Akurana


A village/town situated 6 miles north of Kandy in Sri Lanka. The population is mostly Muslim. Occupation is mostly business, though there are many professionals. Akurana has a large number of 'Akuranites' working all over the island and overseas as well.

The main road is the Matale - Kandy road. Roads branching off include the Dunuvila, Thelumbugahawatte, Bulugohatenna, Neerella and Kurugoda roads.

Akurana is surrounded by Sinhalese villages. All communities live harmoniously side by side.

Akurana has a post office, a state bank (People's Bank) and a kachheri (Divisional Secretary's Office). There are numerous shops in town which cater to the needs of the populace at large. The telecommunication industry is also flourishing.

Update: Now it has more than one bank. A branch of HNB (which had a controversial opening due to the chief guest making some unsavoury remarks about how Akuranians repaid loans) and a Ceylinco Islamic Banking System (Oxymoron?) bank and also Khalideen hajiar's Islamic Bank situated in the Asna Super market complex.

Telephone numbers (Sri Lanka Telecom lines) begin with 300 or 301 though many people still have numbers with 499 (older lines) and 074 (Suntel) and even 070. Other people use hand phones dished out by cellular operators. 071(Mobitel), 072(Celltel), 077(Dialog) and 078(Hutchinson) are the main operators.

Update: Now the situation is slightly different. The TRC ensured that all fixed line operators (SLT, Suntel & Lanka Bell) use the same area codes. The codes of the mobile operators remain the same but Celltel has become Tigo and Hutchinson has become Hutch. Basically, All inland numbers have 10 digits of which the first three are the area codes in Sri Lanka for the fixed line operators. For the mobiles these stay the same as in the previous para. For Akurana or Kandy the area code is 081. Thus Suntel numbers in Akurana have 081 4xx xxxx while Lanka Bell numbers have the pattern 081 5xx xxxx. SLT numbers use 081 2xx xxxx for Kandy. For Akurana it would be 081 230 xxxx. Just to confuse you a bit more, the Colombo area code is 011, Galle is 091. Thus a Lanka Bell subscriber in Galle would have the number pattern 091 5xx xxxx

The roads were in a deplorable state and were under repair for a long time. A massive carpeting scheme, which had been under the carpet for some time, was accelerated. The carpet is now completed.

Update:and depleted

Akurana has no police station though I don't think it makes a difference. We do not have any politicians for the policemen to look after. But Katugastota still remains a mint to which policemen want transfers due to the additional income stream open to them in catching traffic offenders from Akurana

Akurana has one National School, The Azhar Central College, which does a great service churning out a large number of students every year. A few students manage to get into the University. The school is co-ed and a fair contingent of girls makes it to campus as well.

The School ground is the ground for any major activity. There are many mushroom sports clubs and now about two fitness centres. The village has(d) one good rugby football team, the Blind Chameleons, who nearly made it to the country's C division. Unfortunately, this ground is also a centerpiece for election propaganda with every politician of any hue (or multicolored from summersaulting among the different parties) takes it upon himself to "upgrade" the facilities in the ground as one of the main promises to the clueless voter base. The result? Come election time, the ground is dug up from end to end by the same contractor pool and left unfinished until election day and abandoned afterwards. Once the people start using it again and the ground reaches some level of respectability an other election comes along with groundbreaking (intended) manifestos.

The main Mosque in Akurana is the Masjidul Jamiul Asna, where prayers are conducted five times daily. Jumma prayers are conducted on Fridays. Tharaweeh prayers are conducted for men during the month of Ramazan. The mosque, the Jameeath-ul-Ulema and other movements organize several activities throughout the year. The mosque also helps settle minor disputes among members of the community. People generally accept the "nayam" (fair settlement) by the mosque. There are other mosques as well which cater to different areas. The grand mosque in Bulugohatenna has a cemetery.

Information about Akurana (Not complete yet. Help appreciated & Acknowledged)

Personalities:

Telephone Directory - under construction

Families & People - under construction

Map of Akurana - under construction

Geography - under construction


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