Dr Sarath Obeysekera

We all know that Sri Lanka has miserably failed in coordination of development work in the country .

.J R installed provincial councils to satisfy India and also to show the world that he is quite genuine in decentralization of power .In the North Vartharajh Perumal thought that he is above the center ,and unilaterally declared a independent state and he ended up in India  who was behind his move ?

Now in the North Wiggy seems like having some hidden agenda and keeps talking about independent on and off .

In the East it is somewhat little controllable because they are little wary of getting absorbed into Nroth PC one day .

Nothing to say about South ,Central,Sabarabamuwa ,North Central and Western council as the Chief Ministers have their own agenda to raise up to become a Minister of the Centre one day,hence they tow the line of the incumbent governments.

In addition we have now Megapolis  and Western Development Ministry  ( poking their nose in not only Western but also southern and eastern provinces ) in town development , Southern Development Board under a minister ,Central development under a Field Marshal .

We see tug of war between all above agencies and councils, and Centre keeps watching helplessly .

I would like a cite a somewhat simple example to show that individual decentralized control of any development cannot work

We were all impressed regarding  the beautification work done by previous regime ,specifically establishment of walking paths with individual solar paneled lamp  posts ,which are equipped wth individual power sources such as ordinary replaceable batteries.

When I saw then being built, my comment to a colleague was that   this is not sustainable as successive regimes will not allocate funds to maintain the lamp posts .

Two years have passed and most of the lamps are burnt and batteries have   exhausted their life !

And the cost of each battery over 30,000 rs and the authorities had no clue how to keep the lamps burning .

Today I not that the Corporation in charge of the walking paths is trying to get away for having individual batteries ,but Installing Central Solar Panel connected to the street  light system as a back up

This is  a  convincing proof though it looks trivial ,that development can only be sustainable ,only if it is under Centralized .control .

We have to get rid of all the Provincial Councils and appoint area ministers under the Central Government to plan and execute all the development programs depending on Geographical and national needs

I will  happy to be managed by a old system of having a Gam Muladani” who is the representative of the President who can be easily controlled by the centre.

That is how our  kings carried out all the development in ancient Sri Lanka ,when the Westerners were climbing up trees.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera