The government Friday accepted an SLMC proposal to upgrade the status of the Kalmunai Urban Council to a Municipality with effect from June 15, ministerial sources said Friday.

The sources said that both SLMC leader Minister Rauff Hakeem and the NUA leader Minister Ferial Ashraff have made representations to the government in this regard.

Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Nandimitra Ekanayake has promulgated the relevant regulations in the Extraordinary Gazette Notification No 1188/1 of June 11, Director Government Information Ariya Rubasinghe said last night. "In accordance with this notification, the new Municipality will comprise mayor, deputy mayor and 17 councillors," he said.

Batticaloa is the only other Municipality in the entire Eastern province, political sources said adding that the government has upgraded the status of the Kalmunai Urban Council to satisfy the SLMC leadership that had demanded the immediate establishment of a separate Muslim majority administrative district in the Ampara-Batticaloa region with Kalmunai as the base.

Kalmunai would be the 13rd Municipality in the country and the 3 in the North East region.

The sources said that the government was also likely to respond favourably the SLMC’s proposal to establish six new Urban Councils at Akurana, Madawala, Dharga Town, Mawanella, Eravur and Kinniya.

The leader and the general secretary of the Sihala Urumaya Tilak Karunaratne in a letter to Minister Nandimitra Ekanayake with a copy to President Kumaratunga has expressed serious concern over the SLMC’s demand for new Urban Councils. He has pointed out the danger in agreeing to the SLMC’s unreasonable demands.