Nearly 17 months after the Sri Lankan security forces decimated the LTTE, government here has taken a decision to gradually remove all security check points in the city of Colombo and replace it with an advanced surveillance system .According to the Military Spokesman Major General Ubaya Medawala , keeping the improved security situation in Colombo , the Sri Lankan government has decided to remove all ten check points in the city.Two check points at Wellawatta and Bambalapitiya have already been removed and it will be replaced by snap road blocks and constant alternative surveillance system,’ confirmed Major General Ubaya Medawala.These security check points were set up during the conflict period and the security checks were carried on the on vehicles and persons coming into the city , to prevent any untoward happenings. Political observers while welcoming the move are of the view that more importantly the Government should scrap the emergency laws which was reimposed after the assassination of the then Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in 2005.The Government has been arguing that extension of emergency was required as the security forces and the police were still in the process of dealing with the remnants of the LTTE. There are few takers for the Government contention.Besides the prevalence of emergency, the issue of massive presence of Sri Lankan military especially in the war ravaged Northern and the Eastern Provinces are also being raised.The Sri Lankan Government is not willing at the moment to reduce the strength of the military in the two provinces on the ground that the presence of the military is a deterrence to rise of any force like the LTTE. For a country of Sri Lanka’s size, the military is huge with all the three forces together accounting for 300,000 in a island with a population of 21 million.Army Commander Jagath Jayasurya on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of the Sri Lankan Army, earlier this month in an interview to a state run newspaper had said that they are planning to set up army cantonments in all the 26 districts of Sri Lanka.