10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. (Prof.) A.H.M.H. Abayarathna

Jathika Jana balawegaya· Puttalam· 19 March 2026 ·Oral question: Oral Question: Demarcation of Local Authority Areas and Wards: Trincomalee District (Q.1558/2025)

Corruption & Governance ReformParliamentary Procedure
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Prof. Abayarathna stated that the Government does not consider it necessary to divide the Muthur Pradeshiya Sabha because the relevant criteria are not based solely on population. He noted that several other Pradeshiya Sabhas, including Homagama, Mahara, Katana, Wattala, Seethawaka and Kotikawatta-Mulleriyawa, have large populations, and using population alone would require many councils to be split.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, as I stated earlier in response to the Hon. Member’s question, the criteria have been formulated not solely on population. If we consider that, there are many other institutions we would then have to divide. Therefore, we do not think it is necessary to divide the Muthur Pradeshiya Sabha.

¶ 02 For example, the population of the Kotikawatta-Mulleriyawa Pradeshiya Sabha is 101,687; Seethawaka Pradeshiya Sabha 113,000; Homagama 216,000; Wattala 119,000; Katana 140,000; and Mahara 176,000. There are many Pradeshiya Sabha areas with large populations. If we take only population as the basis, we would have to split many councils. Hence, the need to constitute the Muthur Pradeshiya Sabha as two councils does not arise.

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Thursday, 19 March 2026 ·No. 23381 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. (Prof.) A.H.M.H. Abayarathna. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 19 March 2026. No. 23381. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/30102