The comments made by some of those who had written to The Island regarding the renaming Galpoththa Road, Nawala appear to have distorted the whole episode. Hence it needs to clarify the position to make the readers aware of what really took place.

The service rendered by the late Mr. Douglas D. Ranasinghe to the people of Kotte can be fathomed by the following:

It was Mr. Ranasinghe who worked tirelessly to bring back the glory of the ancient Kingdom of Kotte, by collecting all available documents, records, artefacts, maps and evidence from ancient literature preserving these and doing research into the subject. It was due to his efforts the museum of Kotte was established by the Department of Archaeology appointing him as the honorary curator.

He was honoured by late President R. Premadasa for his outstanding contribution to Kotte and was awarded the title Puravidya Chakravarti by the former President D. B. Wijetunga on the recommendation of the Director General of Archaeology. With the assistance of the Survey Department he was able to draw a map of ancient Kotte depicting all the archaeological sites of Kotte and it was due to his untiring efforts that the Kotte museum was established at the E. W. Perera’s Walawwa in Kotte where it stands today.

He wrote hundreds of articles to newspapers on Kotte and authored a number of books on the subject including ‘The Lion of Kotte,’ ‘Kotte Puranaya,’ ‘Welikada Withthi’ and Asirimath Kotte’. He proved with authentic documents that the place called Rajagiriya was so named by local people after the residence of Donald Wijesekara ‘Rajagiri’ and the real place name was Welikada. On his findings the Postal Department opened the Welikada post office. All important junctions of Kotte were named with boards to identify the directions to see ruins of the Kotte Kingdom by using the map drawn and designed by him.

He also visited schools countrywide and lectured to school children about the Kotte kingdom with the approval of the Ministry of Education.

Naming the Galpotta Road after him was never a request of Douglas Ransinghe’s family but a proposal made by the Director General of Archaeology and under the provisions Streets and Monuments Act of 1975 The Commissioner of Local Government gave approval to rename Galpoththa Road as Douglas Ranasinghe Mawatha.

Mr. Douglas Ransinghe spent a lifetime on research and conservation of the ancient sites and artefacts of the Kotte kingdom and he donated all the archaeological artefacts and material to the Kotte museum. The later generations of not only Kotte have the museum and historical evidence today due to his untiring efforts to bring back the glory of Kotte that he loved more than anything else.

A few jealous and misinformed people living in the neighbourhood who had found Mr. Douglas Ransinghe a barrier to their mischievous activities found it an opportunity to get round the Mayor of Kotte and a certain employee in the Municipality to remove the name board bearing his name.

My concern as the son of Mr. Douglas Ranasinghe is about the unlawful act of the Mayor who went all out to get the road renamed after my father, suddenly getting the name board removed, in an unlawful manner. He cannot break the law just because he is the Mayor. I am writing this to keep the readers and residents of the area informed to dispel the doubts in the mind of people created by a handful of jealous people.