Dinesh urges more powers and finances to local bodies to expedite development activities at grassroots level

Foreign Minister and Leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardena points out that, Local Government bodies should have been given more power and the money allocated for the development of the village should be given directly to the local bodies in order to expedite the village development activities and provide immediate relief to the people.

The Minister proposed this, addressing a function held on Sunday (28) morning in the Seethawaka Pradeshiya Sabha area, to mark the opening of the community hall at Thawalgoda village.

Minister Gunawardena observed that it took a long time to provide money to the village through various government agencies, which was an obstacle to providing an expeditious service to the people.

“The majority of the people in the country live in villages and the closest government entity to them is the Local Government Institution. Therefore, the government should give the money, allocated for rural development, directly to local government bodies that know about the people and their needs, to provide more services to the people of the village”, he said.

The Minister also noted that such a measure would meet the needs of the villages expeditiously involving the people as well and it afforded an opportunity to provide a high quality service to the people. 

At present the villagers had to go to the city to fulfill most of their needs. Their time, labour and money were wasted as a result. “We have always been of the view that the local government bodies should be given the power to work in the village to prevent this situation and to enrich the people of the village with means and to direct the youth towards the development of the village”, he said. 

Minister Gunawardena said that, by giving such power to local government bodies, the achievements of the people could be increased and at present when attempts were made to set up Rural Development Committees to create this situation, it was avoided due to the opposition of certain groups. 

MP Yadamini Gunawardena, Jayantha Rohana, Chairman of the Seethawaka Pradeshiya Sabha and a group of local politicians were also present.