Destroying Kirula Road

Thursday, 22 October 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

I have lived down Kirula Place off Kirula Road for more than 10 years. I moved there from Nugegoda because of my daughter who needed special care and was attending a school set up to accommodate disadvantaged and innocent children down Pathiba Lane which is off Kirula Road.

It being Colombo 5, a residential/commercial area, Kirula Road has many conveniences including large hospitals, a Police station, post office, many commercial establishments and several government departments. It also has several schools close by including the large Dudley Senanayake College and many kindergartens. There are Buddhist temples (four within a 500 yard radius), Christian/Catholic (St. Theresa’s Church), Muslim (Jawatte-Narahenpita) and Hindu places of worship (Chitra Lane).

Despite it being very crowded Kirula was a peaceful and low crime area.

Kirula Road is a main artery road to Narahenpita/Nawala from Colombo and is very busy most of the day with hundreds of thousands using this road.

All this has now changed with a bar named Randoli moving into the middle of Kirula Road.

This bar is attracting all kinds of seedy customers all day. Most of them come in three-wheelers and motorcycles.

Almost every night there is a big brawl inside the bar giving no sleep to neighbours. In the morning you will see vomit, urine patches, thrown bottles, cigarette packets, etc., all around the place.

In addition, neighbours have now become victims of petty crime, car parts stealing, and other valuables being stolen regularly by the suspicious looking people who gather there. Recently a road user was assaulted by some people at the bar for requesting them to move their van which was blocking the road.

A decent road has now become a seedy and violent area.

I am made to understand that this brazen violation is happening because the owner who was formerly a strong supporter of Mahinda Rajapaksa and quietly declared his support for the present President. For such people there is no law in our country.

So it appears that the thousands of people who live in and use Kirula Road have no justice!

I beg of all those who are concerned to intervene in this immoral and illegal operation by a political catcher and restore decency back to Kirula Road.

Dammika Bandara