Good times ahead for people of Kaduwela Municipal Council

by Ananda Kannangara

The newly elected to the new title of Mayor of the Kaduwela Municipal Council, G.H. Buddhadasa, is all smiles.

He of course has enough reasons to smile about. For, not only did he come up trumps, garnering the highest number of preferential votes in the recent L.G. Elections but also having to win with many odds stacked against him.

The Lion of Kaduwela, as many people affectionately call him says he loves the people of his area irrespective of their caste, creed, religion or the political background. It was the secret of the success of the newly elected Mayor of Kaduwela.

Buddhadasa is calm and quiet. The door of his house at Suboothipura, Battaramulla is open to anybody. He does not take care of the political background of a person who comes to him. He gives a patient hearing to whatever complaint directed by people.

The Sunday Observer last week had the opportunity to meet this newly elected Mayor to ask about his victory at the recently concluded Local Government election. He has plans to carry out a number of development activities in Kaduwela during his next term.

Buddhadasa said he started his political career from his school days. He became the Chairman of the Kaduwela Pradeshiya Sabha in 1992 and has been in the service for nearly 14 years.

“I have contested over 10 elections during the past 15 years and the last election was the most crucial one I faced during my whole political career.” He said he never gets any threats from Opposition politicians, but this was the first occasion he received lots of threats from a member of the same party.

“Several attacks were directed at me during the election period and attempts made to disrupt my political career”, Buddhadasa said.

He said he was sad that a powerful politician was behind these threats. His main objective was to show the people in Kaduwela that his newly formed party could beat the SLFP.

But, people gave their verdict and showed that President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s party cannot be shaken by novice political parties.

People in my area clearly know about the load of work which I had done for the Kaduwela MC during the past few years and it was good enough reason for them to elect me with a big majority of preferential votes.

He also thanked President Mahinda Rajapaksa for visiting his house at Battaramulla before the election and also several other key Ministers for helping him at the election. He also thanked MP Achala Jagoda for the support given.

Asked about the development work , he expected to carry out in the Kaduwela area, Buddhadasa said he has already completed 90 percent work in the area and the rest will be completed within the next eight months.

He said he spent over Rs. 1,950 million during the past eight years for the development activities in the area. “I constructed the entire road network and the drainage system by utilising our own funds. In addition, I have also planned to lay concrete all gravel roads that have been damaged due to recent rains”.

He said unlike earlier, dumping of garbage everywhere has been completely stopped and new plants will be set up to produce bio-gas from garbage collected from the Nawagamuwa Temple and weekly fairs.

According to a recent research carried our by the Kaduwela MC on the instruction of the then Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Buddhadasa, it was found that many Government buildings and also houses of people in the area are in a dilapidated condition and steps will be taken to either renovate them or to demolish them and construct new buildings and houses. He said he has plans to start a housing project in the Kaduwela MC for the benefit of Government servants and also poor people who have no houses. Accordingly three houses will be constructed every six months to be distributed among very poor families. Mayor Buddhadasa has also planned to start a 24-hour Internet facility service to enable people to complain of sudden power failures in their areas and also to make other complaints such as non-collecting of garbage and breakdown of drainage system.

Buddhadasa also spoke about the Dhamma School education and the pre-school education and said that he wished to develop the Dhamma School education with the help of Buddhasasana Ministry. Pre-schools will be conducted free of charge for poor children.The new Mayor also spoke about the health facilities in the area and said that the Government hospitals at Nawagamuwa and Athurugiriya will be upgraded with all facilities, so that patients will not have to go to the National Hospital in Colombo even for surgeries.

Buddhadasa also spoke about the upgrading of the Kaduwela Pradeshiya Sabha to Municipal Council and said that the Local Government Ministry took this decision after considering the invaluable service rendered towards people in the Kaduwela area by the Pradeshiya Sabha.

Pic: Vipula Amarasinghe