Says no devolution of power to provincial councils
The Sri lankan Government made it clear on Monday that there would not be any more devolution of powers to the provincial councils in the island nation setting at rest all possibilities of the Tamil-dominated Northern Provincial administration getting the authority to control the departments of police and revenue. It was also announced by lalith Weerathunga, secretary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, that the Army stationed at Jaffna would not be called back to the barracks.
“There is a pressure on us from people in North, especially senior Tamil citizens that the Army should not be called back,” Weerathunga said at Colombo on Monday. No amount of international pressure would make the Rajapaksa Government to yield from its present position that police and revenue will continue to be under the control of the federal Government, he said.
Prof Gamini lakshman Peiris, Sri lanka’s Minister for External Affairs said some of the Provincial Council has been clamouring for devolution of power under the 13th amendment of the Constitution. “We have transferred whatever power they require to administer the concerned regional councils. But the Northern Provincial Council which has sufficient authority has not done anything for the welfare of the people though they are vested with sufficient power. Their demand for 13th amendment has been implemented by the Sri lankan Government. But the power to administer police and land could not be entrusted to the provincial councils because of general public policies on these regards,” he said.
A soft spoken Prof Peiris came down heavily on ethnic groups crying to certain nternational groups and human right activists in western countries with the plea that they are in a pathetic position because of the refusal of the Sri lankan Government to devolve power. “Election to the Northern Provincial Council was held after a gap of over 25 years and we knew well that we would be defeated in the election. Still we did not hesitate to hold the election. In spite of the fact that a Government has been elected with good majority, they have not done anything for the betterment of the population,” said the Minister.
He also disclosed that NGOs in Sri lanka continued to receive large sums of money under the pretext of capacity building for those affected by the three-decadelong civil war. “But this is being used as foreign direct investment to influence domestic policies,” he said. The Minister made it clear that external intervention can not make the Government change its stance.
In a hard-hitting speech, Peiris said said certain groups are offering financial inducements to people in the North to appear before internationally constituted ‘commissions’ and make baseless allegations against the Government in Colombo. A thorough probe revealed that those who were brought from North and paraded before such Commissions were in dark about why they were asked to do so.
Military and civil delegations from more than 40 countries including India are taking part in the conclave for interaction with the Sri lanka Army and experts about the post-Eelam War rehabilitation and reconstruction works in the island nation.