(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –The Government yesterday in Parliament, presented a Bill to provide for the establishment of an Aesthetic and Research Centre called the ‘Amaradeva Aesthetic and Research Centre’ in gratitude to the legendary musician late Pandit W.D Amaradeva.Chief Government Whip and Minister Gayantha Karunatilleka presented the Bill for First Reading.
The Bill states that the Centre would be equipped with a research laboratory, an archive, a library and also a museum.The Centre’s main objectives include securing and archiving the instruments of the Centre, facilitating research activities of graduate and postgraduate courses on aesthetic studies and conducting workshops, lectures and appreciation programmes or any other function to promote the style of music of late Pandit W.D. Amaradeva.
The Bill also states, “The objects of the Centre shall be carried out in such manner as not to create any conflict between the work of the Centre and any work being carried out simultaneously by any Ministry or Department of the Government or of any Provincial Council or the ‘Amaradeva Foundation.”
President Maithripala Sirisena has already laid the foundation stone for a government-funded centre costing Rs. 200 million on a 120 perch Urban Development Authority (UDA) land near Ape Gama in Battaramulla.
