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The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) should be free of politics. It should set an example to the country to steer clear of politics and become a symbol of national unity, the UPFA CMC mayoral candidate Milinda Moragoda told the “Sunday Observer” during his election campaign conducted for over four weeks. Former Cabinet Minister Moragoda spoke to the “Sunday Observer” at his office. He has crisscrossed Colombo in conducting face-to-face meetings with ratepayers. He made no allegations against his rivals. He explained what he intends to do for the benefit of the ratepayers. He sought the views of people to supplement his policy plans. A very rare election campaign identified as environment-friendly; posters, cutouts have been done away with. Q: Why do you desire a CMC free of politics? Can you explain your concept? A: Which work should be done or whose garbage should be collected or which house should be sprayed or which premises should be raided need not be political decisions. The CMC should set an example in keeping politics out of administration. Administering the Colombo city is basically about providing services to the citizens of Colombo. They really pay for such services. Q: At the launching ceremony of your election campaign at the ‘Mahaweli Centre’ you said that the beauty of Colombo city is its structure. During your campaign you met people of different communities, how would you recollect your experiences? A: It was a refreshing experience. The city could be called a miniature Sri Lanka. I came across people speaking different languages and belonging to different political parties and social strata. All they need is a quick solution to their problems.
Q: I believe you have first hand knowledge about the problems confronting city folk, since you have closely associated with them during the last weeks of your election campaign. Your comments? A: There are a whole range of issues. A newspaper report which appeared in the “Sunday Observer” fifty years ago was shown to me recently by former CMC mayor, M. H. Mohamad. According to that, Colombo ratepayers had a number of unsolved problems relating to shanties, street lamps, roads and play grounds. Such problems exist even today. This is a fact. I am not going to blame anybody but the fact remains that these issues have now aggravated. Inefficiency apart, what I have noticed is the lack of community participation to solve outstanding problems. It is time for all segments of society irrespective of political differences to team up to seek solutions to their problems. An effective system of “Citizen committees” as in Singapore could be the ideal model to solve city problems. For example, each tenement could have a “Citizens committee” of women, youth, religious leaders, public and private sector employees or social leaders. They could form committees at gramasevaka level and urban level. The community could play a vital role in development and in effecting a positive change in Sri Lankan political culture and Colombo city as well. Q: Tenements or “wathu” have posed a serious problem to city administration. Could you briefly explain your blueprint to settle this long standing problem? A: There is a large number of tenements with dubious names such as “korea” “sudan” and “Ethiopia. When I visited them I found how appropriate these names were. The volume of the major problems such as housing, garbage disposal and traffic congestion is much larger than what the CMC could handle. It is necessary to find solutions to these problems with the support of the central government and the Provincial Council. The government has already allocated Rs. 10 billion to construct housing schemes for shanty dwellers. Each shanty dweller will be given a well-equipped house. Each housing unit to be constructed will have facilities such as kitchen, bathrooms and separate rooms. The construction of such condominium complexes in the city has already been launched. Q: How can you explore resources to implement citizen committee proposals? A: It is essential for the CMC to secure central government assistance to finance the development and social welfare projects. There are various sources to tap funds to launch city development projects. Foreign governments are willing to assist at grass roots level projects such as city development. NGOs and philanthropists too are willing to provide assistance for social development activities. Leading companies own up their share of social responsibility in financing social development activities. Q: You have said that local authorities too should be managed like private sector companies. Could you elaborate? A: In the major cities in the West and in Asia, eg. Tokyo local bodies are efficiently run on the lines of companies. It is like a servicing company. Citizens pay their rates to the council and the council in turn provides a service to the citizens. In the end the citizen virtually becomes a consumer. In that context the local body is not a political institution. Q: How will you achieve your targets if you are elected mayor of Colombo? A: Making Colombo, the centre of excellence is the theme of my campaign. I want to introduce professionalism and competency to streamline the present administration in the city. There should be a change in attitude to treat the ratepayers as a consumer. A ratepayer wants his plan approved by the council. It gets delayed for some reason. He has the right to question as to why there is a delay. A plan has to be approved within a timeframe and the delay therefore has to be explained. The council and its transactions should be transparent so that citizens know what is really happening. The best way of eliminating corruption is to bring transparency to the administration. |
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