Colombo Municipal Council Logo

The logo shows the Kelani Ganga, the northern city limit of Colombo and Sripada Mountain from which this river starts to right and two other smaller mountains to left of a coconut palm in front. The foliage of the peak wilderness and background sky fills the elliptical logo. The Name MUNICIPAL COUNCIL above and COLOMBO below is in the elliptical annulus within the outer periphery. Above the palm is the Latin phrase NON NOBIS that translates to "Not for Ourselves" in center part of a triple banner.

Based on archive.org records, the Colombo Council website that started around 2003 used a small low resolution image of this logo, where the Latin phrase was hardly readable. This original logo on the left was still used on website in 2015 December.

2015 Dec 09 old logo.

2016 Mar 04 New logo.

New logo on Private Road sign.

For the 150th Anniversary of the Colombo Municipal Council for which they even issued a NCLT Rs500 commemorative Silver coin the colombo.mc.gov.lk website was updated with a new logo on the right stylized to modernize by an artist who probably did not understand the identity of the mountain, has distorted it terribly to a Tsunami. The Latin Phrase had also been removed. The new logo has started appearing on official CMC road signs.

I had not understood the new logo adopted during the 150th anniversary when I saw it in 2015 and just used image on my CMC coin web-page. However while investigating the Dehiwala Mount Lavinia Urban Council logo in 2024 June, I came across the old logo of the Colombo Municipality, and noticed the above distortion.

As the Post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor (UNP) was then vacant. I wrote Municipal Commissioner asking Who was this artist, and shouldn't the distortion of the sacred mountain be rectified on the CMC logo? My E-mail was just acknowledged with no reply.

I posted this amusing observation on Facebook.

On 2024 June 28 I sent an RTI to CMC asking for name of Artist and when New logo was adopted. I finally got an acknowledgement for RTI/2024/46 on Aug 12, after a few e-mail reminders and phone calls to the information officer. He said they were looking for information and had been unable to find any.
I suspect some webmaster for the 2015 150th Anniversary of CMC modernized the logo without any Authority and nobody noticed.

After a few e-mail reminders I finally got an acknowledgement for my RTI SEC/D03/RTI 01/2024/46 on August 12th, and after few more e-mail reminders got a request for extension of time on September 10th and a under registered cover on September 13th, a letter in Sinhala signed on behalf of the Municipal Commissioner forwarding the letter to the Municipal Secretary for reply.

Finally on October 22nd after few more E-mails and phone calls I got a reply by Registered mail informing me

• 03. There is no information in the files held by the Archive regarding the change of the official logo of the Colombo Municipal Council.
• 04. However, the old logo is found in the Centenary volume of the Colombo Municipal Council, 1865-1965 printed in 1965, the COLOMBO UPDATE. 1965-2005 printed in 2008, the reports of the General Council and the agreements signed by the Municipal Council, etc.
• 05. And, it was observed that there is a difference in the use of official logo by the certain departments of the Colombo Municipal Council and in the e-technology i.e. in places like in the website and the ONE STOP COUNTER.
• 06. The old official logo is as follows.
  
• 07. The process of registration of the said official logo under the Intellectual Property Act has been properly commenced and action has been taken to inform all the departments about the proper use of the official logo without delay after it is registered.

Clearly a very honest reply to my RTI from CMC with a proper plan to rectify their negligence even after a lapse of 10 years.

A logo is a symbolic representation of an Institution and should not have been changed without careful considerations and legally informing the public via a gazette of any significant change.