| Cathiravelu Sittampalam | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Sri Lanka Parliament for Mannar |
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| In office 1947–1956 |
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| Succeeded by | Viraspillai Albert Alegacone, FP |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 13, 1898 |
| Alma mater | Royal College, Colombo University of Cambridge |
| Religion | Hindu |
C. Sittampalam, CCS (Cathiravelu Sittampalam) is the first Cabinet Minister of Posts and Telecommunications in independent Sri Lanka (then Ceylon).[1][2]
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C. Sittampalam was born on 13 September, 1898 and had a strong academic career at Royal College, Colombo. He passed the Cambridge Senior with first class honours and with distinction in Mathematics at the age of 15 years.[1]
At Royal College he won coveted prizes including the English Essay Prize, the De Zoysa Science Prize and the Mathematics Prize. He was also the editor of the college magazine and the Secretary of the Literary Association. He graduated in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge. He qualified as a barrister in the Middle Temple. [1]
He served the government in various capacities such as District Judge and Government Agent in various areas including Matara and Hambantota and on retirement from the Civil Service he was elected as MP for Mannar by a multi-ethnic constituency, consisting of majority of Tamils by contesting as an independent candidate and was appointed as First Minister of Posts and Telecommunications by the Don Stephen Senanayake when he formed his first Cabinet of Ministers of Independent Ceylon in 1948.[1][3]
The other ministers in this Cabinet were some of the stalwarts of that era, such as S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, John Kotelawala, Dudley Senanayake, A. Ratnayaka, Oliver Goonetilleke, Edwin Wijeyeratne, J. R. Jayewardene, Lalitha Rajapakse, Prof. Chellappah Suntharalingam and five others. [1]
He provided a large number of villagers, hundreds and thousands of villages with receiving sets, so that the village people were able to listen to broadcasts from Radio Ceylon and many of the popular items now in the programme were initiated by Mr. Sittampalam. I remember one of the items which was inaugurated by Mr. Sittampalam was pirith which is very popular with the Buddhists today." He was also the Minister for Industries, Industrial Research and Fisheries for a short period.[1]
He started the opening of a large number of sub-post offices and thus improved the postal services in the rural areas. A. Ratnayaka (a contemporary, a distinguished politician and later President of the Senate of Ceylon) on the occasion of his death on 3 February 1964 stated of him "I remember one of the things he did which today is one of the most popular things in Ceylon, is the provision of radio sets to villages.[1]
Sittampalam hailed from a distinguished Tamil family from Jaffna. His father Arumugam Cathiravelu was a Magistrate and District Judge. His uncle Arumugam Canagaratnam was the Chairman of the first Urban Council of Jaffna and built and founded Canagaratnam Maha Vidyalayam. Mr. C. Sittampalam's grand uncle Viswanather Casipillai was a Crown Proctor and co-founder of the Jaffna Hindu College. [1]
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