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| Thursday, 15 July 2004 |
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For your knowledge book : The Division into Provinces and Districts Last Saturday, July 10, there was an election to elect members to six provincial councils. They are the councils of the following provinces: Western, Southern, Central, North Central, Sabaragamuwa and Uva. You may ask why were there elections only in six provinces when there are nine provinces? There were no elections in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and Wayamba or the North Western Provinces had its election earlier, in April. Hence, there were elections only in the six provinces mentioned above the British who ruled our country from March 1815 to February 4, 1948, divided the island into five provinces - Northern, Southern, Western, Eastern and Central - and a Government Agent was appointed to look after each province. This was in 1833. Time passed. The country was opened up for planting coffee and there was more work for the Government to do. Some provinces were too large for one Government Agent to manage. So in 1848 a sixth province - the North Western Province was marked out taking parts of the Western and Northern provinces. Later two more provinces were demarcated making the number of provinces eight. In 1873 Nuwara Kalaviya and Tamankaduwa were joined to form the North Central Province. Uva was declared a separate province in 1886. Bintenna once part of the Eastern Province, Badulla once part of the Central Province and Wellassa, Wellawaya and Buttala, hitherto in the Southern Province were now in the Uva Province. The last division into nine provinces was in January 1889 when Sabaragamuwa was declared a separate province. At the first demarcation of provinces in 1833, part of what is now the Kegalla district was in the Western Province and the whole of the present Ratnapura district was in the Southern Province. Provincial Councils were formed in 1986 and elections held in 1888 to elect members for each provincial council. To make it easier for the Government Agent, each province was divided into districts. Western, Southern, Eastern and Central have three districts each, totalling 12. Western - Colombo, Kalutara, Gampaha Northern Province has five districts, namely Jaffna, Manner, Vavuniya, Mullativu, Kilinochchi, bringing the total number of districts to 25. In which district and in which province is your home? Is your school also in the same district as your home? Aunt Su. |
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