Lajja!

What’s the world coming to when a Cabinet minister stoops to gaining publicity by ceremonially opening a makeshift staircase leading to a dilapidated overhead pedestrian bridge? Don’t Sri Lankan politicians have any sense of shame? This is the question the public must have asked themselves on seeing Minister of Transport, Highways and Media Bandula Gunawardena opening a temporary structure, in Bambalapitiya, yesterday.

The tumbledown commuter flyover opposite the Bambalapitiya railway station is a disaster waiting to happen. Having been without repairs for decades, it is so derelict that gaping cracks have appeared on its concrete beams, which are peeling off in some places. The media has exposed the dismal condition of this ageing structure and highlighted the fact that railway commuters who have to use it daily fear for their safety.

But the road development authorities, true to form, ignored calls for repairs to this walkover bridge across the busy Marine Drive, for years. Intense media exposure during the past several weeks finally shook the government awake, and an official announcement was made that remedial action would be taken fast.

But nothing has been done by way of repairs to the walkway bridge, which, engineers says, must be demolished as soon as possible, and a new one built. Instead, a temporary steel access to the crumbling crossway overpass has been put up. The problem remains unsolved and thousands of commuters continue to use this potential deathtrap daily.

Minister Gunawardena, who had done precious little about the walkway bridge in a state of disrepair, ceremonially opened the temporary access to the crumbling main structure yesterday. Having thus made a spectacle of himself, he declared that there were 30 such overpasses, but the government was without money to repair them.

When a journalist asked him why he had come all the way there to open a temporary structure ceremonially, a visibly annoyed Gunawardena claimed that there was no ceremonial opening and he had visited the place to thank the construction team personally. There was absolutely no need for his presence there. He could have thanked them over the telephone without wasting time and fuel, which the public pays for. It was obvious that he sought to gain some publicity, which backfired on him.

As for Gunawardena’s claim that the government is so broke that it cannot even bear the cost of repairing a pedestrian overpass, all those in the incumbent government are responsible for this sorry state of affairs. Gunawardena, who has held ministerial posts for more than two decades under successive governments, has to share the blame for the country’s bankruptcy. He should be ashamed of moving about in luxury vehicles and enjoying a host of other perks at the expense of the state coffers while claiming to be unable to ensure the safety of the people who use overpasses.

The fact that a Cabinet minister has had to stoop so low as to seek cheap publicity from the construction of a small temporary structure is an indication that the government he represents is without any achievements worthy of notice, much less praise, and politically bankrupt.