Provincial Councils-District Councils-District Secretariate-Municipal/Urban Councils – By Oscar Fernando
And all this to run this dot of a country whilst playing-political musical chairs and dragging the country down to the labyrinth of bankruptcy.
It is time, we opened our eyes to see the folly we were in, and put a stop to the Merry Go Rounds and merry-merry go rounds of musical chairs-what with introducing Provincial Councils-so devised to settle a bludgeoning power devolution problem but has ended in disaster with the failed rounds of talks that have festered the existing wound even further-and contributing in no small way to the bankruptcy of the economy!
Can we even now, take the bold step of halting this folly of a costly Provincial Council Election imminently round the corner and consider scrapping all political councils and run this dot of a country with the District Secretary DS under the Minister of Local government?
The District Secretariate together with the District Secretary may function under the Minister of Local Government-and the DS be a Permanent Officer like in the case of the Government Agent GA of old.
Perhaps readers may get a bird’s eye view of the hotch-potch we are in by reading the few notes made by this writer-
SL has nine Provincial Councils established by the 13th amendment to the Constitution and these are referred to as-the intermediate level of government between the national and local levels.
Each PC is made up of-Governor-Chief Minister-Ministers and a selected number of members and electorates based on the PCs population and land area-governor is appointed by Parliament and the Chief Minister is elected by the people.
PCs are responsible for exercising powers and functions at the provincial level with easy edges for conflicts with District Secretaries!
An example is the conflict between Eastern Province Governor and Chief Minister over a flimsy reason of sharing a helicopter ride to Colombo that led to a tussle between the armed forces and the Chief Minister thus brewing ethnic disturbance.
District Councils
There are 25 Districts in SL-each district managed by a District Secretariate?? who is appointed by the Central Government and it is the second-level Administrative Division.
There are 256 Divisional Secretariats, each administered by a Divisional Secretary.
The District Secretariat’s responsibilities include:
- Coordinating the central government’s activities and communications with the Divisional Secretariats
- Implementing and monitoring development projects at the district level
- Assisting lower-level subdivisions in their activities
- Revenue collection
- Coordinating elections in the district
Urban Councils and Municipal Councils are answerable to Provincial councils-not district councils
The District Officer (DO) is the head of the District Council (DC) in Sri Lanka and-leads the DC in carrying out its statutory functions-and coordinates communications between the DC and departments.
DO as the Chairman of the DC’s District Management Committee-promotes communication between the public and the government-addresses district issues by working with departments and community groups-provides assistance to building management bodies-coordinates different departments’ efforts in emergencies.
The District Development Councils (DDCs) were established in 1981 to carry out development functions that were previously the responsibility of the Central Government-and so the ramifications go-perhaps to stretch the palm long enough!
Oscar E V Fernando
December 2024
