Facelift for 100 LG bodies in remote areas:

Local bodies to be more people friendly

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Following the conclusion of elections in most local bodies except 23, the Local Government Ministry is taking steps to re-engineer the services of these local bodies to make them more people friendly while improving the infrastructure of 100 local bodies in remote areas under a Rs. 6 billion program with Asian Development Bank assistance.

Secretary to the Local Government and Provincial Councils Ministry Dr. Nihal Jayathilaka told the Sunday Observer that the Ministry has identified certain instances which irk people as officials delay services giving flimsy excuses.

“For instance people who want their building plan approved by the local authority spend several months at these local bodies as we found that the forms that need to be filled for the purpose are very complicated and cannot be easily understood by the masses, ”Dr. Jayathilaka said. “Having studied these shortcomings carefully we have decided to change the forms to make it more people friendly and remove the irrelevant sections’, he said.

At the same, time the Ministry also aims at developing the front office concept at the Local Government bodies to avoid people being sent from pillar to post at these institutions.

“For this purpose, we need to have a capacity building program for the employees of local bodies and a program to change their attitude to have a qualitative change in the services of local bodies,” Dr. Jayathilaka said.

Apart from this, the Local Government Ministry has also selected 100 Local Government bodies in far flung areas to provide infrastructure facilities for them to improve their services.

“We have selected these local government institutions, according to scientific indicators to use the Rs. 6,000 million Asian Development Bank assistance.

Having a proper solid waste management program is a prerequisite for the relevant local body to benefit from this aid package,” the Secretary said.