Govt. allies want 13-A scrapped

Tuesday, 23 October 2012 06:19

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)

Comments

-14+36 # Jagath Leanage 2012-10-23 06:23

"BORU PENA" which means a Soda bottle.

-34+18 # prasad 2012-10-23 09:39

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.

-11+40 # Saman 2012-10-23 06:33

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.

-69+50 # Meean 2012-10-23 06:40

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

-10+53 # perumal 2012-10-23 08:28

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

-16+29 # Nihal Amarasekera 2012-10-23 08:41

Thanks to the Divineguma.

-8+64 # Citizen Perera 2012-10-23 08:49

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

-23+59 # true sri Lankan 2012-10-23 09:01

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

-2+38 # Vow to be srilankan 2012-10-23 09:11

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

-8+30 # Big Ears 2012-10-23 09:14

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

-4+9 # ravi 2012-10-23 09:23

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

-20+13 # DXB 2012-10-23 09:54

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.

-2+10 # Muheed Jeeran 2012-10-23 09:56

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....

-15+22 # Laws 2012-10-23 10:07

Hope it does something good to the country.

-8+12 # Big Ears 2012-10-23 10:50

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

-3+18 # Lankey Bonnicka 2012-10-23 10:32

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

-2+7 # Sing 2012-10-23 10:34

Cut from south, paste to north.

-3+33 # Calistus Jayatilleke 2012-10-23 11:00

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

-13+5 # Asoka 2012-10-23 15:15

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.

-8+17 # jacoob 2012-10-23 11:15

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

-3+13 # Ruhunu Kolla 2012-10-23 11:29

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

-18+14 # Ronnie Wade 2012-10-23 11:48

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.

-7+15 # RamUK 2012-10-23 13:25

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

-14+17 # anura 2012-10-23 11:59

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.

-11+19 # Sandu 2012-10-23 12:16

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

-11+9 # observer 2012-10-23 14:56

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

-5+11 # wd 2012-10-23 12:44

Abolish Presidency and PCs Both.. JRs Pissu wiwasthawa.

-5+3 # ranbanda 2012-10-23 14:15

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

-4+11 # aaa 2012-10-23 13:01

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

-6+2 # Independent Minister 2012-10-23 13:36

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

-4+12 # Andrew Pitugala 2012-10-23 13:43

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

-5+16 # Thomas 2012-10-23 14:19

First and formost ABOLISH EXECUTIVE PRESIDENCY

-2+11 # M.V.R.Pererahttp://w 2012-10-23 14:21

What is good for the country should be done even with broken promises why have the Provincial Councils which are 3 fold white elephants

-3+11 # Janaki 2012-10-23 14:47

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 .

-13+10 # Asoka 2012-10-23 15:08

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.

-0+1 # xlntgson 2012-10-24 13:56

Self contradictory.

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