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Govt. allies want 13-A scrapped

23 October 2012 12:49 am - 35     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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Several allies of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have decided to continue their campaign to pressure President Mahinda Rajapaksa to abrogate the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, by using the two-thirds majority in Parliament, Daily Mirror learns.

The Jathika Nidahas Peramuna (JNP) led by Minister Wimal Weerawansa and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) have started a public campaign against the 13th Amendment.

The Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) led by Minister Dinesh Gunawardane has also decided to prevail upon the government in this regard.

Minister Gunawardena told Daily Mirror his party foresaw the consequences of this piece of legislation introduced in 1987 under the Indo-Lanka Accord giving birth to the provincial councils, which have become white elephants.

“This is a hastily prepared piece of legislation. The provincial councils are useless. They waste public funds. We have to do away with this system at least now,” he said. “In Sri Lanka, even education and health have been devolved to the provinces. These are two crucial subjects, which need to be handled by the central government to develop a country. We are witnessing the repercussions of leaving such powers in the hands of the provincial councils.

Asked whether he would carry out a public campaign, the minister said that his party would first discuss the matter with the government.

“We have written to the government on several occasions. We will take it up again. The government has a two-third majority in Parliament. It can be used to abrogate the 13th Amendment,” he said.

The MEP is an ally of the ruling coalition with three parliamentary seats. Digamadulla district MP Sriyani Wijewickrema and Deputy Minister Geethanjana Gunawardane are the two others.

He said that instead of the provincial councils a district council system could be set up to implement and co-ordinate development work.
“The Pradeshiya Sabhas and Urban Councils should be strengthened,” the minister said.

Referring to the Indo-Lanka Accord, he said though the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi played a role in introducing this law here, there are village-based administrative bodies set up in India to carry out grassroots level development activities.

The minister said the MEP wants the cultural and linguistic concerns of people in the North addressed. (Kelum Bandara)

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  Comments - 35

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  • Independent Minister Tuesday, 23 October 2012 08:06 AM

    Media fabricated wrong news like the well-water tax and Tony's cancer.

    jacoob Tuesday, 23 October 2012 05:45 AM

    Napolian – Waterloo
    Piraba - Nandikadal
    MR & Clan – Palk Straights via 13A ( who said 13 is an unlucky number)
    Kachchami ….

    Ruhunu Kolla Tuesday, 23 October 2012 05:59 AM

    When are we going to get broad minded politicians, or rather STATEMEN?

    Ronnie Wade Tuesday, 23 October 2012 06:18 AM

    This is a good development to induce Mr Sambandan into reality.

    The way the TNA is carrying on at the moment is nothing happened over the last 25 years.

    They want nothing but what they wanted prior to the LTTE plus what they gatherd from the LTTE as well.

    If they do not want the UPFA to scrap the 13A, they must come to a compromise based on the adage live and let live.

    anura Tuesday, 23 October 2012 06:29 AM

    This should have been and must be abolished if Sri Lanka is to develop. PC system is planted by India to destabilize Sri Lanka which they did upto some extent and still is doing. otherwise we would have been much better than Singapore.

    Sandu Tuesday, 23 October 2012 06:46 AM

    Even after 100 yrs Sri Lanka cannot develop, if they didn't bring English as the only official language, that is what Singapore did and that is why they are like that and we are like this. Politicians used Sinhala only law to sustain in polities, they never think of country or people, they want power and money. They won't bother , if Sri Lanka goes below Ethiopia, they want to fill their pocket. Using this "Sinhala only" tactics. Until people understand this truth, we can never rise

    wd Tuesday, 23 October 2012 07:14 AM

    Abolish Presidency and PCs Both.. JRs Pissu wiwasthawa.

    aaa Tuesday, 23 October 2012 07:31 AM

    If LTTE exist today, they would have supported for abolishing 13A before those allies.

    RamUK Tuesday, 23 October 2012 07:55 AM

    compromise is the word but it must be both side you just can not ask to compromise one side. . even the great MR do not want to upset people to win election by implementing something solid.rather than drag it for another millennium. I miss..Mr. R Premadasa who actually would have done some thing rather than waste time

    Calistus Jayatilleke Tuesday, 23 October 2012 05:30 AM

    13 A, including the 13 Plus as promised to India by the President himself ?

    Andrew Pitugala Tuesday, 23 October 2012 08:13 AM

    There is no doubt that the campaign starts from tthe very top who promissed 13plus, who has a history of broken promisses.

    Thomas Tuesday, 23 October 2012 08:49 AM

    First and formost ABOLISH EXECUTIVE PRESIDENCY

    ranbanda Tuesday, 23 October 2012 08:45 AM

    JR did not want this 13th amendment and the pc system and the merger of north and east but JRs pissu wiwasthaw helped MR to win the war

    Janaki Tuesday, 23 October 2012 09:17 AM

    At last SL is waking up after going into hibernation all these Years . Rajiv Gandhi wanted SL destabilised and our naive politicians fell for it .

    observer Tuesday, 23 October 2012 09:26 AM

    wow.. stupidity at its best... i suppose south korea, malaysia also made english their official language....

    Asoka Tuesday, 23 October 2012 09:38 AM

    Throw this 13th Amendment to dusbin. We have parliament. Everything with parliament, No country dictate to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka future with Sri Lankans not with any other country. Act same like how Sir John Kotalawela acted in Bandung. Act same as how ex-president R. Premadasa acted and sent IPKF.

