Trinco district to get two new local bodies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 September 2003, 18:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Provincial councils and Local Government Minister, Mr.Alick Aluwihare, has appointed a committee to carve out two new local authorities in the Trincomalee district. Accordingly, the Muslim dominated Kinniya will get an Urban Council (UC), and a new Pradesya Sabah (PS,village council) by the name Verugal is to established in the Tamil dominated Eachilampathu Divisional Secretariat (DS) division in Muttur east, provincial local government sources said.

The committee will be headed by the Trincomalee Government Agent, Mr. Gamini Rodrigo, and will inlcude the North East Provincial Commissioner of Local Government, Ms. D.D.Wijedechumi, who will also act as the secretary of the committee, sources said.

Presently, a PS administers the Kinniya town in the Kinniya DS division and the Tamil villages in the Eachchilampathu DS division come under the administration of the Seruvila Pradesya Sabah controlled by a Sinhala administration in the Seruvila DS division. The new Verugal PS will comprise all Tamil villages in the Eachchilampathu DS division, leaving the Seruvila PS with Sinhala-dominated villages, sources said.

According to the gazette notification, the committee has been asked to determine the boundaries of the new UC for Kinniya and Pradeshiya Sabah for Verugal and to submit the boundaries of Kinniya PS and Seruvila PS after the establishment of Urban Council and Pradesya Sabah in Kinniya and Verugal respectively.

The committee has been further asked to recommend the number of members of the new KinniyaUC, Verugal PS and Seruvila PS, sources said.

The committee has now called on the general public to forward their proposals and views regarding the creation of new local bodies before it prepares final recommendation to the minister concerned, sources said.