Sri Lanka - Politics - Administrative Divisions

Administrative Divisions

Bay of Bengal Palk Strait Northern Province Gulf of
Mannar North Central Province North Western
Province Eastern
Province Central
Province Uva Province Western
Province Sabaragamuwa
Province Southern Province Indian Ocean Main articles: Provinces of Sri Lanka, Districts of Sri Lanka, and Divisional Secretariats of Sri Lanka See also: List of cities in Sri Lanka and List of towns in Sri Lanka

For administrative purposes, Sri Lanka is divided into 9 provinces and 25 districts.

Provinces

Provinces (Sinhala: පළාතTamil: மாகாணம்) have existed in Sri Lanka since the 19th century. But they didn't have any legal status until 1987 when the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils following several decades of increasing demand for a decentralisation of the Government of Sri Lanka. The provincial council is an autonomous body and is not under any Ministry. It undertakes activities which had earlier been undertaken by the Central Government Ministries, Departments, Corporations and Statutory Authorities. But importantly, land and police authorities are not given to provincial councils in practice. Between 1988 and 2006, the Northern and Eastern provinces were temporarily merged to form the North-East Province. Prior to 1987, all administrative tasks were handled by a district-based civil service which had been in place since colonial times. Now each province is administered by a directly elected provincial council:

Administrative Divisions of Sri Lanka
Province	Capital	Area (km²)	Area (sq mi)	Population
Central	Kandy	5,674	2,191	2,556,774
Eastern	Trincomalee	9,996	3,859	1,547,377
North Central	Anuradhapura	10,714	4,137	1,259,421
Northern	Jaffna	8,884	3,430	1,060,023
North Western	Kurunegala	7,812	3,016	2,372,185
Sabaragamuwa	Ratnapura	4,902	1,893	1,919,478
Southern	Galle	5,559	2,146	2,465,626
Uva	Badulla	8,488	3,277	1,259,419
Western	Colombo	3,709	1,432	5,837,294

Districts and local authorities

Sri Lanka is also divided into 25 districts (Sinhala: දිස්ත්‍රි‌ක්‌ක sing. දිස්ත්‍රික්කයTamil: மாவட்டம்). Each district is administered under a District Secretariat. The districts are further subdivided into 256 divisional secretariats, and these in turn, to approximately 14,008 Grama Niladhari divisions. The Districts are known in Sinhala as Disa and in Tamil as Māwaddam. Originally a Disa (usually rendered into English as Dissavony) was a duchy, notably Matale and Uva. The Government Agent, who is known as District Secretary, administers a district.

There are 3 other types of local authorities: Municipal Councils (18), Urban councils (13) and Pradeshiya Sabha (aka Pradesha Sabhai, 256). Local authorities were originally based on the feudal counties named korale and rata, and were formerly known as 'D.R.O. divisions' after the 'Divisional Revenue Officer'. Later the D.R.O.s became 'Assistant Government Agents' and the divisions were known as 'A.G.A. divisions'. These Divisional Secretariats are currently administered by a 'Divisional Secretary'.

Largest cities of Sri Lanka
view talk edit Colombo Kandy	Rank	City Name	Province	Pop.	Rank	City Name	Province	Pop.	view talk edit Galle Jaffna
	1	Colombo	Western	752,933	11	Batticaloa	Eastern	92,332
	2	Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia	Western	245,974	12	Jaffna	Northern	88,138
	3	Moratuwa	Western	207,755	13	Katunayake	Western	76,816
	4	Kotte	Western	135,806	14	Dambulla	Central	68,821
	5	Negombo	Western	127,754	15	Kolonnawa	Western	64,887
	6	Kandy	Central	125,351	16	Anuradhapura	North Central	63,208
	7	Kalmunai	Eastern	106,783	17	Ratnapura	Sabaragamuwa	52,170
	8	Vavuniya	Northern	99,653	18	Badulla	Uva	47,587
	9	Galle	Southern	99,478	19	Matara	Southern	47,420
	10	Trincomalee	Eastern	99,135	20	Puttalam	North Western	45,401