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On seeing what is happening in this country one may wonder whether the law really is an ass. Buses and trains are free to carry more than twice their capacity thus exposing hundreds of thousands of commuters to danger day in day out, but passengers and drivers in other vehicles are fined for not wearing seat belts! Asininity is also a hallmark of all government regulations and policies. The Education Minister wants the number of students in classes at public schools limited to 42 each but at some private tuition centres there are as many as 2,000 students in one class! The Higher Education Minister is doing his damnedest to open private universities while the national universities remain closed!
On Wednesday, several truck drivers were hauled up before courts and fined Rs. 7,500 each for transporting fruits and vegetables without plastic containers in violation of the new crate law which is being enforced strictly. Ironically, such stringent action is being taken by a government which has pardoned convicted criminals and manipulated the legal process to enable Minister Mervyn Silva to get away with a cheque fraud to which he pleaded guilty in court, by paying Rs. 2,500 as state costs!
New methods to minimise post-harvest waste of fruits and vegetables must be adopted, no doubt. But, the government needs to be lenient and flexible enough to discuss and sort out shortcomings in the new scheme. It, to its credit, softened its stand a few months ago to exempt some varieties of perishables. However, all practical problems farmers, traders and transporters are faced with have not gone away. Crates, they complain, take up more space than sacks and trucks have to carry them both ways and therefore cannot transport anything else on their homeward journey. As a result, they argue, the use of crates has led to a considerable increase in transport costs. These grievances should be heeded.
Minister of Cooperatives and Internal Trade Johnston Fernando would have us believe that the waste of fruits and vegetables is in the region of 20-40% and 23-30% respectively. Could he support his claim with credible data instead of bandying about figures? Politicians are notorious for plucking statistics out of the air to bolster their assertions. The government commissioned a study on the waste of perishables following the first round of street protests against the crate law but its findings have not yet been made public, we are told. Do they corroborate the minister`s claim?
If laws are not implemented, they might as well be scrapped, we quoted a Cooperatives and Internal Trade Ministry official as having said the other day in justification of the government decision to enforce the crate law. Well, are all laws in this country implemented properly? What about the elections laws that politicians flout so blatantly? Anti-bribery and corruption laws never get implemented against the ruling party politicians. The same goes for the Criminal Code which applies only to the ordinary public? Is it that all these laws should be done away with?
Meanwhile, the government which is trying to minimise post harvest losses in the process of transport and storage ought to find ways and means of preventing destruction by irate farmers of their produce for want of fair prices and storage facilities. The past few months have seen them dump their produce by the roadside in protest in many parts of the country. It was only recently that dairy farmers poured their milk into waterways in the hills unable to sell it. Rice growers have been left high and dry as the government can neither buy their paddy nor stop private traders from exploiting them. Will the politicians and bureaucrats who are bulldozing their way through as regards the crate law find solution to these problems as well?
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