The Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam

¶ 01 Hon. Minister, thank you for your clarification. Hon. Speaker, my first supplementary is this: if this is within the Provincial Council’s scope as you said, I do not believe a single bridge will ever be built, because Provincial Councils do not receive enough funds from the Central Government even to pay salaries, and they have no direct revenue mechanism. That is why we ask that powers be meaningfully devolved. I know the JICA feasibility study you referred to — after 2012 and again in 2015 studies were done; foundation stones were laid. Estimates were then done by the RDA. I am not sure the Provincial RDD has the capacity. My earnest request is this: recently, when we met the President, we raised bridges like Vattuvakkal in Mullaitivu and Kalu Bridge in Trincomalee, and requested several bridges be built via the next Budget. If the RDA takes over these Batticaloa bridges, we can trust they will be done during your tenure. If you insist they be done by the Provincial Council, they will not happen. Is there a way to bring these under the RDA, as was done before?