Battle after battle in CMC

The local councils are meant to be the ‘miniature legislatures’ of the country and the Colombo Municipal Council ( CMC) is showing the way how true that is.

Already, the CMC is imitating the national Parliament with a heated contest for the post of Leader of the Opposition. Again, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) with 23 seats is the second largest party after the UNP in the CMC and is demanding the post – which is not a post prescribed by law, but one held by tradition.

In this case there is no TNA with fewer seats than the Joint Opposition, but there is the UPFA led by Azath Sally making a pitch for the post. The SLPP has writt en t o Mayo ress Ro s y Senanayake stating that they have nominated Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam, a former Chief Medical Officer of the CMC to the post of Leader of the Opposition. Here is a case of the UPFA-SLPP battling it out with the UNP to decide on the winner. Sally’s UPFA has only 12 seats in the CMC.

The battle for the Leader of the Opposition post is not the only battle to have got the CMC going. At its first meeting, all manner of games went on in the appointment to the various Standing Committees of the CMC. For instance, Dr. Kariyawasam himself was shunted out of the Health and Sanitat i o n Committee, where he would have been a useful and logical contributor given his previous role as an official of the council, but found himself in the Building Planning and Development Committee of which he probably knows little.

He has now sent a request let- ter for a “mutual transfer” and a separate letter to the Municipal Commissioner calling for an investigation into the use of expired chemicals in the anti-dengue programme in and around the shanty dwellers homes. He was clearly a victim of lobbyists who found him a threat in the Health and Sanitation Committee.

Then there is the case of the SLPP’s Sharmila Gonawela, who once found corrupt activities in the Solid Waste Committee. She was placed in the Library Committee. After her vehement protests, she has now been put in the Women and Children’s Committee – but not in the Solid Waste Committee.

Another c o u n c i l l o r, Kahandagama was to be in the Marketing Committee, but found himself left out, and after shouting and screaming found himself included. So, the CMC starts off with some square pegs in round holes, so to say. Not an auspicious start, what.