Colombo mayor must resign or be removed over drain floods, opposition MP says

Colombo Mayor Vraie Cally Balthazar should resign or be removed from office for failing to have the city's drains cleaned in time, opposition parliamentarian S. M. Marikkar said yesterday.

The Department of Meteorology had warned well in advance that heavy rain was likely in October or November due to El Nino, he pointed out, and the mayor should have arranged to clean Colombo's drains and culverts at the right time. Had they been cleaned, the city would not have gone under water on Friday, he argued.

The mayor should resign accordingly, and if not, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake should remove her, Marikkar said.

He added that Colombo had seen heavier rainfall in the past - over 400 mm in 1992 - without key institutions such as the Colombo National Hospital being flooded, and noted that the Jawatte ward the mayor represents was itself submerged on Friday. He also accused the Colombo Municipal Council, one of the country's richest, of failing to do justice to the city's jewellers, and said opposition councillors were not invited to post-disaster discussions.