The Traffic cops of Pissu Lanka

So here was I somewhere close to Kurunegala tearing up the streets and made the mistake of overtaking on a single line. Sure enough there were the men in Khaki ready to pounce on me. Even though I had the opportunity of driving on ... this little nagging voice in my head asked me to stop and take my punishment like a man.

So I walk back to the cop who threatens to put my offence to courts. I humbly listen knowing for a fact that this is his way of asking for his 10% service charge. So I politely tell him that it would be better if he simply gave me a ticket but this guy keeps going on.

At one point I lose it and have my say after which normalacy prevails and I get a usual ticket. To make matters worse its only a temp license without the charge sheet so its double work for me. When I try to make sense of what he has written as my charge I was in for a rude suprise.The entire charge sheet was in Sinhala.

Now please dont get me wrong, even though I am a Tamil - I can read Sinhala farely well but what was on the temp license was a mixture of left over noodles and a furball which my cat spat out. It was not readable language

My point is simple this. Since both Sinhala and Tamil are official languages of this country its only fair that the charge sheet be issued in the language of the individual committing the offence. If the person convicted cannot read his charges how can he answer to them ?

I am sure there are a few rights violations by issuing charge sheets to people who cant read them and thereofore cant respond to them.