Sun Match Helps Hospital

The Sun Match Company, Kundasale recently donated 100 notice boards to the Kandy General Hospital at a simple ceremony held in the hospital premises. Sun Match Director Gowrie Rajan, Hospital Director Dr. Samarasinghe, Deputy Director Dr.Dissanayake and several members of the Sun Match staff participated in the ceremony. Picture:The Director Gowri Rajan with the staff of Sun Match and the officials of Kandy General Hospital.

GTZ Promotes Common Interests Among Kandy Entrepreneurs

The Sri Lankan-German Economic Strategy Support Program (ESSP) recently held Nucleus 2005 in Kandy , an event to bring small, medium and large-scale entrepreneurs in a wide variety of industries and businesses from the Kandy area together. The goal was to demonstrate to the government, entrepreneurs and all stakeholders how productive synergies and team efforts reap good results among entrepreneurial working groups in different sectors, P G Samaratunga, Project Director of ESSP said, “This event was successful in showing to the Nucleus entrepreneurs that they are not isolated and that the participation in chamber Nuclei is becoming a movement. We wanted local, regional and national government representatives including those from the Udarata Development Unit to see that the regional chambers of commerce and industries are able to mobilize large numbers of entrepreneurs through the Nucleus approach” he added. He said that the event also highlighted the increasing importance of entrepreneurs' institutions especially the chambers of commerce and showed in which way Sri Lankan entrepreneurs started to move thus stimulating others to join in. The success of the Nucleus approach came about because it was designed entirely from the entrepreneurs' perspective.

The event attracted nearly 800 Nuclei entrepreneurs and others. Mr. Jayasuriya Udukumbura, Coordinating Secretary for Udarata Development Minister D M Jayaratne represented the Minster at the event. The Secretary of the Ministry Mr. Piyatissa Ranasinghe was also present. The Chamber of Commerce & Industry Central Province (CCICP), Central Province Women's Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CPWCIC), Matale District Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MDCCI), National Chamber of Handicrafts Sri Lanka (NCHSL), Chamber of Commerce & Industry Uva Province (CCIUP), Protected Agriculture Entrepreneurs Association (PAEA), representatives from the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Sri Lanka, the Nucleus trainers, GTZ officials including those from the North and the East and many donor agencies such as SIDA, ILO and Swisscontact participated.

According to Dr Volker Steigerwald, GTZ Program Coordinator of ESSP, “Influencing framework conditions require active bottom-up participation from the entrepreneurs plus their institutions in the private sector. This happens in the Nucleus. This approach meets the demands and the needs of the entrepreneurs,”

This event included competitions where different Nuclei, chambers and also counselors were rewarded for their participation, commitment, innovation, service provision and performance.

The Sri Lankan-German Economic Strategy Support Program (ESSP) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Udarata Development and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development. The German contribution is implemented by the German Technical Co-operation (GTZ). ESSP started the Nucleus approach as a pilot project in 2002 together with the CCICP. Presently there are more than 50 different Nuclei that are powered by six different chambers dealing in more than 20 different sectors. These Nuclei are composed of more than 800 entrepreneurs from the ESSP program area.

Without Sewerage Project No Clean Water for Kandy

Kandy will run short of piped drinking water unless the proposed Kandy sewerage system is implemented without further delay says the Acting Director of the Kandy Sewerage Project Engineer Mr. R. Kulanatha. Speaking to The Kandy News he pointed out that a large volume of untreated sewerage from the town was being released to the Mahaweli via the Meda Ela. This is polluting the river water at the intakes of the Kandy water supply system. Mr. Kulanatha says that the only practical solution is to treat the sewerage before it is released to the river.

He says that there has been unfounded public concern over the proposed sewerage system. Even some key local officials have been skeptical of the project. To allay their fears the National Water Supply and Drainage Board recently took these officials on a fact-finding to tour Seetawaka where a sewerage system is functioning smoothly.
The Kandy system will be constructed in two stages. In the first stage 8500 cubic meters of sewerage will be purified and discharged to the Mahaweli. In the second stage the volume will be doubled to 17,000 cubic meters.

Mr. Kulanatha also told The Kandy News that any member of the public who is interested in knowing further details of the proposed sewerage project could access a copy of the project report available in the Kandy Kachcheri or any of the Divisional Secretariats in the surrounding areas.

Kandy Metro Rotary Gives Rs 2m to KMC for Health

The Kandy Metropolitan Rotary Club led by Rotarian Indrakumar Wijethilaka has gifted Rs 2m to the KMC to improve its health clinics. The gift has been made at the request of the Kandy mayor Kesara Senanayake. The mayor has announced that the Council will add a further one million rupees to purchase essential equipment to upgrade the clinics.

European Union to Assist KMC in Primary Health Care

The European Union (EU) is to provide funds to the KMC to improve primary health care facilities in Kandy town and suburbs. The Chief Medical Officer of KMC Dr. Sujatha Ekanayaka told The Kandy News that EU funds are being given through the Irish NGO NICARE.

The project, due to commence in 2006, will upgrade municipal clinics to serve out-patients for minor injuries and ailments, simple surgery, and provide laboratory facilities for medical tests. Dr. Ekanayaka says that this will not only reduce congestion in the Kandy and Peradeniya general hospitals but also provide an alternative to expensive channel consultation for low-income patients.

KMC hopes to obtain the assistance of the University of Peradeniya to establish the new primary care facilities. Dr. Ekanayaka is planning to conduct a baseline survey involving 900 families to make a needs assessment before the project is launched.

