Role of the eastern provincial council in regional development: challenges and prospects

Abstract

Regional development is the provision of aid and other assistance to region which are less economically developed. Prime objective of this study is to examine the present situation of regional development of Eastern Province of Sri Lanka and to analysis the role of Eastern Provincial Council in regional development Further, the study identifies the challenges and future prospect of the council to develop the province. In this respect, this study is interpretative one which was carried out by employing primary and secondary data. The Primary data has been collected through questionnaire and interviews. Five person have been interviewed. The Secondary data has been collected from books, official documents, reports, journals and news paper articles. Major finding of this study is to be clearly identified mat development strategies implemented by Eastern Provincial Council within the past two years have not successfully contributed to reduce the socioeconomic disparities in the Eastern province. And die role of provincial council in the eastern development has been challenged due to lack of power, lack of people participation in the development process and tug of war in politic.