Central Cultural Fund manages Sigiriya and surrounding  Charges Rs. 100 from locals, $ 30 from foreigners Pradeshiya Sabha responsible for roads: SLTDA We need 3% of ticket collection: Pradeshiya Sabha Chair Fund is neglecting responsibilities: Cultural Affairs Min. Secy.   By Imesh Ranasinghe  Sigiriya, the massive 200-metre-high rock surrounded by the remains of an extensive network of gardens, reservoirs, and other structures, which served as the palace of King Kasyapa in the 3rd Century, is now suffering from a lack of proper infrastructure facilities for visitors.  Said lack was brought to light recently by local media, with reports highlighting the area’s poor road conditions, lack of proper washroom facilities and parking facilities, and the presence of a breeding ground for dogs at the Sigiriya new town. The Sigiriya rock and the surrounding area is controlled by the Central Cultural Fund (CCF), which charges a ticket from every visitor for their collection.  Sigiriya is considered the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO’s) eighth world wonder as it is an architectural wonder of urban planning and has been the go to place for any foreign tourist visiting Sri Lanka for its historical value. SLTDA wants to see whether there is a rift  Speaking to us, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Director General Dhammika Wijayasinghe said that they had had a discussion with the CCF Director General when the matter was reported by the media. “We informed him that necessary action needs to be taken,” she said, adding: “We will work with the Dambulla Pradeshiya Sabha and the CCF, upon which the necessary actions that need to be taken will be taken.” She said that SLTDA does not get a cent from the income via ticket sales at Sigiriya, as all the money directly goes to the CCF. CCF charges Rs. 100 from locals, while $ 30 is charged from foreigners visiting the world heritage site. However, Wijayasinghe added that CCF cannot use those funds, as money collected under this fund goes directly to the Treasury.  She pointed out that when it comes to maintenance of the roads and public places around Sigiriya, the Dambulla Pradeshiya Sabha is responsible for it. “The matter should be really looked into, as there could be internal problems. We should get all the relevant parties together to check whether there is some rift among them,” Wijayasinghe said. Moreover, she said that there is a need to have an inter ministerial discussion as the CCF is under the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious, and Cultural Affairs. Tourism Ministry had already identified the infrastructure problems  An official from the Ministry of Tourism told us that Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga, who was abroad attending Dubai Expo, has called for an inter-ministerial committee meeting upon his arrival to resolve the matter. According to the official, the matters that were reported by the recent media report about the Sigitiya new town were already identified by the ministry in 2021 after a visit to Sigiriya by Ranatunga and other top officials of the ministry. After the visit, an inter-ministerial committee was appointed consisting of the Wildlife Department, the Archaeological Department, relevant local authorities, Urban Development Authority (UDA), and others to solve the problems involved. The problems identified included lack of proper washroom facilities to visitors both local and foreign, the issues created by the land that the new town market place is located belonging to the Wildlife Department, and other matters related to CCF management of the area. Local Pradeshiya Sabha wants a cut from tickets for development  Dambulla Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman K.G. Somathilake told us that they have been requesting for at least 3% of the income earned by the CCF through ticket sales at Sigiriya to be used for the development and upliftment of the lives of residents in the area. “The Pradeshiya Sabha is not getting a cent from the ticket income earned by the CCF from Sigiriya, we have been requesting it for 10 years now,” he said.  He said although the Pradeshiya Sabha wasn’t given any money from the ticket sales, they have been cleaning the area around the Sigiriya rock so far, and that the puddles shown by the media in the new town were created due to water springs surfacing because of the rain experienced the past few weeks. He also said that the car park started operating just six days ago (first week of January) as the Pradeshiya Sabha did not call tenders for 2020/21 period because Sigiriya rock was closed for the most of that period due to continuous pandemic lockdowns. “We continuously requested to give us the land where the shops are, so that we can develop it, now finally they are going to give us that land,” Somathilake said. According to the Dambulla Pradeshiya Sabha Chair, the land where the car park and the market place is located in Sigiriya new town belongs to the Zonal Wildlife Office, while the washrooms were built and maintained by the CCF. Meanwhile, 32 shops in the new town were built and distributed by the UDA and the Wildlife Department. Somathilake said that they have been requesting the CCF to build proper washrooms and other facilities through their income, after which the Pradeshiya Sabha would take the responsibility of maintaining them. Moreover, he said that he had water taps with sinks in two locations for drinking purposes and was paying for the water supply using the funds of the Pradeshiya Sabha. However, he said the problem of dogs in the new town area cannot be solved as people regularly visit