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.
