Dr. Seetha Arambepola, Governor of the Western Province

6 March 2020 11:21 am Words : Indika Madapatha Sellahewa Photos : Nirmala Dhananjaya Hair and Make-up : Sewwandi Danushika of Yasasvee A medical doctor by profession, and a patriotic lady with a vision, who voiced her opinions on people and the development of Sri Lanka on ‘Viyathmaga’, the platform for intellectuals and professionals which contributes to the national development of the country, created by the current President, His Excellency Gotabaya Rajapaksa, speaks to Lanka Woman.

Dr. Arambepola, as the new Governor of the Western Province can you explain to Lanka Woman readers, what are the duties carried out by the Governor’s Office, what new projects will come into the offing under your guidance and how do you plan to execute these?

Yes, the fact is now we’re in a very divergent situation because the council has dissolved. Under the purview of the governor there are a number of ministries. I have to manage the work load of all these ministries other than the Governor’s own workload. Because Usually we have a Chief Minister with the other ministers. But we don't have any at the moment. Because of this I have to look after different ministries at that level, other than that I have the governor’s own duties and authorities in the Province, including Health, Local Authorities, Agriculture, and Education, There are short term, middle term and long term challenges, and one of the pressing short term challenges that I’m looking after is Dengue management because this Province has the highest rate of deaths, and we get a lot of patient numbers. Other than that the garbage collection, which I have discussed with several relevant parties, although I don't want to go into detail about the plans ahead right now as we’re doing a lot of research and currently involved in a lot of discussions. We’re looking for permanent solutions for this garbage management issue. Other than that, we have to look after education, hospitals in the province, and agriculture institutions, rehabilitation centres and some other social issues etc. At the moment we’re launching a lot of projects to improve the Province’s economy, because we have to think out of the framework, or out of the box, to get some new creative initiatives in the Province. Therefore, because of that I thought despite the the mega projects we need to empower the people in the lower levels. Small scale businessmen, small scale farmers and people in those categories. Hence, I have discussed with several large companies and others about what they can do for them in the lower levels. And some entrepreneurs who establish their businesses now with the help of others. So it means a collection of small scale businessmen can form such as a society and among each other they can help and improve the market. For this I have given some tasks to different people to find out some good locations and some suitable families with the worthy people to receive these benifits, because sometimes our facilities and our aid have already gone in the past to the wrong people. For example, we may have given machines to people who don't have capability to work with them, then they’re not going to use these, they’re going to sell these machines. Please click on the link below to read full article.,

https://www.magzter.com/LK/Wijeya-Newspapers-Ltd./Lanka-Woman/Women’s-Interest/