CWC proposals to benefit plantation workers - Muthu Sivalingam

by P. Krishnaswamy

The Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) will submit proposals and recommendations to the Government, shortly to create more Divisional Secretariats and delimit the existing boundaries to ensure proportional representation for the plantation community in local Government bodies, CWC President and Deputy Minister of Economic Development Muthu Sivalingam told the Sunday Observer .

He said that the CWC is optimistic that under President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership and his commitment towards the social and political welfare of the plantation community, the UPFA Government would favourably consider the recommendations on behalf of the community for equitable political representation.

The chairman of the three-member committee that was set up to formulate the proposals/recommendations, P. P. Devaraj, a former parliamentarian, said that the committee comprising A. Easwaran, former Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Kumar Nadesan, Attorney-at-Law and MD of the Express Newspapers held a series of meetings followed by consultations with political parties, businessmen and civil society organisations representing the plantation community.

The response from all sections of the plantation community to the proposed recommendations has been excellent and the proposals are now being finalised, he said.

The committee will meet on June 7 for further deliberations. The proposals would most probably be finalised at a meeting scheduled for June 19 and the proposals will be on delimitation of boundaries for the creation of more Divisional Secretariat Divisions and Grama Niladhari Divisions in Badulla, Ratnapura, Kandy, Matale, Kegalle and Kalutara districts where there is a considerable concentration of the plantation community but with hardly any Parliamentary representation, Devaraj said. Representation of the community in Local Government bodies, especially Pradeshiya Sabhas, will be of immense benefit to them due to the manner of distribution in these areas, he said.

Devaraj said, “In so far as local authority reforms are concerned no exact proposal has so far been put forward. With regard to electoral reforms, the ‘Dinesh Gunawardena Interm Report’ is now available. When the proposals come, we will make recommendations.

We will continue our consultations and deliberations on the proposed electoral reform as well,” he said.