KANDY – Government institutions will be given time till March 31 to settle the water tariff arrears with a warning to cut off the water supply if they failed to do so said, Kandy Mayor L. B. Aluwihare at the recent monthly meeting of the council.

Mayor Aluwihare chaired the meeting of the Kandy Municipal Council at the Kandy Town Hall.

The Mayor said over sixty public institutions in Kandy had not settled their bills costing the Council several millions of rupees.

The authorities had decided to disconnect the supplies if they failed to settle bills by March 31, he added.

In response to a query raised by PA member Sarath Wijesinghe in regard to the failure of the authorities to recover arrears of water tariff from the public institutions, Mayor Aluwihare revealed the steps taken to collect the water dues.

Sarath Wijesinghe said water supply was the main source of revenue earned by the municipal council since the distribution of electricity supply was taken over by the CEB, some years ago.

The councillor noted much water was wasted due to water leaks from taps at many places in the city.

He complained that commuters in Dodanwela area were adversely affected by the deterioration of the CTB bus service.

There is no bus from Dodanwela to Kandy in the morning after 4.30 a.m. till 6.30 . School Children and those employees in the public and the private sectors had to stand at bus halts for hours at times to get a bus", he said.

He said "Kandy CTBSouth Depot had reduced the number of buses operating on the route from three to one".

He urged the mayor to take up the matter with the relevant authorities.

Former leader of the Opposition Sena Dissanayake (PA) said his ambition as a people’s representative was to serve the people but that could not be done as officials of the Municipal Council had not cooperated with him.

Complaints had been repeatedly made in the council. But they had been ignored by the officers. Rate-payers repeatedly come to us with their grievances.

Deputy Mayor K. L. Suminda Wickremasinghe (UNP) said several steps should be taken against those who grab municipal council lands and putting up unauthorized structures.

The SLMC member M. Marikkar said many pre-schools in Kandy were located at placesnot suitable to conduct children’s schools.

Anura Kumara Gonawela (JVP) found fault with the Kandy Municipal Authorities for issuing a permit to put up a house on a land belonging to the Sri Dalada Maligawa and in close proximity to Malwatte Maha VIhara on William Gopallawa Mawatha.

The land on which the house was built had been earlier given on lease to a woman who had objected to the approval to build the house. But the Municipal Council had ignored the objection raised by the woman, Anura Kumara Gonawala said.

The Municipal Authorities had not honoured even the letters sent by the Diyawadana Nilame and the Mahanayake Thera on this issue, he added.

Former Mayor Kesara D. Senaanayake, Ananda Siriwardana, PLS Gunasekera, Chandana Bandara Sirimalwatte and several others tabled petitions and complaints.