Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran has hit out at President Mahinda Rajapaksa for failing to honour pledges made regarding the NPC, reported Ceylon Today.
Speaking at the Kilinochchi District Development Committee, which ended without resolution according to the Uthayan, Wigneswaran said that the president has not met several pledges that he made regarding the “successful governance” of the provincial council, but instead the government has been trying to take “the upper hand”.
"The Provincial Council system was introduced to devolve powers to the provinces under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. However, the Central Government is attempting to tighten its grip over the Provincial Councils.
"Since powers were not devolved to the NPC, I met Rajapaksa in Colombo on 2 January and explained to him the need of devolving powers to the NPC.
"He made several pledges to me on the successful governance of the NPC. However, he has not done anything so far to fulfil those pledges.
"By clipping the wings of the NPC, the Central government is trying to take the upper hand through its agents. Therefore, to make our presence felt with our demands for the NPC we are attending these meetings."
Wigneswaran said that the TNA would extend their cooperation to the government if it decided to serve the people in the northern province in a constructive manner, and pointed out that the people had placed their confidence in the TNA and made it the ruling party with an absolute majority by electing 30 TNA Provincial Councillors out of a total of 38 Councillors, although the government used all of its resources to try to win.
The Kilinochchi DDC meeting was postponed, as no resolution was reached regarding issues that were discussed, including health and education. The Jaffna DDC held earlier this week also ended with several agenda items outstanding, including military acquisition of land, and saw fierce disagreements between the TNA and the paramilitary EPDP. However a resolution opposing land grabs was passed unanimously at the meeting on Monday.
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