President tells local bodies to learn from what happened in 2015 and not disappoint public

Government politicians should understand why people rejected the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration in 2015 though it had strengthened the economy and implemented a lot of development projects, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa told heads of local government bodies at a meeting held on Saturday (28.)

The President warned that if lessons had not been learnt from that defeat, it would be impossible to sustain the November 2019 victory.

“It’s your responsibility to fulfil the expectations of the people. We need local government bodies to function optimally. The challenge before you is to ensure that the people’s expectations are met. People are watching what we are doing, from garbage disposal to economic development.”

The President said that citizens should not be inconvenienced in anyway when politicians went about their activities. “The government servants must serve the people and this service must be free of corruption.”

The President also stated that there was a need to implement systems that created a sense of predictability. The government servants and politicians should learn to respect people’s time. “People who visit state institutions have to waste a day or moore to get their needs attended to. This is not how it should be.”

(Source: The Island)