The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, this time, taking Provincial Councils in general in terms of capital expenditure—there can be small differences among councils—on activities like road development, compared to previous years—including some governments where they also were involved—we have allocated three times more. Regarding Provincial Councils, for their constructions and recruitments, we have allocated three times more funds than before, even when we inherited a bankrupt country. Therefore, the Hon. Member’s statement is very unfair, Hon. Speaker.

¶ 02 The second point is this. We build roads. There are three institutions that own roads: the Central Government—things that belong under the Constitution—then, Provincial Councils, and Local Authorities. There are also a few roads that do not belong to anyone. For building these, the Ministry of Finance allocates funds to each relevant institution. However, when building, an RDA project can build a road belonging to a Local Authority; it only builds the road—the RDA does not take over that road. Similarly, an RDA project can build a Provincial Council road; it is only built, not gazetted under the RDA. That is the established position. I stated this at the Batticaloa District Coordinating Committee. The Governor attended; he is the Co-Chair. He spoke about the funds they have. Therefore, this has nothing to do with any weakening of the Provincial Council system. We build roads. If we build Local Authority roads, they remain with Local Authorities. If we build Provincial Council roads, they remain with Provincial Councils. If we build an RDA road, it belongs to the RDA. We have increased allocations for this task, and next year we will increase further. That is my answer, Hon. Speaker.