2023-06-09
News Categories : Committee News
No final decision will be taken about Provincial Councils and Local Government delimitation without consulting with the Members of Parliament.
Even if the number of provincial council members will be reduced, injustice will not be allowed to any part of the population.
- Hon. Dinesh Gunawardena affirms
Hon. Dinesh Gunawardena, Minister of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government affirmed that even if the number of provincial council members will be reduced, injustice will not be allowed to any part of the population and that no final decision will be taken about Provincial Councils and Local Government delimitation without consulting with the Members of Parliament. He said that this should be done with a fair representation of youth and women.
The Chairman to the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils & Local Government stated the aforesaid on 07.06.2023. Members of Parliament, Government officials and State Ministers including State Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Hon. Janaka Wakkumbura, State Minister of Home Affairs Hon. Ashoka Priyantha were present at this Committee meeting held.
Attention was drawn to the difficulties faced by public servants who submitted nominations for the 2023 local government elections due to the delay in the elections. It was also discussed that even though a circular has been issued that salaries should be paid to them, the work is not done properly in some institutions. Furthermore, according to the situation, these employees have to face great difficulties during the assignment of temporary placements. State Minister Hon. Janaka Wakkumbura said that a circular has been issued to the nearest institution regarding the process of attachment. The Prime Minister instructed to take necessary steps in this regard immediately.
A request was also made by the Members of Parliament to bring the necessary legal amendment to change this situation. If not, a proposal to pass a resolution to cancel the nomination by way of the Parliament was also presented here.
The Committee also paid attention to the activities of the draft Bill prepared to remove the existing obstacles for the field officers to request votes in their electorate. Accordingly, the Bill has been forwarded to the Attorney General for consultation, the officials said. Accordingly, the Prime Minister instructed the officials to take the necessary steps and complete the work pertaining to the Bill.
The members pointed out the need to intervene to carry out the necessary activities for the public as the local government bodies are currently controlled by the local government commissioners. That measures will be taken to provide instructions to the provincial governors to provide the necessary facilities to expedite the work of solving public problems through the district coordination committee chairpersons stated that measures will be taken to provide instructions to the provincial governors to provide the necessary facilities to expedite the work of solving public problems through the district coordination committee chairpersons.
Attention was also drawn to the fact that provincial government officials were not given proper transfers. Accordingly, the Prime Minister also emphasized that the transfers of all administrative officers including divisional secretaries should be done properly. Accordingly, the Prime Minister gave instructions to the officials to take immediate action for the said.
The matters pertaining to that of which the former regional secretary Tissamaharama had told the media was also taken into discussion. It was revealed that an immediate report was called in this regard and a letter was also received stating that a voluntary transfer was requested for personal reasons. The Secretary to the Ministry said that it is not reasonable to issue such a statement and an investigation will be carried out in this regard.
The attention of the Minister was also drawn to the activities of making local councils including Wayangoda local council into municipal councils. It was also revealed that there are 85 such requests. Accordingly, the Prime Minister gave necessary instructions to speed up the work.
The Leader of the Opposition drew the attention of the Committee towards the confirmation of those who have not been given the respective permanent appointments due to the deficiencies in the process in the program of giving appointments to qualified graduates under the 2020 Graduate Trainee Program. The officials pointed out that the review committee headed by the Prime Minister's Secretary has recommended that a policy decision should be taken. Accordingly, the Prime Minister gave necessary instructions to the officials to speed up the work.
Prime Minister Hon. Dinesh Gunawardena said that the necessary measures will be taken to employ nearly 30,000 multi-purpose department employees assigned to government institutions, and their salaries will also be increased.
Furthermore, the committee emphasized the need to work to confirm the people who have worked in the local government institutions for many years. State Minister Hon. Janaka Wakkumbura said that there are currently 9700 such employees and they are being prioritized.
2024-09-20
The Committee on High Posts which met recently (Sep. 18) in Parliament has given its approval for the nomination of the Ambassador of Sri Lanka designated to the State of Kuwait.Accordingly, the Committee on High Posts considered the nomination of Mr. L.P. Ratnayake as the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the State of Kuwait and has approved same.Hon. Vidura Wickramanayaka, Hon. (Dr.) (Mrs.) Sudarshini Fernandopulle, Hon. Udaya Gammanpila were present at this meeting of the Committee on High Posts Chaired by Hon. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, Speaker.
