Grama Niladhari (English:village officer,[1]Sinhala:ග්රාම නිලධාරී,romanized: grāma niladhārī,Tamil:கிராம உத்தியோகத்தர்,romanized: Kirāma uttiyōkattar) is aSri Lankanpublic official appointed by thecentral government bythe act No.2 of 1993.[2]Grama Niladhari (GN) are entrusted with multifaceted duties and responsibilities under as 46legislative enactments[3][2] of Sri Lanka.
Their functions are to carry out administrative duties in agrama niladhari division,[1] which is a sub-unit of adivisional secretariat. They come under the Grama Niladhari Division[1] under the Home Affairs Division of theMinistry of Home Affairs. There are 14,015 grama niladhari divisions[4] under 331 divisional secretary’s division in the island.
The duties of agrama niladhari include the reporting of issuing of permits, gathering statistics, maintaining the voter registry and keeping the peace by settlement of personal disputes. They are responsible for keeping track of criminal activity in their area and issuing a certificate of residence and character on behalf of residents when requested by them. They may arrest individuals if sworn in as aPeace Officer. Establish and co-ordinate administrative policies and procedures for required community members and officials of the divisional secretariats.
The post ofGrama Sevaka(village servant) was created in May 1963 as part of the public administration reforms carried out by MinisterFelix Dias Bandaranaike in theSirimavo Bandaranaike government, which replaced the post ofvillage headman(Vidane) which dated back to the British the colonial era.[5] Allserving village headman were re-designated asGrama Sevakas under theVillage Headmen (Change of Designation) Act, No. 6 of 1964.[6] The designation modeled on that of public servant was later changed tograma niladhari which translated tovillage officer.[1] A notable example isMaithripala Sirisena, who later became the President of Sri Lanka.
