Jaffna posters decry creeping social evils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Some posters up came in the Jaffna new market area warning against prostitution, illicit liquor (Kasippu) and black marketeering. The posters were only signed as 'People of Jaffna'.

A weekly columnist, styling himself 'Minnal' in the Jaffna daily Uthayan lamented yesterday (March 28) that the social restraints which existed two and half years ago in the peninsula have vanished now and that a consequence blue films, pornographic magazines, the expanding Kasippu empire, robberies and incidents are on the rise creating fear.

He draws the attention of Jaffna parents to the fast spreading habit of cigarette smoking among students, particularly those who come to Jaffna town for tuition classes.

The columnist claims that cigarette sales which had hit rock bottom two and a half years ago are now roaring.

'Minnal' also laments the mushrooming of sub-standard tutories.

He describes an incident where a tutory owner had taken to task the principal of a school in a Jaffna suburb for criticising her the standards of teaching at her 'tuition centre'.

As there are no controls on private tutories now, many with an eye on money and some 'influence' are opening up 'tuition centres' in Jaffna with little regard to standards says the Uthayan columnist.