2 September 2020 12:10 am
The President said this during a meeting to discuss the roles and responsibilities of District Committee Chairmen held at the Presidential Secretariat on Monday.
President Rajapaksa requested the District Committee Chairmen to actively contribute to build the national economy by finding solutions to various issues faced by the public in several districts.
He said that the District Committee Chairmen did bear a great responsibility towards taking the country forward by making efficient use of state machinery and working together with Ministers and State Ministers.
“The young members of Parliament who were not made Ministers were appointed to chair the District Development Committees with the objective of devoting their entire time to development activities,” he said.
He said the Government had identified issues that were common as well as unique to several districts.
President Rajapaksa said that the current situation in every district in the country would be constantly reviewed to a mechanism that would be formulated to address existing problems immediately.
It was noted that work on several development programmes implemented by the then Government till 2015 had been stalled.
Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Economic Revival- Basil Rajapaksa said all suspended constructions should be completed using the allocation of funds from the forthcoming Budget.
Mr. Basil Rajapaksa added that plans had been mooted to renovate all the roads in the country categorised as A,B,C and D before the end of the tenure of the incumbent President. The Chairmen of District Development Committees have assured that they would be fully committed to the development of the country by providing the support expected by the President.
Secretary to the President Dr. P.B. Jayasundera, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance S.R. Attygalle and the Secretary Defence Major Gen. (Retd.) Kamal Gunaratne were also present at the discussion.