Local Authorities providing useful service -Kurunegala PS Chairman

Stanley Seneviratne Kurunegala North Group Corr.

The Local Authorities are providing several services which are very useful to the community such as pre-school and library services.

There are other community services too which can be implemented by the Local Authorities, such as religious and cultural officers, Youth and Women’s Affairs, Social Services and poverty alleviation, said Kurunegala PS Chairman Patrick Karunasinghe. He was addressing a ceremony that followed the prize distribution and passing out of the children who completed the pre-school education 2008 at the Adarsha pre-school at Malpitiya, Boyagane.

He said that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Local Government Reforms has shown that out of all community services pre-school and library services provided by Local Authorities occupies pride of place.

However, due to the absence of strong organisational structure responsibility for the organisation of the pre-school and public library system in a uniform manner, those segments categorised by the Library Services Board as belonging to the same class have failed to maintain equal standards and provide satisfactory services to the public.

The Commission has also observed that public libraries and pre-schools play an important role in providing information literacy, education and culture at local level to all citizens including children. But they are not fully operationalised due to insufficient funding and lapses in management.

With regard to religious and cultural affairs the Commission is of the view that under low, Local Authorities have not been assigned any responsibility and it should play a leading role in bringing about overall and balanced development of the area by not merely concentrating on physical infrastructure development but also by paying attention to other areas of activity.