Sixteen Buildings in King's Street for Conservation

The Kandy Heritage City Committee (KHCC) has identified sixteen buildings in King's Street, Kandy that merit conservation. These are among the 484 buildings that the Committee has identified for conservation. The Committee has requested the Central Cultural Fund (CCF) to prepare a cost estimate for the conservation work in King's Street. Dr. Roland Silva informed the Committee that the World Monuments Fund has given a grant to conserve 101 buildings in Kandy. The facades of historic buildings close to the Dalada Maligawa will be conserved under this project, he said. KHCC has also proposed to the government that the old court complex should be used to house a Kandy period museum.

Historic building on Kings Street

KHCC in one of its recent meetings also reviewed the prospects for satellite towns in Digana and Ambatenna. The proposed ring road connecting Deveni Rajasinghe Mawatha and Dutugemunu Mawatha too came up for review by the committee. The lack of funds was seen as the main constraint delaying the implementation of the project.

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KMC Decides to Enforce the Law on Kandy Street Parking

KMC has decided not to reduce the rates for street parking as requested by the traders and others who have businesses in Kandy. Mayor L B Aluvihare told The Kandy News that the Council has the legal authority to compel motorists who park on streets to pay the regular parking fees. The mayor has sought the assistance of the police to enforce the law.

Following the opening the new multi-storey car park the KMC contracted out the management of street parking to a private company Property Finance and Investment Kandy (Private) Ltd who also have the contract for the car park. The property developer Mr. Thusitha Wijesena who is building the massive shopping cum office complex called the Kandy City Centre is the CEO of the company.

The KMC agreed to allow the tenderer to charge for street parking of a car or van Rs 23 for the first hour and Rs 57 for each additional hour. For a lorry except in Colombo Street, the rates are Rs 57 and Rs 86 respectively. Three wheelers and motorcycles have to pay a flat free of Rs 11.50 per hour. In the new car park the rate for a car or van is Rs 11.50 for each of the first two hours, Rs 20 for each the next four hours, Rs 25 for seventh and eighth hour and Rs 250 fixed charge for 24 hours.

The Kandy traders, lawyers and several other groups protested against what they called “exorbitant” rates for street parking and organized a boycott of payment of parking fees. This led to some clashes between the motorists and parking attendants of the company deployed to collect the fees. The police refused to intervene in these disputes and the contractor complained that he was not earning the anticipated income to pay the monthly contract fee of Rs 2.8m to the KMC. Our investigations reveal that up to June 06 2006, he had paid only Rs 3.8m to the Council and owed another Rs 13.2m.

The KMC appealed to the Central Provincial Council (CPC) and the Minister of Local Government for permission to reduce the street parking rates so that the Council in turn could reduce the monthly contract fee levied from the tenderer. However, a reliable source told The Kandy News that the Commissioner of Local Government writing on behalf of the CPC and the Minister had informed the Mayor to “reconsider” his request. The decision of the KMC to enforce the original street parking fees follows this ruling. Sources from the parking management company say that motorists are now increasingly complying with the new rules and paying the higher fee for street parking.

The Municipal Council is yet to decide whether it should impose a penalty on Mr. Wijesena's company for late payment of dues.

Given the under-utilization of the new car park Mr. Wijesena has rented out the vacant space for exhibitions. In May a floriculture exhibition was held in the car park. It was followed by a book exhibition in June. Mr. Wijesena says that he only charges a nominal fee for electricity and cleaning from the exhibitors. Mayor Aluvihare sees it as a positive use of space for a civic purpose and a useful way to make the car park popular although it is a violation of the terms of the contract.

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Central Provincial Council Progress Report Figures Questionable

Serious doubts have been expressed about the reliability of the Central Provincial Council income and expenditure figures that have been published in the recently issued report titled “Prosperous Central Lanka Proudly Moving Forward.” The most glaring mistake relates to capital spending. Total capital expenditure for 2005 is stated as Rs 1,633m. However, the budget is able to show only Rs 1,504m as funds available to finance that spending. Thus Rs 129m remains unaccounted. Opposition members believe that the capital expenditure figures have been inflated. But senior officials of the Council who prepared the report claim that the money came from unspent resources in 2004. However, if that were true, the sources of such funds are not mentioned anywhere in the report.

The accounts also reveal serious under-expenditure in key areas of development in 2005. For example, only about Rs 228m (64%) was spent on roads when the allocation was Rs 370m. Spending under President Mahinda Rajapakse's “Maga Naguma” concept was only 30% of the allocation. Rs 171m had been allocated for Tamil Schools but only Rs 92m (53%) had been spent. The under-expenditure in the Health Ministry was around 30% and in Animal Production 59%.

When The Kandy News raised the above issues with the Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayaka he conceded that there were some serious mistakes in some of the figures in the report. He rejected the accusations of the UNP and JVP that the report deliberately misleads the voting public by exaggerating the quantum of work that the CPC has completed. Mr. Ekanayake promised that whatever errors in the report will be corrected in a fresh edition of the report.

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