Jaliya Medagama who entered the Sri Lanka Administrative Service in 1970 and I who entered in 1967, were thick friends since the day we first met accidentally during our school days. Jaliya was from Dharmaraja, Kandy, and I was from Nugawela Central College.
We entered Peradeniya University in 1961. Though we were not residents in the same Hall of Residence in the University neither in the same Stream of Studies, we maintained a solid and unfathomable friendship beyond description.
We joined the teaching profession upon leaving the campus. Thereafter, Jaliya entered the Sri Lanka Administrative Service where he got his first appointment as the Divisional Revenue Officer, Ududumbara. He held several positions, such as the Commissioner of Agrarian Services, Secretary of the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine and in 1994, he was appointed Secretary to the Ministry of Irrigation, Mahaweli, Power and Energy, which had 18 institutions under its purview. He supervised the agencies without distinction as an able administrator. After retirement, he served as the Chairman of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.
He had close relatives in the then Government, but he never compromised his independence in taking administrative decisions in view of those relationships. No allegation of fraud or corruption was levelled against this honest officer who was free of all vices.
Jaliya was an honest and modest officer of rare breed who served all government officers, peoples’ representatives and the public-at-large alike without any distinction of political affiliations or otherwise.
Jaliya was an active member of the Group of the Peradeniya ‘61 Batch where I was the President. Members of our Batch fondly remember how he supported the annual get-togethers organized by the Group.
Jaliya’s father was a Judge of the Rural Court. After the father’s demise, Jaliya shouldered the role of the father to his brother and sisters. He lived a pleasant family life with Pathma, who met him on the first day of entering the University. Humbleness inherited from the rural culture of Poholiyadda, his native place and Dodanwala, where he was brought up, was the lifeline reigned and scented his life all throughout. I am aware of the efforts by his son, Professor Arjuna Medagama of the Medical Faculty of Peradeniya University, to save Jaliya’s life when he was critically ill in the past few years. However, Jaliya left all of us in grief on February 11 after exhausting the life span he was destined.
May Jaliya Medagama attain the Supreme Bliss of Nibbana!
Tilak Ranaviraja