Our Vision

Honest and dedicated people centric public serv

 Our Mission

An efficient achievement of the public needs towards sustainable development and to building the knowledge economy

The History of Jaffna Divisional Secretariat

The Tamil name of 'Yalpanam' though entitled to a town and nowadays denotes the entire and played Yarl and sung poetry, the King Jeyaveerarajasingan cheered and donated this area peninsula, 'Yalpanam' is a name of town. Jaffna was as an area with many sand-dunes. Jaffna town was named previously as ‘Manattriddy’, ‘Mattridal’ and ‘Manattri’. During early period, since a poet named Veerarahavan capable of playing the musical instrument ‘Yarl’ arrived from the Chola State of sand-dune (‘Manattriddy’) to that poet as a prize.  The Paanan Veerarahavan who obtained the prize colonized in this area together with his relatives Panas. Since this area was granted as a prize for playing ‘Yarl’ and as Panas inhabited this area, this area which was referred to as ‘Manattriddy’ attained the name of 'Yalpanam'.This 'Yalpanam' area was standing out as a commercially important region lately. The Columbuththurai Commercial Harbor situated at Columbuththurai and the Harbour known as ‘Aluppanthy’ situated previously at the Kurunagar area seem as its evidences. The histories reveal that the area where presently the Fort located was as the region where the Greek, Arabian and Chinese Businessmen exchanged their goods previously. Thereby the Jaffna town holds the name of a famous town of Sri Lanka.Like wisely, Westerners` governance prevailed during the middle era. It should be noted down that an Administrative System was launched during that time. Jaffna was as one of the five administrative districts in the Provincial Administrative System established so on. This Administrative System which was named as the Agent of Revenue in 1798 was changed as Provincial Government Agent in 1833 and Jaffna was as a central area where all the administrative tasks of the Northern Province were combined together. Herein, Jaffna division was as the Office of Divisional Revenue Collector in 1956. Rural-level Administrative System was brought-in in the name of Grama Officer in 1963. In 1972, Administrative System known as Revenue Collector was abolished and Assistant Government Agent System was incorporated.Jaffna Divisional Administrative System was found as adjoining both Jaffna and Nallur Divisions. Thereafter in 1970s, Jaffna and Nallur Divisions were separated as Jaffna and Nallur Assistant Government Agent Divisions independently and the Jaffna Division was converted as first Assistant Government Agent Division by having Mr.K.Manikkavasakar as its first Assistant Government Agent. During this period Jaffna Assistant Government Agent Division contained four Grama Officer Divisions. After 1990s, a modification was made in the administrative structure of the Grama Officer Divisions and consecutively 28 Grama Officer Divisions were formulated on 01.01.1993 by considering the administrative population and geographical conditions and is practiced up to now.

In 1987s, duties and affairs of the Assistant Government Agent Divisions were incorporated within the Provincial Council administration and afterwards promoted as Divisional Secretariats under the authority of Transfer of Powers (Divisional Secretaries') Act, No- 58 of 1992 and several powers existed at the District Kachcheries were handed over to the Divisional Secretaries. Jaffna Divisional Secretariat delivers splendid services and bears important role in the divisional developments as well from that day to the present day.

   Photos

 Mr. K. Kunarasa

 01.01.1992

 16.03.1997

Mr. T.Vythilingam

17.03.1997

31.12.1997

Mr. P. Senthilnanthanan

01.01.1998

19.06.2005

Mr. M. Patrick De Ranjan

20.06.2005

13.09.2006

Mr. Mariyathasan Jegu

24.01.2007

04.06.2009

Mrs.Sugunarathy Theivendram

05.06.2009

31.03.2016

Mr. Ponnampalam Thayananthan

 01.04.2016

28.02.2019

Mr. Sampasivam Sutharsan

01.03.2019

17.10.2025