thanking the yaha palanaya government for the rectification of long awaited salary anomalies of government pensioners, I wish to appeal that in the same manner the salary anomalies of the state bank pensioners also be rectified without any delay.
The state bank pensioners are also senior citizens living in the same country and the cost of living affects all citizens equally regardless of caste, creed or grade. It is true that state banks pensioners belong to a different category of pension schemes that are managed by their respective banks. But, although state banks earn huge profits every year they seem to have ignored their ex-employees who sacrificed two thirds of their lives to bring their institutions to the present standard.
The authorities of the state banks should follow government procedure and rectify the anomalies of the bank pensioners who retired before 2006.
W.G. Chandrapala (State bank pensioner)
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John Still, superb writer, is famous in Sri Lanka as the author of “Jungle Tide” that wonderful evocation of our verdant forests. However, only a few know that he fought in the British Army in its ill-fated expedition against Turkey in Gallipoli, was captured and spent three years in prison camps. During his captivity he wrote poetry – about battle, captivity and the forests of the Wanni and its ruined cities. These , frequently moving and nostalgic, poems were later published as “Poems in Captivity”.
I quote brief extracts that give glimpses of their rhythm and deeply felt emotion. “Christmas day, Christmas day Across the yard with footsteps slow The sentries pace the mud below; The wind is cold , the sky is grey’ Christmas day in a prison camp, With freedom dead as a burnt out lamp, The lions eat and the lions rage, Three steps and a turn in a narrow cage, And I am as free as they.” In a lovely visualization of a jungle glade he writes - “…like the breath of some pervading god The fragrance of ehala fills the air Its blossom glowing golden in the glare Down from a flowering tree top in the sky” Tissa Devendra
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