by Chitra Weerarathne

Ravi Karunanayake, UNP Member of Parliament for Colombo district, has complained to the Court of Appeal that the Municipal Council of Kotte, Sri Jayawardenapura and the Mayor Chandra Silva, are not taking steps to effect the collection and the disposal of garbage and refuse, dumped randomly in the Sri Jayawardenapura area.

Since the UNP won the Kotte electorate, at the last Parliamentary poll, the cleanliness of the city had been neglected by the Municipal Council.

When residents complained to the MC and the Mayor, about the non-removal of garbage, they had been told to go and complain to Ravi.

The writ application filed by Ravi Karunanayake, requested the Court of Appeal to give a mandatory direction to the MC and the Mayor of Kotte to perform their statutory duty of maintaining a clean city, by drawing up effective means of garbage disposal.

The petition said that the petitioner is complaining as a representative of the people, on behalf of the constituents of Kotte and also as a civic minded citizen, living within this Municipal Council area limits. The Mayor is neglecting his statutory functions, since the Mayor failed to enter Parliament, and the petitioner succeeded in getting elected, the petition added.

The revenue of the Kotte MC in 1999 was Rs. 165,000,000 while in 2000 it is 135,000,000 to date. Several vehicles are available to collect the garbage. Around 500 persons are employed for cleaning up the city of Kotte, Sri Jayawardenapura, which is the administrative capital of this country, the petition said.

The petitioner has his political office, at 239, Sri Jayawardenapura Mawatha, Rajagiriya, within the MC of Kotte. The petitioner’s mother is resident at Pagoda Road, Nugegoda within the Kotte MC.

The first respondent, the Municipal Council of Kotte, the second respondent, the Mayor, Chandra Silva and the third respondent, the Municipal Commissioner, S. D. Piyadasa, are all statutory duty bound to the Municipal Ordinance, No. 29 of 1947 as amended.

Hence the failure of the respondents to perform the statutory duties, is arbitrary and the court could issue on them a compelling writ, the petition said.

The instructing attorney in this petition is G. G. Arulpragasam.

This petition will be supported in court shortly.