Kandy Hospital Surgical Unit in Major Crisis

The Kandy Hospital, which is one of the major teaching hospitals in Sri Lanka with over 77 wards and 3000 in-patients, is facing a major crisis without a proper central operating theatre. The central operating theater that had facilities to conduct six surgeries simultaneously and facilitated over 2,000 surgeries every month was housed in a dilapidated building over 100 years old in the centre of the hospital complex.
Surgeons who worked there until about one year when it was closed down following flooding say that for a long time they worked under very trying and unsatisfactory conditions. The roof leaked and the electrical system had malfunctioned for a long time. On one occasion a theatre nurse had been electrocuted. In 1999 the then Health Minster A H M Fowzie and Agriculture Minister D M Jayaratne had inspected the theatre. Mr. Jayaratne is said to have remarked on that occasion that it was not fit even to be the kitchen of his house. Mr. Fowzie had promised to provide Rs 65m to build a new theatre but that promise had not been fulfilled.

After the closure of the main theatre the labour room in the fee-levying Fraser Ward has been converted to an operating theatre. However, surgeons say that it is far from satisfactory as an alternative. On more than one occasion the theatre lamp had collapsed injuring people working in the theatre as well as patients.

Senior surgeons say that rationing of surgery is the most harmful and disturbing consequence of this crisis in the hospital. In some instances children are given priority over adults. But in many cases influence - who you are and who you know-appears to determine surgical priorities. The net result is ordinary people suffer the most.

The Kandy News learns that Rs 210m has been set aside from the Health Ministry budget for a new surgical complex. But for some unknown reason this money remains unutilized.
The Kandy News made several attempts to talk with the Kandy hospital director. But one of his security men who identified himself as “Perera” said that the director had no time to talk to newspapers. When this newspaper phoned the deputy director's office a female voice that answered the phone promptly cut off the call when we identified ourselves as a newspaper.

Agriculture Department and Encroachers Block
Gannoruwa Road Project

The Director General of Agriculture refuses to give a strip of land from the vast acres that his department owns in Gannoruwa to widen the road that links Peradeniya with Getembe via the new bridge at Gannoruwa. Individuals who have constructed commercial buildings on government land in the first six hundred meter stretch from Peradeniya town on that road use political influence to prevent the Road Development Authority (RDA) from implementing the road widening scheme on the stretch that they occupy. This in short is what prevents the construction of a modern four-lane highway linking Peradeniya and Getembe.

The project estimated to cost Rs 190m is funded with assistance from Kuwait. But unless there is intervention from higher authority to break the impasse there is every prospect of Kandy losing a golden opportunity to improve a key link road to ease the ever worsening traffic congestion in the area.

The original plan for the road includes not only four lanes and a median separating the lanes but also two bicycle lanes, sidewalks for pedestrians and provision for drainage. If the road were constructed as planned it would be one of the finest stretches of highway in this part of the country. The bicycle lanes have been included as a part of RDA's new policy to encourage urban dwellers use bicycles as a cheap and healthy alternative means of personal transport.

It is reported that the former Director General of Agriculture Dr. S L Weerasena first refused to give the land for the road project. His successor Dr. C Kudagamage is of like mind on the issue. The land area required is about 7.5 acres. Those who are critical of the uncompromising stand of the Agriculture Department reject the argument that the Department is short of land for agricultural research noting that there is plenty of uncultivated land on the Gannoruwa Central Agricultural Research Station campus.
The 600m stretch from the Tea Small Holders Authority to Peradeniya Town is a classic case of political intrigue for private gain at the expense of public good. The land on both sides belong to the state. Some, probably a minority of the people who have constructed shops and other commercial buildings, have signed a “non-compensatory” agreement with the government to vacate the premises on demand. State land is given for temporary use to private parties on the strict understanding that no compensation will be paid when the land is required by the state. Area residents told this newspaper that several of such beneficiaries were close relatives and friends of senior officials of the Agriculture Department.

In Gannoruwa the occupants are demanding compensation. This includes not only those that have signed an agreement with the government not to ask for compensation and got land, but a large number who are illegally occupying the land as encroachers. Area residents say that a powerful politician of the area is backing these occupants.
The project engineer Mr. K P Kodituwakku conceded that the non-compensatory holders and encroachers were a major obstacle to complete the project as planned. He was in favour of paying compensation to them to get them to leave. But he admitted that such a policy encourages more people to encroach in the hope of getting large sums in compensation.

RDA Provincial Director R T B Ranatunga claimed that he was not aware of the details of the project that he said was not under his purview. However, he conceded that due to the objection of the Agriculture Department the four-lane project might be scaled down to a two-lane project.

Project work has come to a halt since April of this year. Observers note that there apparently are two alternative “solutions” to the problem. One is to order the Agriculture Department to release the land for this national project and evict the encroachers who by refusing to give up land that does not belong to them are in effect holding the public to ransom. The other is to accept the position of both the Agriculture Department and the encroachers and settle for a two-lane road.

New Owner Wants to Restore Queen's and Suisse

Mr. Sanjeev Gardiner, Chairman of Gall Face Hotels Company that recently purchased a controlling interest in the Ceylon Hotels Corporation (CHC) at a cost of over Rs 650m visited Kandy to inspect two of the prime properties that CHC owns, Queen's Hotel and Suisse Hotel.

In an exclusive interview with The Kandy News Mr. Gardiner told that he plans to rehabilitate and restore both hotels paying meticulous attention to their respective histories. He cited as an example the recent restoration work that his company was doing in Galle Face Hotel often compared to the internationally renowned Raffles Hotel of Singapore.

Mr. Gardiner was particularly keen on the Queen's that he felt had a remarkable history as a building pre-dating the British. “We are studying in detail the history of the Queen's before we touch even one brick or wood panel in the building” he said. “Our intention is to restore the history and personality of the building while making Queen's a premier city hotel in the country, a status that it once enjoyed.”