News
Request for seating along Queen’s Hotel corridor
Senior Kandy Municipal Councillor Vipula Ranasinghe called on the Mayor of Kandy to permit seating arrangements along the corridor of Queen’s Hotel for public viewing of the Esala Perahera. He complained that this year, police had banned seating arrangements in the area. He added that on earlier occasions the area was used to seat visitors to the perahera. This year, he said, the area around the Maha Maluwa too had been closed to the public and would entail a huge loss of revenue to the municipality.
The Mayor of Kandy Mr. Kesara Senanayake said the decision not to provide seating arrangements along the corridor of the Queen’s Hotel was taken during a meeting with the Kandy Traffic Committee of the Kandy Municipal Council as police had pointed out that in the event of an emergency, seats in the corridor could not be removed quickly and this posed a security risk.
This, the Mayor said, was the reason why he agreed that seating would not be permitted in that particular area. He added he agreed with the police assessment and did not permit tendering for seats in the area despite a revenue loss to the municipality.
At Wednesday’s municipal council meeting Councillor Ranasinghe proposed the corridor be re-opened to accommodate seating arrangements to view the event.
Former Mayor of Kandy -Raja Pusphakumar- too said the Council stood to loose a colossal sum of around ninety lakhs of rupees by not permitting seating accommodation along the corridor, during the perahera.
However Mayor Senanayake said he agreed with the police risk assessment and a possible security threat. As such he said, he was not willing to take responsibility, should any untoward problem occur during the period of the perahera.