Sri Lanka Railways Forum

Transport Minister Dulles Alahapperuma and his Railway officials have taken their own government by surprise.

The Sri Lanka Railway as we all know has a huge debt burden besides being a loss making venture. Despite all that however, the Railway has resorted to acts of generosity in issuing iron rails free of charge even to private institutions.

The free distribution, only allowed when gifting  iron rails to the armed forces or when institutions have security requirements for which the rails could be used, is now making non-eligible private institutions smile as they also get the rails without a fee.

If procedures are adhered to, according to impeccable inside sources, issuing Railway property to private institutions could happen only for a fee.

What is mind-boggling is that the Sri Lanka Railway (SLR) is ambitiously pushing for a 100% revision in train ticket fares passing its financial burdens to the hapless commuting public who are weighed down under the spiraling cost of living. Yet, the generous acts of the Sri Lanka Railway continue.

Most backward railway network

Besides, there is general consensus that the railway service in Sri Lanka leaves much to be desired and is one of the most backward railway networks in the whole of South Asia which has failed to generate an income for the government. Its service element needs no elaboration.

Whilst preparing to pass the institutional burdens to the commuters through a ticket price revision, the rail tracks are being offered free to chosen parties overlooking the stipulation that the beneficiaries should be either the armed forces or institutions that are considered under threat.

There appears to be no logic in these acts of generosity, given the fact that the Sri Lanka Railway appears to be cash strapped to such an extent that it should be more committed to making money, and the scrap iron that goes waste would prove an instant source of income.

Following instructions to the letter

The Sunday Leader reliably learns that the issuing of ’scrap iron’ had commenced following the issue of Transport Ministry Circular No: EF 3054/05 and a letter dated June 4, 2007. Following instructions to the letter, the Railway General Manager on the same day, has taken the initiative to issue the rail tracks – free of charge.

The acts of generosity commenced last June 15, just days after instructions were issued. Accordingly, the Central District Engineer has issued a stock of ’scrap iron’ to an applicant. The stock had been released from the Negombo railway tracks storage. Under this single issuing of scrap iron, the Railway has released iron weighing some 39,600 pounds under a ‘removal permission’ receipt numbered 416, dated June 15.

The estimated value of the issued scrap iron is a massive Rs.1,047,937.50 for which not even a rupee was charged by the authorities. There really should be no question as to why this institution cannot manage its finances.

Issued free of charge

In another instance, on March 29, 2007, a stock of 300 rail tracks had been issued free of charge to Ven. Metaramba Hemarathana Nayaka Thero, the chief incumbent of the Situlpawwa Raja Maha Viharaya, Tissamaharama.

Then of course there are free issues of iron rails to Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL) where a stock of 220 rails were removed free of charge. While the authorities claim that CPSTL is an institution under threat and had the legal right to receive the stock free, workers ask as to why a profit making institution such as the CPSTL need to obtain the scrap iron free of charge from the loss making railway.  

During Vesak 2007 too, there had been a similar meritorious act, issuing 9000 feet of rail tracks to a private applicant free of charge.

Many are the examples of such free  ‘gifting’ of iron rails as scrap that workers claim that if the generosity could be curbed, the institution could raise funds effortlessly.

Only railings given free – GM Railways

General Manager, Sri Lanka Railways, Lalithasiri Gunaruwan told The Sunday Leader that scrap iron was not given free of charge to anyone and only the railings were given free of charge on the approval of the Secretary to the Transport Ministry.

“We have called for a tender to sell the scrap iron. That is not given for free. Only the railings are given free of charge upon the approval of the Ministry Secretary,” he said.

Provided only to selected institutions – Ministry Secretary

Transport Ministry Secretary, Nihal Somaweera told The Sunday Leader that scrap iron was given free of charge to organisations according to some criteria such as institutions faced with security threats.

He said that scrap iron was given free of charge for the use of the security forces and places with security threats.

He explained that the Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminal Limited (CPSTL) was given scrap iron free of charge to enhance their security with the use of discarded iron which is of no use to the Railway.

“The scrap iron was given free of charge based on intelligence  reports that the CPSTL was under threat. Attacks have been carried out in the ’90s in Orugodawatte and Kolonnawa. Therefore, we have given them scrap iron free of charge for them to use in a suitable manner,” he said.

He also said that free scrap iron would be given for the development of rural areas, if requested.

By Dilrukshi Handunnetti and Arthur Wamanan

Source: The Sunday Leader

Tags: finances, free distribution, generous acts, instant source, iron rails, price revision, private institutions, railway network, railway networks, railway officials, railway service, scrap iron, security requirements, service element, ticket fares, ticket price, train ticket, transport minister

                            

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 4:43 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.