Municipal Council’s computers getting stuck!
The week before last, I had to visit the Municipal Assessor’s Department, located in the first floor of the CMC building, Town Hall, to hand over the necessary set of documents to obtain the Certificate of Ownership for my daughter’s house.
After perusal of the submitted documents, a lady officer gave me a printed paper with a few details on it and a charge of Rs. 585.00 (all inclusive) handwritten, and asked me to make the said payment to the cashier on the ground floor, and then hand over the receipt to her.
When I took the document to the cashier, I was directed to a counter in the extreme corner, to get a formal invoice (computer generated). To get this invoice, I had to wait a long time in the queue and I heard the invoice clerk telling her colleague in the adjoining cubicle that the computer was slow in processing the details fed and also it was getting stuck.
I had to produce this invoice to the cashier to make the payment and get a receipt. Thereafter, I had to go back to the first floor to the Assessor’s Department to hand over the receipt.
I write this letter to request the IT Department of the CMC to take prompt action to locate and rectify whatever faults with regard to the above computer so that neither the invoice clerk nor the customers are inconvenienced due to the fault of the computer, and the payment procedure is simplified by the Finance Division to make it time-saving.
Mohamed Zahran,
Colombo 14.
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Light Rapid Transit & Electrification: Think out of the box
With reference to the above article on page 10 of last Sunday Observer and with due respect to the writer, Ranjith Dissanayake, I wish to comment as follows:
The idea of an LRT and MRT are great indeed, but at this juncture, it’s just like trying to get a cripple to run instead of walking, without rehabilitation!
The SLR is like a cripple in dire straits. But, there is potential and many great opportunities in reviving it to start walking on its own strength.
The vast amount of movable and immovable unused assets at its disposal can bring in the required financial resources to make it stand up.
There are also many practical possibilities that can make it move to meet and face the challenges and demands of present day passenger, fuel and freight transport.
The several recent media releases about new motive power, etc.... is mere talk, since there are more important things on the plate of the administration than these.
So it’s up to the Railway hierarchy, rail-fans and rail travel populace to think out of the box and come up with some practical thoughts to enable this cripple to start walking.
Being a person coming from a railway background spanning almost a 100 years, and being an active rail fan with a genuine feel for the Railway, it is my earnest desire to make valuable contributions towards uplifting the SLR from the mess it is today.
Rudy Hodgson