The Sri Lankan government indicated plans to introduce a 19th Amendment to the Constitution aimed at addressing the current issue of power devolution to the north-east, reported Colombo Page.
The government is preparing the draft of the 19th amendment as an alternative to the 13th Amendment, which has been facing calls of abolishment.
The draft amendment, which claims to offer a solution to the current ethnic issue, will be shown to the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC).
Amidst strong calls for the 13th amendment to be repealed, President Mahinda Rajapaska outlined that a change to the current provincial system was needed to ‘meaningfully’ devolve powers.
The preferred mode of ‘meaningful change’ seems to be the formulation of the 19th amendment, which encompasses options for the devolution of power whilst eliminating the provincial system.
Despite the Tamil National Alliance expressing serious concern on how "they feel cheated" by the PSC, the government has also insisted that the party must participate.
The talks of a new amendment to devolve power come as Sri Lanka’s Minister of Agriculture, Udaya Gammanpila, noted that there had never been a promise to devolve power.
See here for a TNA MP’s summary of the situation regarding devolution of power in Sri Lanka.
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