The final report of the Public Representations Committee On Constitutional Reform was published on Tuesday.
The over 300-page long report made recommendations on the proposed constitutional reforms, after island-wide consultations. Issues including the nature of the state, devolution, the Sri Lankan flag, language rights and the role of religion were discussed.
Several Tamil civil society and political groups took part in the consultations, alongside civilians in the North-East.
The 18 member committee examined the over 4,000 submissions to compile the report and suggested recommendations to the constitutional assembly.
Notably, the committee members were often unable to agree on recommendations regarding specific topics, in which case they made different, sometimes opposing recommendations. For instance, on the issue of the Sri Lankan flag, a few committee members suggested changing the design of the flag, while the vast majority recommended to keep the flag as it is.
On the nature of the state, while the report looks at a unitary state versus a federal setup, the committee failed to recommend a federal option, while recommending two unitary options.
One of the most prominent Tamil civil society groups, the Tamil Civil Society Forum, in their submission said that devolution in a unitary state was unacceptable, and called for a federal political solution.