The District Coordination Committee meeting held after the 2025 Local Government Elections after the new government came to power was held 2025.05.27 at the Kegalle District Secretariat Auditorium under the patronage of Kegalle District Coordination Committee Chairman, Environment Minister Dhammika Patabendi and Kegalle District Secretary Jagath Herath.
The District Secretary welcomed the dignitaries and government officials present on the occasion and after explaining the purpose, the proceedings of the meeting were opened by the Chairman of the Coordination Committee. The Chairman of the Coordinating Committee, who spoke at the event, said, "The current government should clarify the misconceptions being spread by various parties regarding the local government election results, and without raising doubts about such misconceptions, justice should be done to the mandate received, intervention should be done for it and work should be done for it."
The Assistant Director of the Kegalle National Youth Services Council was the first to comment on the establishment of Youth Clubs in all Divisional Secretariat Divisions in line with the 2025 Youth Day in accordance with the agenda. The Youth Club program can be introduced as a flagship program implemented by the National Youth Services Council under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. This program is being implemented in every district of Sri Lanka in every Divisional Secretariat Division to create a young person with a good personality who has clear goals for the future of the youth and provides them with professional qualifications to be achieved, who has confidence in themselves, and who loves themselves, their family, school, society, country and nature. Accordingly, career guidance and counseling, industrial and vocational training opportunities, aesthetic training opportunities, sports skill development opportunities, on-the-job training Opportunities, employment, guidance for further education, entrepreneurship training programs, leadership skills development, identifying youth needs and networking youth (Inclusion), mobilizing youth around the Sri Lanka Youth Social Movement and other youth organizations, Sri Lanka Youth Parliament, positive youth development (Empowerment), economic empowerment, vocational and technical skills development required for local / foreign job market / self-employment are among the services here.
To provide these services, arrangements have been made to establish 55 training centers, 35 full-time courses, 74 part-time courses and 3 training centers for skill development, aesthetic skills development. The training areas under education / vocational training courses include information and communication, C I S C O Certification (Network Administration / Cyber Security), Microsoft Certification (A I Fundamentals) Artificial Intelligence. In addition, engineering / Industrial Motor Technology, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technology, Electrical and Electronic Technology, Professional Cookery and Management Courses, International Language Courses, Aesthetics Courses, Drama and Performing Arts Diploma, Television Program Production Diploma, Cinematography, Hospitality Services and several other courses. The National Youth Awards Competition and Festival can be mentioned as opportunities to appreciate youth talents / abilities. Under this, the Youth Club is ready to show the way to the children to make all these a reality through competitions and festivals such as the National Youth Drama Competition, Short Film Festival, National Youth Sports Competition and Festival, Youth Services Television Volleyball Competition, New Generation Awards, Duke of Edenborough's International Youth Awards.
When considering the progress of the development programs implemented by the District Secretariat, the programs implemented include the Decentralized Budget Program, Rural Road Development Program, Tourism Development Program, Rural Economic Development Program, Ministry of Plantation Community Infrastructure. Through these programs Among the ongoing projects, provision of toilet facilities for 10 beneficiaries in Ruwanwella, disaster shelter program, provision of drinking water for Kegalle and Bulathkohupitiya divisions, provision of infrastructure facilities in estate areas and a total of 103 million rupees have been approved under the decentralized budget program and the number of proposals forwarded to the ministry is 71. The estimated amount is 103 million rupees and the number of approved projects is 43. Accordingly, the total amount approved is 65 million rupees.
The 2025 Community Empowerment Program is mainly implemented through two programs.
1. Asian Development Bank Program (Pilot Project)
2. National Empowerment Program (Samurdhi Development Department Grants)
1. The Asian Development Bank Program covers 04 Divisional Secretariat Divisions, 25 Grama Niladhari Divisions, and 800 target beneficiaries,
2. The National Empowerment Program covers 11 Divisional Secretariat Divisions, 548 Grama Niladhari Divisions, and 20,273 target beneficiary families.
World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5th every year. This year, preparations are underway to hold this program at the Kegalle Nidahas Mawatha premises under the patronage of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
This year, Environment Day is scheduled to be held under the theme "Ending plastic pollution".
For this, the Ministry of Environment has declared an Environment Week from May 30th to June 05th in conjunction with the National Environment Day celebration and has informed about the activities to be done for environmental conservation during this week.
The programs to be done such as Plastic Waste Management Day on May 30th, Air Pollution and its Adverse Effects Reduction Day on May 31st, etc. were informed.
The Bandulapetiya Fish Conservation Sanctuary, which is unique to Kegalle, will be declared and the gazette will be released, billboards will be unveiled about the sanctuary to be established for the conservation of the Bandulapetiya fish, and a tree planting program will be implemented on both sides of the canal where the Bandulapetiya lives. Members of Parliament representing the Kegalle Political Authority and Additional District Secretary (Administration) Mrs. Kusum Bandara, Additional District Secretary (Lands) Mr. Dilip Nishantha, Divisional Secretaries, Deputy Planning Director of the District Secretariat Gamini Ekanayake, staff officers of the District Secretariat and officers representing the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council participated in this program.
