Sirisena wants appraisal of provincial councils

By Saman Indrajith

An evaluation was needed to measure the productivity of provincial councils, former President and Polonnaruwa district MP Maithripala Sirisena told Parliament yesterday.

Joining the debate on Vote on Account, Sirisena pointed out that it had been 32 years since the provincial councils were established but no review had been carried out to evaluate the pros and cons, success or failure of them.

Sirisena pointed out that there was a considerable part of government service that was under the provincial councils. “For over two years, the Provincial Councils have been inactive. I believe our government is looking into holding the provincial council election as soon as possible. Provincial councils as well as the government servants attached to PCs should be evaluated and made efficient.”

Sirisena said that he was ready to support the government’s economic development plan. “We have a strong government service. We need to make it efficient. We need to pay more attention to secondary and tertiary education. This government has a good economic plan. We will support it and our President so that our country will become a developed country that can compete with other developed countries.”