No decision taken on dissolving local govt. bodies: Karu

By Chamodi Gunawardana

Public Administration, Local Government and Democratic Governance Minister Karu Jayasuriya yesterday announced that the Government had not taken any final decision about dissolving local government bodies.

Addressing a media briefing held at the Government Information Department, Jayasuriya said that the terms of 231 local government bodies would come to an end tomorrow.

“Another 65 local government bodies’ terms will end on 31 July, a further 21 terms will end on 21 September and another two local government bodies’ terms will end on 30 September. However, the terms of all the local government bodies will end on 16 October,” Jayasuriya said.

Commenting further, the Minister revealed that the Government expects to introduce a new loan scheme to the public which can repay a certain debt within three generations.

“If the applicant was unable to pay his loan during his lifetime, then their children or grandchildren could settle those loans,” Jayasuriya said.

Speaking further he pointed out that with the implementation of this new loan scheme, the installment would be reduced to an affordable amount, which would be beneficial to the public.

“The Government has increased the monthly salary of public servants by Rs. 10,000 and given an interim allowance of Rs. 8,000. The Government has also granted an allowance of Rs. 3,500 to pensioners. We are expecting to create an information technological platform which will deal with public servant’s grievances. However, now we are focusing on improving the knowledge of Tamil among public servants and that program has already been launched by the Army,” Jayasuriya stated.