Probe this claim
Editorial-July 4, 2014
Security is reported to have been tightened in some places along India’s southern littoral in view of intelligence warnings that foreign terrorists might operate through Sri Lanka to mount attacks on that country.
Time was when terrorists used India’s soil to mount attacks here. Towards the latter stages of the Vanni war, arms and ammunition for the LTTE came through Tamil Nadu. It is a supreme irony that today India is worrying about its terrorists using Sri Lanka as a transit point.
An immediate probe into India’s allegation is called for. If it is it true action must be taken urgently to neutralise threats to India’s national security. This country must not be allowed to be used by any terrorist outfit to carry out attacks on either India or any other nation in the region or even elsewhere. Terrorism must be eliminated root and branch. The world has become a dangerous place today owing to various psychos unleashing mindless violence to achieve their macabre goals with some nations adopting double standards on terrorism.
Sri Lanka has already become a transit point for drug and human smugglers as could be seen from the detection of huge consignments of narcotics and the capture of boatloads of illegal migrants. Sri Lanka has been named as one of the worst countries for visa-free travel, according to the British media. It has been bracketed with twenty countries such as Eritrea, North Korea, Sudan and DR Congo! The on-going UNHRC war crimes probe has also damaged its image internationally. Atop all this has come India’s allegation that foreign terrorist groups are operating from here. The government must get cracking to prevent this country being branded a rogue state.
Meanwhile, India’s claim at issue points to the need for Indo-Lanka joint naval patrols which will help not only keep India’s terrorists at bay but also tackle the much vexed problem of illegal fishing which has strained the relations between the two countries.
The grim reaper riding pillion
Motorcyclists in this country seem to have a death wish if their rashness on busy roads is anything to go by. On seeing them weave through traffic or zip across busy intersections or dangerously overtake monstrous container carriers other road users wonder whether they are trying to beat the speed of light and travel back into the past. Little surprise they account for the highest number of fatal road accidents. Last year motorcycles were involved in 723 out of 2,190 fatal road accidents.
The latest road mishap involving a motorcycle has been reported from Colombo. On Thursday night, a motorcyclist who entered the Colombo-Katunayake expressway at breakneck speed, defying police orders, was killed in a crash. Another person was seriously injured. There have been several such instances where motorcyclists including some foreigners entered the expressways.
It is against this backdrop that a harebrained proposal to open the expressways for motorcyclists should be viewed. That move was mulled over some time ago to increase the toll income, but a group of intelligent officials managed to knock some sense into the government worthies and their advisors concerned, we are told. On the one hand that scheme would not have been feasible in that one who uses a motorcycle to minimise travel expenses cannot afford to use toll roads. On the other hand, motorcyclists would have started dying in their numbers besides unleashing hell on expressway as they do on other roads. A better way for the government to increase its revenue will be to reduce toll charges so that more vehicles will use the two expressways.
If motorcyclists are allowed to use expressways by any chance the government had better allow morticians to operate from all entry/exit points on those roads.
