Sri Lanka It's Happening

February 16, 2007

Once upon a long ago, at an election rally when Ranil promised to remove the checkpoints in Colombo, the JVP and the SLFP branded him as a traitor and an LTTE sympathazier. Rajapaksa Brothers Limited. now governs country has gone over board with checkpoints but has woefully fallen short when it comes to assuring the security of the people of Colombo. The easter province may have been won but Colombo is lost.

Consider this: on the 2nd of february I was stopped at a checkpoint on the Kelaniya bridge. My boot was full of structural engineering drawings and blueprints for the house I am building. Yet the sentry didn't even ask me what they were. Thus any terrorist can transport any number of blueprints for vital installations in this manner. But of course it would be easier and simpler to transport them on CD.

On the 3rd , I drew my sister to the Lake House on McCullum Street (also known as Dr Wijewardana Mawatha)). The street is only about 1-2 KM in lenght but there were four checkpoints on it. I was stopped at all four! Yet not even one of them did a thorough check. It's just a matter of looking at the ID,

Then today, I was struck in heavy traffic caused by yet another checkpoint at Rajagiriya. The Rajagiriya Junction seemed impassable and like many motorists I turned left and moved towards Nawala hoping to return to borella via the Kirimandala Mawatha. It was impossible to turn into Kirimandala Mawatha and worse still right turns at the Nawala Junction prooved to be impossible too!

In the end the only way seemed to be through Poorwarama Mawatha in Kirulupone. But half way through that street the road screeched to a halt. It took more than an hour to pass 1km. The reason there was a checkpoint! What did they do? looked and my ID and let us pass!

Posted by raditha at February 16, 2007 1:50 PM