Crowd-sourcing public policies : Harsha de Silva appointed as acting minister

Colombo (News1st) - Dr. Harsha de Silva, the current Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution has been given a new responsibility albeit temporarily. The non-cabinet minister who is very active on Twitter took to the social media platform today to announce that he has been appointed as the acting Minister for Digital Infrastructure and IT, in the absence of subject Minister Ajith P. Perera. Adopting what can be considered a novel concept for local politicians the tech-savvy Colombo district MP has begun to crowdsource ideas to be implemented during his brief tenure. Now, what an acting minister can do during a very limited time in office is up for debate, but a Minister in charge of Digital Infrastructure and IT taking pointers from those on Twitter and other social media platforms is commendable.  

So, interestingly I am the acting Minister (Non Cabinet of course) for Digital Infrastructure and IT until the return of @ajithpperera_p from his study visit to UK on parliamentary affairs at the weekend. So what shall we do before he comes ? pic.twitter.com/7AvX0hkqUM

— Harsha de Silva (@HarshadeSilvaMP) July 4, 2019

Here are some of the responses that the new acting minister received,

Harsha while you are acting Minister, could you for the love of God make internet in Sri Lanka with unlimited data please?? We had unlimited adsl before but MR removed it. It's 2019 and we still don't have unlimited data. Also what study leave did Ajith go to? #lka

— Alex G (@MrAlexOnline) July 4, 2019

1). Planning infrastructure to encourage local vendors to reach Amazon, eBay, AliExpress etc 2). Develop an app for all the citizens to get done government services without having to travel to any offices 3). Digitalisation of transportation (ticketing, bookings).

— Chulanga Niriella (@Chulanga_N) July 4, 2019

Reduce the taxes on Internet and telecom services

— ?????? ??????????, ???. (@realshenal) July 4, 2019

As promised free WIFI ! If that falls under you ??‍♂️

— Ishfan (@ish4an) July 4, 2019

  While commending Dr. Harsha de Silva for his actions we also hope that other Ministers also take a cue from him and go to the people for advice on what needs to be done. By this, I do not mean publicly posting on social media but actually going to the villages and rural areas of the country which they represent and taking the time to actually listen to the needs of the people.