The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), widely criticised for its perpetual dithering, slammed the 13th Amendment to Sri Lanka's constitution as "full of flaws" on Saturday.
The TNA's spokesperson, MP Suresh Premachandran, said,
“If the government is genuinely committed to it, there is no need for them to have a dialogue with us. Today, the 13th Amendment is full of flaws. The government can devolve powers to the governors of the provincial councils instead of empowering the boards of ministers. It is a constitutional lacuna,”
“The provincial councils need land, police and fiscal powers. If the Centre is involved in all these matters, the hands of the provincial councils will be constitutionally tightened,”
Drawing attention to the protracted, and futile rounds of talks over the past year, Premachandran added,
“We have not discussed the devolution of land and police powers. Also, we have not touched the topic of the re-merger of the north and the east.”
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