    Asoka Tuesday, 23 October 2012 09:45 AM

    What India promised? UNHRC ? They said they will back Sri Lanka but India voted against Sri Lanka. Because of 13th Amendment Sri Lanka Sailor gave world's best guard of honour to Parsi ex-Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi and final last respect by LTTE. No one can point finger to Sri Lanka except Sri Lankan voters who sending to parliament to rule Sri Lanka.

    xlntgson Wednesday, 24 October 2012 08:26 AM

    Self contradictory.

    ravi Tuesday, 23 October 2012 03:53 AM

    try it will see the out come soon big brothers now up to you we are siding

    Saman Tuesday, 23 October 2012 01:03 AM

    පළාත් සභා ක්‍රමය වූ කලී ප්‍රභාකරන් සතුටු කිරීමට ජයවර්ධන ආණ්‌ඩුව විසින් ගසන ලද ගැටයක්‌.
    ඒ අනුව සෙසු පළාත්වලට ද පළාත් සභා දී එම සෑම පළාතකටම ආණ්‌ඩුකාරයෙක්‌, මහ ඇමැති කෙනෙක්‌, විපක්‍ෂ නායකයෙක්‌, මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් හා ඇමැතිවරුන් කණ්‌ඩායමක්‌ නඩත්තු කරන්නට ආණ්‌ඩුවට සිදුවිය. ඒ සියලුම දෙනාට වාහන පර්මිට්‌ දීමට ද සිදු විය. පළාත් සභා යාන්ත්‍රණය පවත්වාගෙන යැම සඳහා පඩි නඩි, ඩීසල්, පැට්‍රල්, ගොඩනැඟිලි පහසුකම් ඇතුළු විශාල වියදමක්‌ යයි. පළාත් සභාවලින් සිදුවන සේවයක්‌ නැති බැවින් එයට වියදම් කරන හැම සතයක්‌ම මකරකුගේ බඩ ඇතුළට ටි්‍රප් එකේ යැම සඳහා වියදම් කරන මුදලට සමාන විය. ඒ අතර දෙමළ දේශපාලනඥයෝ පළාත් සභා සඳහා ඉඩම් බලතල සහ පොලිස්‌ බලතල ද ඉල්ලන්නට පටන් ගත්හ. ඒ දෙකත් ලැබී යුද හමුදාවකුත් පවත්වාගෙන යන්නට බලය ලැබෙතොත්, ඕනෑම පළාතකට වෙනම රටක්‌ වීමට අවශ්‍ය වන අවසන් බලතලය පළාතටම විශේෂ මුදලක්‌ අච්චු ගැසීමේ බලතලය පමණි.

    Meean Tuesday, 23 October 2012 01:10 AM

    For the the first time all these allies are talking some sense.

    perumal Tuesday, 23 October 2012 02:58 AM

    Timing of the campaign is of essence. They seem to want to over ride the judicial handicap relating to Divi Neguma.

    Nihal Amarasekera Tuesday, 23 October 2012 03:11 AM

    Thanks to the Divineguma.

    Citizen Perera Tuesday, 23 October 2012 03:19 AM

    If the government is not happy about Provincial council system, why they had early election few months ago in some of the councils?

    true sri Lankan Tuesday, 23 October 2012 03:31 AM

    JVP & JHU Old crap. New generation people think differently.

    Vow to be srilankan Tuesday, 23 October 2012 03:41 AM

    The executive president what about of 13+ promise to indian envoy...? is that a gimmick..?

    Big Ears Tuesday, 23 October 2012 03:44 AM

    This exercise to the revive war song which is rapidly losing popularity by war mongers and also the mask the corruption and misadministration. Nothing new and of any gist.

    Jagath Leanage Tuesday, 23 October 2012 12:53 AM

    "BORU PENA" which means a Soda bottle.

    prasad Tuesday, 23 October 2012 04:09 AM

    Govt may want ot do it and this drma is to say that because the people of the other parties want we are doing !!!

    but it is a good thing to abolish 13th amendment, we dont need Indian Law in SL.

    DXB Tuesday, 23 October 2012 04:24 AM

    True , this system created a division in Sri lanka base on ethnicity . The boarders of this existing system make people more difficulties to have their goverment related work done , for example a person from Galigamuwa & Mawanella have to travel to Ratnapura whereas Kandy and Colombo is far close to them. We need strong District development system.

    Muheed Jeeran Tuesday, 23 October 2012 04:26 AM

    Minister Gunawardena told Daily Mirror his party foresaw the consequences of this piece of legislation introduced in 1987 under the Indo-Lanka Accord giving birth to the provincial councils, which have become white elephants.

    Then you must campaign to scrapped the Parliamentary system too as that also become a white elephant now... Prime Minister power is similar to chief minister now....

    Laws Tuesday, 23 October 2012 04:37 AM

    Hope it does something good to the country.

    Lankey Bonnicka Tuesday, 23 October 2012 05:02 AM

    You and your idiotical 13 amendment. people are suffering with cost of lving here. now 13 amendment good for nothing

    Sing Tuesday, 23 October 2012 05:04 AM

    Cut from south, paste to north.

    Big Ears Tuesday, 23 October 2012 05:20 AM

    Hope, hope and hope. Sit back and relax, the Sri Lanka culture.


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