UNP against Colombo Corp.

5 April 2011 12:05 pm Views - 4087

The main opposition UNP today vowed to take legal action against the Government’s move to convert the Colombo Municipal Council and three other Municipal Councils within the greater Colombo area into a Colombo Metropolitan Corporation.

“We won’t allow the Government to grab the power entitled to the public. The public must have the power to elect the people they feel fit for a local authority and that should remain as that,” said UNP general secretary Tissa Attanayake adding that such a move was against the law.

Mr. Attanayake charged that the areas the Government was moving to include in the Colombo Metropolitan Corporation were UNP dominated ones and this was a Governments ploy to stifle the opposition.

The Government was discussing with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians to devolve power to local authorities in the North and East whilst they are denying the rights of the people in the South, Mr. Attanayake said.

“The Governments’ excuse is development. Why can’t they coordinate these activities with the Urban Development Authority? Why should it be converted into a Corporation?,” Mr. Attanayake asked. The areas that the Government is considering to convert into a corporation are the Colombo Municipal Council, Dehiwela Municipal Council, Kotte Municipal Council, Wellampitiya Municipal Council and the Kotikawatte Urban Council, he said.

The Municipal Councils are there to make the public stakeholders in the decision making and this corporation will deny that right, Mr. Attanayake said.  (Sumaiya Rizvi)