Sigiriya and the dogs come to eat anything leftover. “If we try to do certain things like taking them away or even killing them, then we would be in trouble,” he added. Further, he added that Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa had visited the area soon after the media report and had decided to hand over the construction of the road to the Road Development Authority through the relevant ministry. CCF officials lack of responsibility  When contacted, Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious, and Cultural Affairs Secretary Prof. Kapila Gunawardena said that the officials of the CCF looking after Sigiriya have neglected their responsibilities. “I scolded the officials for not looking after the facilities at the place after I saw the media report,” he said. He said the washroom facilities in the new town were built by the CCF in the 2017/18 period. This was the last time proper developments were done at Sigiriya by the CCF, including drinking water facilities, first aid teams, and a security booth near lion’s foot to protect visitors from wasp attacks. “Even if we build a washroom, people will not properly use it, and the officials who are put to look after them are also not doing their job,” Gunawardena said. Even though the land does not belong to the CCF, Gunawardena said that he has instructed his officials to not deny responsibilities saying the land do not belong to the CCF but work to resolve the matter as its is the image of the country that is tarnished in front of the tourists who come to visit Sigiriya. He noted that CCF only gets the income earned through ticket sales while the Dambulla Pradeshiya Sabha earns from the car park and the shops in the new town area. “The funds in the CCF were used by certain politicians in the previous Government for different purposes, and in the end we didn't even have enough money in it to pay out the salaries,” he added. According to a report prepared by the committee appointed to probe the financial misuse at the CCF, about Rs. 11 billion has been misappropriated during the three-year period from 2016 to 2019, while the report further revealed an unauthorised removal of Rs. 400 million from the fund during the 2019 presidential election. According to Gunawardena, since the start of 2020 right up till October 2021, salaries for the CCF were paid from Treasury funds. “Now we are giving salaries through credit facilities obtained against certain deposits of the fund,” he said. He noted that about Rs. 135 million is required monthly to pay out salaries and to do maintenance work by the CCF, and that recently, with the increasing numbers of tourists, the CCF is getting about Rs. 3-4 million to the fund on a daily basis. Although it should have been easy to handle things with about 3,000 manpower in the CCF, Gunawardena said that lack of dedication from the employees has made it hard. Local tourism industry in Sigiriya had it enough with ministers  Sigiriya Tourism Association Chairman Chaminda Jayanatha said that the problem involved with the land cannot be solved by officials, but through policy decisions taken by the ministers. He said that questioning the CCF, Pradeshiya Sabha, Wildlife Department, or the Archaeological Department is useless as those problems are beyond their limits. Jayanatha said the new town planning should have been done in the first place by getting all the relevant institutes and departments together. “When they try to do it separately, surely there will be problems,” he added.  “Only one meeting should be held with all the relevant officials to solve those problems,” he said, adding: “Similar meetings have happened here numerous times, but none have produced any significant result so far,” he noted. According to Jayanatha, although CCF takes huge chunks of money through ticket sales, the relevant ministers in past governments have taken that money continuously and invested in projects in their hometown or other places instead of investing in Sigiriya.  “Those funds have not been used for a significant development of the area around Sigiriya, that's why the Pradeshiya Sabha is proposing to give them a portion of their income to do development in the area,” he said. However, he said that on the other hand when looking at the roads in the area, the Pradeshiya Sabha is not doing a great job either. He pointed out that the whole problem with the land, facilities, and other issues are mainly due to continuous neglect of responsibilities by higher officials and ministers. “We have tried to resolve the problems by inviting politicians from all parties that were in power to talk about them, but no one actually solved them,” he said.  Further, Jayanatha said although Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga visited the area last year, he only stayed 10 minutes to listen to problems . He also added that they weren’t informed about any inter ministerial committee that was appointed to resolve the matters pertaining to Sigiriya new town.  “For years the people in the new town had told their problems to ministers, So we don't want them to come and listen to problems anymore. What we need is solutions, the time to listen to problems is now over,” Jayanatha said. According to Jayanatha, daily visits by locals and foreigners to Sigiriya have finally started to climb to between 50-100 recently, after tourism in the area has been badly impacted for the past three years since the Easter Sunday attack in 2019. He said many in the tourism sector are not happy with the fact that the money earned by tourism is not given back for the development of the industry, and is instead used for other purposes.