The Kandy News Online Edition
November / December 2005
Email your articles and letters to the: editor@kandynews.net

Home

EDITORIAL

Write to the editor at: editor@kandynews.net

Kandy’s “Small” Issues

The presidential election is about big issues - peace, economy, cost of living and jobs. The two main candidates are really big on promises on each of them. If we are to believe either of them Prabhakaran is waiting with open arms to welcome the victor to Kilinochchi. Jobs will be galore, cost of living will be a thing of the past and all of us will live happily ever after.

There are a lot of small things that hardly get a mention in these national political discourses. But many such small things are very important to the life of a community. These issues may appear to be very local. But for many of them the solutions are beyond the capacity of the local community at least for now because these people who debate the big issues and rule from Colombo also keep a tight rein on the small issues.
Consider the several Kandy problems that we highlight in this edition of The Kandy News. All three stories on page one - untreated sewerage being discharged to the Mahaweli, corruption in teaching appointments, and delay in doctor appointments to the area hospitals - are local issues. But the Central Government's assistance is necessary to resolve all three. The doctors to the hospitals have to be appointed from Colombo. In a genuinely devolved system this need not be so. Teaching appointments to local schools are based on a circular issued from Colombo.

On page three we report that the KMC is struggling to repay a loan taken from ADB to build a market. In Sri Lanka the Central Government tightly controls local authority finances. In short municipal government in our country is almost literally limited to garbage and sewerage collection. But the sewerage story tells us that even that simple task is constrained by lack of funds.

The point of telling all this is to show that Colombo really needs to think of genuine devolution of power to local authorities so that individual communities can look after their own welfare without having to beg from the masters in Colombo. Both presidential candidates have talked big about creating “New Beginnings.” People are so cynical of politicians that they do not attach much credibility to these platitudes. But we have little choice but to rely on one of them to do what they say they would do. In so far as Kandy is concerned we would love to see an administration that would really devolve more power to municipal government.

Gannoruwa Link Road Cycle Path

The good news is that at last the Department of Agriculture has relented and is willing to give a little land for the expansion and rehabilitation if the Gannoruwa link road between Peradeniya and Getembe. The bad news is that the Department has refused to give a narrow additional strip for a cycle path. This is a pity.

The Road Development Authority has the foresight to plan for the next few decades. It rightly anticipates that in the future for various reasons such as escalating fuel cost, environment and lifestyle changes more people would like to cycle to work or for leisure. But our agriculturalists who more than any other group should be aware of at least the environmental benefits of such a facility should be supportive of the idea. Moreover, the employees in the Central Agricultural Research Station would be among the beneficiaries of such a cycle path. We hope that those who have the power to take a decision on this matter would change their minds even at this late stage and release the additional land required.