Kandy Rotary to Aid Tsunami Victims

The Rotary Club of Kandy has launched a national and international appeal to assist tsunami fishermen and orphans. The scheme to assist fishermen called “Back to the Sea A New Beginning” will provide fiber glass boats with outboard motors and fishing gear to fishermen who lost their boats and equipment in the tsunami. Each boat and set of equipment will cost about Rs 375,000.

The tsunami orphans project is named “Grant a Smile to a Tsunami Orphaned Child.” For a donation of US $ 360 you can help meet the cost of a child's education. clothing, medicine and other essential and for 36 months. If you donate $1080 the child's board and lodging too will be looked after.

Those who are interested in contributing should contact Rotary President Ravana Wijeyarathne (ravanaw@slt.lk) or Vice-President Shamil Peiris (shamilp@cf.lk)

Full text from home page...

UNF MP Kiriella's Six Million Rupee Decentralized Budget Not Given

Minister Jayaratne promises to get the money from Treasury

Kandy District UNF parliamentarian and former minister Lakshman Kiriella has complained to the Kandy District Development Committee that the Treasury has failed to release the Rs 6.0m that was allocated to him last year under the decentralized budget for development work in the Kandy district. It is alleged that the officials who approve the funding refused to accept some of the proposals that Mr. Kiriella made for the utilization of funds.

Upcountry Development, Posts and Telecommunications Minster D M Jayaratne who heads the Development Committee promised to take immediate action to get the money released from the Treasury.

Full text from home page...

Assistance to Preserve Kandy Building Facades Requested
from US Foundation

Kandy Mayor Kesara Senanayake told The Kandy News that the Kandy World Heritage City Committee has requested assistance from the World Monument Fund of the Getty Grant Foundation of USA to preserve the facades of historic buildings in Kandy. The mayor says that a delegation from the Getty Foundation was briefed on the need for such conservation when it visited Kandy recently. The project proposals are submitted at their request.

Under the proposed program there will be three distinct projects. The first will conserve the building facades of old buildings on the five main roads of entry to Kandy. In addition to that under this project the sidewalks on all five roads will be repaired, bus halts will be constructed, street lighting improved and public toilets will be constructed. The second project will conserve building facades in the city centre. The third will undertake similar conservation of facades of the buildings that will have to be altered to make way for the Peradeniya Road widening project.

Full text from home page...

Mayor Senanayake on Warpath Against Developer Wijesena

The mayor of Kandy Mr. Kesara Senanayake has written the following letter to us in response to the news story that we carried in The Kandy News (February-March 2005). This concerns the large shopping/office complex in the Kandy city centre that is nearing completion.

I wish to state that Mr. Thusitha Wijesena had originally submitted plans for his building to the KMC in 1994. In 1998 approval was granted. However construction did not take place until the end of 2002 and now the project is nearing completion.

It is true that a few problems arose during implementation of this project. Mr. Wijesena's project had taken over a part of land formerly know as the Queen's Laundry below which the septic tank of the Queen's Hotel had been located. Consequently the Queen's Hotel had been deprived of a proper place to use as their septic tank. This of course has given rise to various problems as some of the sewerage from Queen's Hotel has flowed along certain streets in town. Mr. Wijesena has answered this charge by stating that the Urban Development Authority (UDA) had sold him the piece of land which contained the Queen's Hotel septic tank and that he had paid money to the UDA. It is also a fact that the Queen's Hotel has received some payment for the loss of their septic tank. However a suitable alternative has not been provided. The UDA on their part has informed me that Mr. Wijesena's project was the largest project in Kandy which had Board of Investment approval and that the UDA felt that all assistance must be granted to him.

Another issue that arose concerns Mr. Wijesena extending his building line on the road at Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe Mawatha. When I inquired into this matter, I found that the 1998 municipal council under my predecessor had granted permission to him to do s.
One final issue that arose was the construction of a sky bridge linking the new KMC car park to Mr. Wijesena's building. I am personally aware that this caused some comments from our citizens. Mr. Weerasinghe, the resident construction engineer of the car park justifies the building of this bridge on the grounds that it would allow easy access to motorists from the car park to Dalada Veediya via Mr. Wijesena's building. However Mr. Weerasinghe admits that no prior approval of the KMC had been obtained for this sky bridge.

The above issues have been lengthily discussed at several meetings of the Kandy Municipal Council and I have stated the relevant facts to the Council giving the reasons for and the date on which these decisions had been taken.

Furthermore members of the KMC have questioned me at our meetings as to whether the council would issue a Certificate of Conformity to Mr. Wijesena's building. I have replied that it was the practice of the council to issue such a certificate to a building only when it has been properly completed and in accordance with the approved plans certified by the KMC. Therefore I think this would not be a relevant issue at this time as the building has not yet been completed.

In conclusion, I would like to state that Mr. Thusitha Wijesena's building has caused adverse comment by some citizens who feel that it is too large a structure for the historic city of Kandy. But on the other hand many citizens have also stated the need to move forward with the times and have welcomed the construction of this shopping cum office complex. I leave this matter for the readers of this newspaper to decide for themselves.