2024-09-09
The report of the Select Committee of Parliament to look into whether the child malnutrition issue in Sri Lanka is aggravating and to identify short term, medium term, and long-term measures to be taken in that regard, as well as to oversee the speedy implementation of the identified measures was presented to Parliament by Member of Parliament, Hon. Rohini Kumari Wijerathna on behalf of the Select Committee Chair Hon. Vadivel Suresh recently (04). The Report presents that child undernutrition can be presented in four forms such as stunting (low length/height for age), wasting (low weight for length/ height or low BMI for age), underweight (low weight for age) and, micro nutrient deficiencies/ insufficiencies - a lack/ inadequacy of important vitamins and minerals. The Report further states that babies born with a birth weight of 2500 grams or less are considered to be low birth weight and according to the National Nutrition and Micronutrient Survey conducted in 2022, the prevalence of low birth weight in a nationally representative sample was 15.9%. The June 2023 Nutrition Month report identified an increase in underweight and stunting among infants and children up to two years of age compared to 2022. The most alarmingly high underweight rate of 24.6% was recorded in Nuwara Eliya district, where one in every four children was identified as moderately or severely underweight, the report said. In June 2023, the proportion of children affected by poverty in Sri Lanka is 10%, according to this report. 1.2% of all children under the age of 5 are affected by severe acute malnutrition and numerically nearly 16,000 children suffer from such acute malnutrition. The Nutrition Month 2023 report revealed a 10.3% increase in stunting among children under the age of five, an increase of 9.2% from the previous year. The report has revealed that the causes of chronic malnutrition, which are short or short in height compared to children of the same age, occur over time. Meanwhile, according to the survey conducted in 2022, a nationally representative sample of children aged 5-18 years found that shortness, overweight and obesity increase with age. The report has shown that lack of food security at the household level has also contributed to malnutrition. Due to the economic crisis in the year 2022, 98% of the entire population has been affected by the increase in food prices, and as a result, 74% of the households could not afford to buy food or daily essentials in the last six months of that year, according to the report. The number of food insecure households increased to 24% in the third quarter of 2023 compared to 17% in March 2023. A third of all families have reduced the frequency of cooking or limited their consumption and a quarter live on food from neighbors. The report provides conclusions and recommendations for improving child nutrition. It emphasized the importance of immediate attention to children before they become chronically malnourished. The report also emphasized the need for adequately skilled field health staff to provide quality Maternal and Child Nutrition (MCN) services for Maternal and Child Health (MCH) programs. The report also emphasized that vitamin A supplementation should be considered again before this becomes a problem again, as vitamin A supplementation has been discontinued for school children. The need for urgent action to improve the food security status of families with children under the age of five has also been highlighted. The report also recommends using existing health management information systems to identify focal areas of malnutrition in children and to map risk to address malnutrition in order to identify the most vulnerable families and causal factors. A number of short, medium and long-term recommendations have been presented in this report, including uninterrupted supply of nutritional supplements to pregnant mothers and malnourished children, control of prices of those ingredients to ensure affordable availability of ingredients for a healthy and low-cost diet, the implementation and monitoring of pre-school feeding program, school feeding program and school canteen guidelines to provide quality food.
2024-09-06
The Sectoral Oversight Committee on Food Security & Agriculture went on an observation visit in Gampaha (Minuwangoda) area on August 28 for the survey of paddy harvest obtained through the use of environmentally friendly fertilizer. The main objective of the Committee was to successfully introduce environmentally friendly fertilizer to the Sri Lankan agriculture and it was decided in this Committee that the fertilizer products should be tested in the main paddy growing area. Under the guidance of the Committee Chair Hon. D. Weerasingha, the eco-friendly fertilizer usage program was implemented in 7 provinces and Mahaweli Zones B, C and H in the 2024 yala season, post observing the successful results of paddy demonstrations in Welikanda and Dehiattakandiya areas using environmentally friendly fertilizers in the 2023/2024 Maha season. This observation tour took place in accordance to the said. Officials of the Sectoral Oversight Committees of the Parliament of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Department of Agriculture, the Department of Agrarian Development, Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute, Agricultural Research Policy Council, National Fertilizer Secretariat, Department of Census and Statistics and Western Provincial Department of Agriculture were present during this program. Under the above program, the program related to the Western Province was conducted under the supervision of the Western Province Agriculture Department and the harvest survey was conducted by the Census and Statistics Department. The overall coordination of the program was done by the National Institute of Fundamental Studies.
2024-08-22
The research report on the gender pay gap was presented to Hon. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, the Speaker of Parliament and Hon. Sajith Premadasa, Leader of the Opposition recently (Aug. 08) by Hon. (Dr.) (Mrs.) Sudarshini Fernandopulle, Chair of the Women Parliamentarians' Caucus. This report was prepared by a group of researchers including the Women and Media Collective under the leadership of the Women Parliamentarians' Caucus. Chair of the Committee on Public Finance, Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva, Member of Parliament, Co-Deputy Chair of the Women Parliamentarians' Caucus, Hon. (Mrs.) Rohini Kumari Wijerathna, Hon. Eran Wickramaratne Member of Parliament were also present at this event. Addressing the gathering, Hon. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, the Speaker stated that it is important to formulate legislation and new policies to change these wage inequalities. Furthermore, the Hon. Sajith Premadasa, Leader of the Opposition stated that provisions should be included in the constitution so that these rights can be upheld. The Caucus Chair pointed out that in order to eliminate this gender wage disparity, there should also be a change in the attitudes among the people in the society. Mrs. Kushani Rohanadeera, Secretary General of the Parliament and the Secretary of the Women Parliamentarians' Caucus, thanked everyone who contributed towards the success of this work. Commenting on this research report, the research team led by Dr Sepali Kottegoda, Executive Director of the Women and Media Collective stated that the gender pay gap in the Sri Lankan labor market is primarily and closely linked to unpaid care services. The researchers highlighted that women are under-represented in high-wage industries, concentrated in low-paid service roles, and a significant proportion of women are engaged in part-time work and unpaid domestic care services. Ministry of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment, Women and Media Collective, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), National Democratic Institute (NDI) other invitees were present at this event.
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