How solutions to administrative problems were found
Looking Back
Author: L. M. Samarasinghe
Publisher: Vijitha Yapa Bookshop, Colombo
Review: Wimaladharma Ekanayake
PROBLEM SOLVING: This is a most interesting book written by L.M.
Samarasinghe (or ‘Sam’ as he was referred to by his friends). He was a
member of the Administrative Service for over three decades and held
several important positions. At each such post he held, his superiors
and ministers had much appreciated and commended his services.
This book describes some of his experiences in facing problems and
the manner of finding solutions to them. He had been Divisional Revenue
Officer of Demala Hatpattu which was a very large Division in the
Puttalam District and was also the Police Authority for that entire
Division which had no Police Station. There was no telephone for this
large division and Sam had used Pigeons to carry massages for official
purposes.
This is a unique record of harnessing the efficiency of pigeons for
Public Service needs. There is no known record of any one else
harnessing pigeons for public Service requirements.
While functioning as DRO at Dehiowita in the Kegalle District he had
organised several thousands of blood donors to give blood at the Colombo
General Hospital Blood Bank which turned out to be a multipurpose
program and satisfied the Blood Bank, the donors and the Village Rural
Development Societies.
Long period
At Anuradhapura where he had served comparatively for a longer period
there had been several interesting experiences which were quite unique.
After the shift to the New Town the shop buildings and the residences in
the sacred area were sold and the buyers removed the usable material
leaving the lower parts of the various buildings and the debris which
gave a disturbing view of the sacred area to the pilgrims and visitors.
Sam had organised a one-day Shramadana at which a few thousands of
people participated and removed the left-over parts of the demolished
buildings and the debris and gave a clean appearance to the sacred area
of Anuradhapura.
This debris had been taken to fill up a new road way across a paddy
field linking the New Town and the Kurunegala road near Isurumuniya
Temple. This book refers to several other interesting and rare
experiences he has had while serving at Anuradhapura.
After a few years he had moved to Kandy and functioned as DRO and
later as ACLG. The Minister of Local Government had assigned several
important tasks in connection with the Delimitation of Kandy and three
other Urban Council areas in the Kandy District. Sam had carried out
these tasks with much acceptance and admiration.
Novel tasks
As secretary to the Leader of the House of Representatives he had
carried out certain novel tasks to facilitate the work of the Members of
Parliament and earned the commendation of Members of both sides of the
House.
Encroachments
When he was holding the position of Land Commissioner, the Cabinet of
Ministers had decided that a count of all encroachments of State Land in
the entire island be carried out within a short time and he set about
doing this task in a most commendable manner and the results indicated
that almost a million acres of State land were under encroachments. This
was a shocking discovery and the Government decided to take various
measures to remedy the sad situation.
The granting of Swarnabhumi Deeds was one such remedial measure.
While holding key positions in the Administrative Service he had also
associated himself with Civil Society Organisations both local and
International and had played a key role in these organisations.
He has also included in this book some of the interesting articles he
had published in the newspapers some time back. It would be most useful
for administrative service officers, particularly the new comers, to
read this book and get to know how solutions were found for challenging
problems by an active officer of an earlier period when necessary
facilities were extremely limited. |
