Colombo appropriates Trinco fish market from civic body

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 October 2012, 19:47 GMT]
Centuries old public fish market of the Trincomalee Urban Council, which was recently renovated with the consent of the Trincomalee Urban Council (UC), is to be appropriated by the Fisheries ministry of Colombo government. Susantha Punchinilame, the deputy minister of fisheries and a UPFA parliamentarian from Trincomalee district has made the announcement at the Trincomalee District Co-ordinating Committee (DCC) meeting held this week. Mr.K.Selvarajah, the chairman of the Trincomalee UC, who attended the DCC meeting vehemently protested against the appropriation and said the UC would not agree for the takeover of the fish market by the central government. The market belongs to the Trinco UC and it was renovated with the permission of the council, he added.

Mr Punchinilame, along with the EPC Chief Minister Najeeb Abdul Majeed jointly presided the DCC meeting.

The administration of the Trincomalee Urban Council is in the hands of the Tamil National Alliance.

TNA councilors of the Eastern Provincial Council who attended the DCC meeting spoke against the move by the Colombo government to take over the UC fish market.

However, the Deputy Minister said the objection to the takeover by the UC would be recorded.

Punchinilame has vowed to table a cabinet paper in order to take over the market, the sources further said.

The latest move by the SL deputy minister, violating the rights of the Urban Council, is yet another demonstration, which confirmed that the ‘devolution of powers’ to the civic body only exists in paper and that it is useful only to put things on record, an elected member of the UC told TamilNet.