The Island Editorial

From blast to bawl

27 April 2017

People of Salawa are up in arms over the non-payment of compensation. Having lost their houses and business places due to the army’s central armoury blast last year they are bawling at the ruling party politicians who have reneged on their promise to award compensation to them as a matter of urgency. The government has since chosen to remain silent on the issue. All signs are that the pent-up resentment of the forgotten victims will spill over on to the streets soon. Politicians and bureaucrats had better get cracking without letting the situation get out of hand. They must not wait till people put up barricades on arterial roads to act.

There is no way the government can cite financial difficulties as an excuse for its failure to provide compensation to the armoury blast victims. It claims to be in straitened circumstances while its leaders are indulging in the dissipation of public wealth.

Salawa was still burning when the yahapalana grandees unflinchingly presented a supplementary estimate to Parliament, seeking about one and a half billion rupees to purchase super luxury vehicles for ministers with some political rejects among them. (The much-maligned Emperor, Nero, only fiddled while Rome was on fire; he did not dip into the public purse to buy chariots, did he?) Public funds have since been allocated for ministerial vehicles thrice. Disaster victims are making heart-rending appeals for help, but the ruling politicians are busy feathering their nests while pontificating on the virtues of good governance. Having emerged from the political wilderness after many years, they are apparently making up for lost time, impervious to the woes of the people in distress. So much for the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government’s commitment to yahapalanaya!

Having reneged on promises it made to the people of Salawa, the government has now pledged to look after the victims of Meethotamulla garbage dump collapse. A few months after coming to power, the yahapalana regime, in its wisdom, stored paddy at the Mattala Airport amidst protests. Now, it is providing shelter to the families displaced by the Meethotamulla garbage disaster at a Paddy Marketing Board storage complex, of all places, according to media reports. One is intrigued. The disaster victims, no doubt, have to be provided with alternative accommodation urgently, but where does the government expect to store paddy? It will take a month of Sundays for the displaced families to be resettled. Is it that the yahapalana leaders, having done away with the subsidised fertiliser scheme, think there won’t be any more bumper harvests and, therefore, there is no need for so many warehouses to store paddy?

How can the ruling politicians who have let down the people of Salawa be expected to provide relief to the Meethotamulla victims? The government would have us believe that there is no threat of a garbage dump explosion. But, one would go along with the visiting Japanese disaster management experts, who have warned that high methane levels are likely to cause the rubbish mountain to explode. Whether there will be a garbage dump explosion or not, the disaster victims are sure to explode with rage and take to the streets if the government does not honour its promise to award compensation to them fast.

President Maithripala Sirisena is reported to have summoned Parliament and the declaration of garbage disposal as an essential service is said to be on the agenda of the House. It is hoped that all so-called people’s representatives will attend the special parliamentary session and take up the issue of inordinate delay in paying compensation to disaster victims in Salawa as well. Let the government be asked why it has deployed the armed forces personnel to stabilise the Meethotamulla garbage heap, full of methane, risking their lives while most of the Colombo Municipal Council workers are idling.