HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Colombo Municipal Council is the municipal governing body of
Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...
, the largest city and financial centre in
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
. It consists of a directly elected executive Mayor of Colombo, and elected 119 municipal councilors. The council was formed in 1865, it first met in 1866 and derives most of its powers from ''Municipal Council Ordinance No. 29 of 1947''. It is the oldest and the largest local government authority in Sri Lanka which covers a resident
population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...
of over 600,000 (as of 2001). It is one of the largest employers in the country with over 12,000 employees.


Council

Colombo is a
charter city Home rule in the United States relates to the authority of a constituent part of a U.S. state to exercise powers of governance (i.e., whether such powers must be specifically delegated to it by the state—typically by legislative action—or a ...
, with a Mayor Council form of government. Colombo's mayor and the council members are elected through local government elections held once in four years. It has 16 standing committees on various subjects.


Officers

The Colombo Municipal Council under the ''Municipal Council Ordinance'' have several elected and appointed officers. These are: #Mayor #Deputy Mayor #Municipal Magistrate #Municipal Commissioner #Municipal Secretary #Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Engineering services) #Municipal Treasurer #Chief Medical Officer Of Health #Chief Municipal Veterinary Surgeon #Municipal Assessor #Chief Librarian #Charity Commissioner #Chief Fire Officer


Administration

The
Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
serves as the head of the council assisted by a Deputy Mayor. A Municipal Commissioner heads the staff and administration municipal, which is made up of 16 departments. The Municipal Commissioner is appointed by the minister of local government or which ever minister the subject is vested under. Usually the appointment would be made from an officer seconded from the Sri Lanka Administrative Service. In the absence of the mayor or deputy mayor or following the end of term of the council, the commissioner would serve as the officer implementing the powers and functions of the Colombo municipal council. Municipal Commissioner is entitled to use of Park House, Colombo as an official residence which is a 16 bedroom mansion at Albert Crescent, Colombo 7.


Departments

The Colombo municipal council is made up of 16 departments. These include: * Mayor's Office * Municipal Treasurer’s Department * Municipal Secretary Department * Municipal Engineer’s Department * Municipal Health Department * Municipal Veterinary Department * Curative Department * Indigenous Health Department * Public Library Department ( Colombo Public Library) * Public Assistance Department * Legal Department * Sports and Recreation Department * Training and Development Department * Municipal Assessor’s Department * Central Procurement Department * Fire Service Department (Colombo Fire Brigade)


Powers and functions

The municipal council is responsible for: *
Urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...
, architectural designs *
Sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...
(
waste Waste are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor Value (economics), economic value. A wast ...
,
sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewerage, sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged fro ...
) *
Health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...
and environmental issues * Emergency services (not policing, which is the responsibility of the central government) *
Social service Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...
*Road management


Population

The Colombo Municipal Council covers the Colombo and Thimbirigasyaya Divisional Secretariat Divisions. According to the 2011-12 Census the population living within the boundaries of the CMC was 555,031. Of this number, 318,048 lived in the Colombo DSD (the Northern part of the city) and 236,983 lived in the Thimbirigasyaya DSD (the Southern part).


Political make up

For the past 50 years the city had been dominated by the
United National Party The United National Party (UNP; , ) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Sri Lanka. Founded in 1946, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties for several decades. The UNP has served as the country's ruling party ...
(UNP), a
right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...
leaning party, whose business friendly policies resonate with the population of Colombo. The UNP as held majority in the council and post of Mayor since the party was formed in 1947, with two brief exceptions. In 1954, the UNP lost the municipal election to the
Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...
Lanka Sama Samaja Party The Lanka Sama Samaja Party, often abbreviated as LSSP ( literally: Lanka Equal Society Party, Sinhala: ලංකා සම සමාජ පක්ෂය, Tamil: லங்கா சமசமாஜக் கட்சி), is a major Trotskyist po ...
(LSSP) and Dr N. M. Perera was elected Mayor. The LSSP won several local government elections that year including nine Village Councils and three Urban Councils, apart from the Colombo Municipal Council. In 2006, the UNP nomination list for the 2006 Municipal elections was rejected, and an Independent Group supported by the UNP won the elections. Uvais Mohamed Imitiyas was subsequently appointed Mayor of Colombo.Rotational mayors as Colombo gets trishaw driver as her 1st citizen
''Sunday Times'', May 28, 2006 The former Mayoress Rosy Senanayake, the first female Mayor of Colombo, was elected in 2018 representing the UNP.


National politics

Colombo as the largest city and former capital of Sri Lanka, has been at the center of Sri Lankan politics. The Colombo municipal council has been an entry route for many politicians. Four national leaders, which includes two presidents, J. R. Jayewardene and
Ranasinghe Premadasa Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa ( ''Raṇasiṃha Premadāsa''; ''Raṇaciṅka Pirēmatācā''; 23 June 1924 – 1 May 1993) was a Sri Lankan politician and statesman who served as the third President of Sri Lanka from 2 January 1989 unt ...
; one prime minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, and an independence activist Vivienne Goonewardene started their political career by contesting for the Colombo municipal council.


See also

* Local government in Sri Lanka * Municipal councils of Sri Lanka


References


External links


Colombo Municipal Council
{{Authority control 1866 establishments in Ceylon Local authorities in Western Province, Sri Lanka Municipal councils of Sri Lanka