Sunday, June 7, 2015

Though vilified as “militarization’ Colombo city development drive turned the city into the fastest growing tourist city in the world!

With the Colombo city being ranked the first outsmarting mega, glittering and wealthy cities like Abu Dhabi, Osaka and Tokyo as the fastest growing tourist city by MasterCard, based on the data collected during last 06 years, yet another outstanding achievement by former president Mahinda Rajapaksha's administration gets highlighted despite a sustained and vicious vilification and hunting down program that has been unleashed against the Rajapakshas, his family members and his loyalists. As per CNN "Sri Lanka's capital city of Colombo is first in growth with a staggering 21% surge, with Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan province, following in second". Capital Colombo receives these accolades at the backdrop of the city fast losing its grandeur created by the previous government. This was recently reported in media too.

The city of Colombo used to be one of ugliest and garbage filled cities in Asia for many decades until it tuned into a garden city after Urban Development Authority was taken over by President Mahinda's brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksha. When it was raining there wasn't hardly a road that was not flooded in many parts of the city and its suburbs. Even the areas in which affluent residents lived were not spared and were affected by floods leave alone low lying areas where the low income earning segments of the city dwellers lived. Huge Garbage Mountains dotted many parts of the city and suburbs creating a huge health hazards to residents and those who enter the city daily. Either side of many roads was littered with many days' old garbage dumps.

The metamorphosis undergone by the Capital Colombo under Gotabhaya's wings was in many forms. The floods that made the city a living hell during the rainy season was a thing in the past, huge garbage mountains were disappearing one by one, beautiful, lush green and clean parks were dotting many parts of the city and suburbs, old, dilapidating and crumbling colonial buildings were undergoing facelifts which made some parts of the Colombo city to have a colonial outlook-a major attraction for European tourists to Colombo, the slums homed to the low income earning dwellers were disappearing one by one and they were being settled in multi storied apartments, the water bodies, canals and water ways which were polluted, stinking and clogged were seen filled with pristine clean water, clean and beautifully paved pathways and walkways were to be seen in many places in the city and suburbs and many roads had been widened with paved sidewalks and tree lines or flower plants planted either in the middle of the roads or on their sides.

While this metamorphosis was underway in Colombo city and suburbs Rajapaksha administration in general and Gotabhaya in particular were subject to an intense, nasty and sustained demonizing campaign by the White Christian West, their local stooges here, Eelamists and Indian expansionists. Rajapakshas were being vilified claiming that they were "militarizing" the society and military personal were being utilized for menial jobs. This was, however, quite expected. What anti-Rajapaksha forces wanted was to find an excuse to demonize Rajapakshas no matter the quality and volume of the splendid work they did to the country.  

However, as the saying goes, "You can fool all the people some of the time, some of the people all the time. But you can't fool all the people all the time". Right thinking people are now beginning to realize that Sri Lanka was fast heading towards an unprecedented and mammoth development drive under Rajapakshas.  Transformation undergone by Colombo city and the acclaim that it received are just a couple of examples. The results of the massive development drive initiated by Rajapakshas since 2010 will continue to bear fruits in coming years. The vicious foreign conspirators and their local lackeys here knew very well in advance what Sri Lanka was heading for. They will continue to undermine Sri Lanka's prosperity and  sovereignty!

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