Sept 21, Colombo: The Ministerial Consultative Committee on Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government unanimously consented to cancel the nominations submitted for the Local Government (LG) Elections given that those who have submitted nominations have faced great difficulties due to the postponement of the elections.

The unanimous consent was given at the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils & Local Government held Wednesday (20) in Parliament chaired by subject Minister and Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena.

A discussion was held regarding the obstacles faced by the field officials to run for elections in their electorate and the current status regarding the amendment to the relevant Act to remove such obstacles.

The officials present stated that according to the instructions received by the Attorney General, if an amendment is required to revert a legislation to its former state, a 2/3 majority and a referendum is required for the said purpose.

Furthermore, a progress review regarding systematizing the transferring of Secretaries to the Provincial Councils, and the transferring of Divisional secretaries as mentioned in the service constitution was discussed at the Ministerial Consultative Committee meeting held.

Attention was also drawn to the fact that provincial council government officials are not placed with due diligence.

Accordingly, the Prime Minister also emphasized that the transfers of all administrative officers including divisional secretaries should be done properly.

Given that there is no new decision on making new recruitments to the public service at the moment, and since there are vacancies in the provincial and overall public service, considering the already existing employees who have passed the Management Service officer to grade III limited competitive examination to fill the existing vacancies was also discussed at the Committee meeting.

State Ministers including Janaka Wakkumbura, Ashoka Priyantha, The. Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa, Members of Parliament and officials representing the respective institutions and departments were present before the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils & Local Government.