Veterans help set stage for provincial assembly’s second act

After a break of two decades, the Eastern Provincial Assembly is set to become a reality once again. The assembly headquarters will be on the second floor of the Eastern Chief Secretariat building, formerly the North East Provincial Council (NEPC), on Inner Harbour Road, in Trincomalee town. Work is under way to ready the premises for the assembly’s first meeting.

The Eastern Provincial Assembly will be able to accommodate 37 councillors (35 elected councillors and two bonus seats for the party that gets the highest number of votes at the provincial level). There will be separate offices for the chief minister and four other ministers, and for staff. The public gallery will have room for about 40 persons, in addition to members of the media.

The job of setting up and preparing the assembly headquarters has been entrusted to Eastern Provincial Council Chief Secretary V. P. Balasingham, Assembly Secretary Rasalingam Thiagalingam, and his deputy S. Nadarajah. The three veteran public servants appreciate the significance of the task: to help set up the infrastructure for an institution that has not been functioning for some 20 years.

According to Mr. Balasingham, it would take two to three weeks to organise the first meeting of the newly elected council, once the election was over.

The year 1988 saw the establishment of the first provincial assembly for the temporarily merged North East Provincial Council (NEPC). It was housed in the present Trincomalee Urban Council building, Annamalai Varatharajaperumal was the chief minister, heading an elected administration under the provincial council system. A year later the assembly was dissolved by President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

Since then, the NEPC has been administered by the central government through a representative governor, until last year’s de-merger of the provinces into two, north and east. The central government oversees the administration of both provincial councils.

Mr. Balasingham was commissioner for the Jaffna Municipal Council between 1981 and 2001, before joining the NEPC. Prior to his appointment as chief secretary, he served as secretary of the NE Public Services Commission and provincial secretary to the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction and Women Affairs.

R. Thiagalingam held the posts of secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Irrigation and later the Ministry of Education. He later served for a brief period as chief secretary of the Eastern Provincial Council.

Mr. Nadaraja helped in the administration of the Jaffna District Development Council, introduced in 1981 by the J. R. Jayewardene government. He is currently engaged in drawing up a list of rules and regulations for conducting provincial council meetings.