Meeting with the Vice President of Urban Council in Mannar

The citizen forum members had an opportunity to meet and discuss with Mr. G. Jesudasan who is the Vice President of the Urban Council in Mannar on 22 of August 2014 . The meeting was organized by the citizen forum  in the Center of Fisheries Solidarity Movement in Mannar. A sensational discussion could be seen between the Vice President of the Urban Council and the citizen forum. People are facing different kind of issues in the village but the Urban Council has failed address to all problems of the people as the responsible institute of the domain. Therefore, the citizen forum members concrened a lot of issues they face in their villages.

The representatives from Pallimune, Shanthipuram, Gimron Nagar, Geevapuram and Uppukulam explained the issues of them in village level. The representative of the Pallimune concerned the major issues of sea erosion, common transportation and decayed condition of the internal roads in the village. The members of Shanthipuram explained their issues such as discomfort condition of the roads, about not having  side channels of the roads and not having street lamps of the road. They mentioned that 20 years has pasted after building the village but authorities have failed to provide better servicers for the village.  Issues of some internal roads and flood issues are the main problem of the Uppukulam. 

The member of the Geevapuram explained the situation of the village blaming to the Urban Council. He blamed that although the President of the Urban Council came to the village to observe the situation, he did not at least get down from the vehicle to observe the real situation of the village. According to him, the villagers face a lot of issues such as poor condition of the roads, not having a common place to have even a meeting and not having proper access ways connecting with neighboring villages. Because of that people have to use outside ways access to other villages. They have to spend more time for that. It has some ways but people are unable to use those because those roads are ineligible for use. The Urban Council planned collaborating with the department of resettlement to develop above access ways but the plan is on the table yet. Not having drinking water is one of the burning issues. The children have not a preschool.  The electricity facilities should be supplied to some areas of the village. 

The main issues of the people in Gimron Nagar  are flood and  bad condition of the roads. When are the rainy seasons, people are unable to use the roads. The roads should be filled up. People have handed over a petition about this issue to the Urban Council but they did not have any response yet. Even Grama Niladari does not come to the village in the rainy season. 

The member of Geevapuram explained the major issues they face in the village. He explained that the flood influences to the people. People are difficult to use two major roads when it has flood. People have one Km to reach to the main road but it is very difficult to use that way. There were some ways but some people have captured those roads. Three ways have been released but there are some ways to be released. The channels of the roads should be developed. There is no proper mechanism of the Urban Council to collect the garbage. 

Mr. G.Jesudasan who is the Vice President of the Urban Council explained the existing situation to fulfill the service of the people as the Urban Council. According to him, there are 30,000 people of 5500 families in the Urban Council domain. There are 15 Grama Sevaka divisions in 24 villages as well as there are 1400 Kilo Meters of all roads and there are 700 KM of only internal roads in the Urban Council domain. If somebody blames to the Urban Council saying that they did not do anything for the people, we are unable to accept that because the Urban Council has to concern about 24 villages. Although the government provided resource to some Urban Council the government did not provide reasonable resource to our council. The Urban Council develops an international ground spending 4 Millions. We have allocated 10 Million against the sea erosion. The Urban Council will have 5.4 Million to develop the internal roads. The Urban Council has submitted a project to UNISCO. That is a long turn project of 4 years. It has been hold by the Government but we believe that that project will be released by the government to the Urban Council. Then, we will be able to solve 90 percent problems related to the flood and channels of the roads. The Urban Council maintains 1500 street lamps.

The Urban Council concerns to provide better service to the people, the vice president mentioned finally. 

People are concerning how the Urban Council is going to fulfill the service of the people in the area. The citizen forum always keeps a constructive link with the Urban Council to be sold the problems of the people.