Ten LG bodies to be Municipal Councils
A Cabinet paper presented by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena to convert seven Urban Councils into Municipal Councils and three Local Councils into Municipal Councils was approved by the Cabinet.
Cabinet Spokesman and Media Minister Dr.Bandula Gunawardena told at the news conference announcing Cabinet decisions held at the Government Information Department yesterday.
The minister mentioned that there are currently 24 municipalities, 41 municipal councils and 276 local councils in Sri Lanka and the total number of Local Government institutions is 341. Yesterday, the Cabinet decided to convert the cities of Kalutara, Vavuniya, Puttalam, Trincomalee, Mannar, Ampara, Kegalle into municipalities and Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, and Moneragala as local councils.
Through that, a ranking of 10 major cities in 25 administrative districts of Sri Lanka will be done this year and this will be relevant to the development of those provinces as well as to raise the standard of living of the people, he added.
The minister pointed out that this programme should be further expanded and the Homagama constituency that he represents has a population of 270,000, a large number of development projects have gone to that area in the past, and the Homagama local council is the largest local council in Sri Lanka. Therefore, in the request made to divide it into a Municipal Council and a Regional Council, the President informed that the criteria for the establishment of Municipal Councils and Regional Councils will be quickly prepared taking into account the changes that have occurred in Gampaha, Kalutara and Colombo districts in the Western Province.