Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran has slammed the government for its hegemonic attitude towards the Northern Provincial Council, in relation to a recently approved housing project.
In an interview with The Hindu, the chief minister said the government did not discuss details of the controversial project with representatives from the North-East. The project, which according to critics will see the construction of 65,000 houses unsuitable for the local climate, will be implemented by Lakshmi Mittal's firm, who is thought to be close to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
“We’re completely kept in the lurch. The dominating, domineering and hegemonic attitude on the part of the government is irking us. It [the project] is not to our benefit,” he said.
The chief minister stressed that Tamils are not a minority in the North-East and that they would like to have a federal constitution.
"One of the primary things that we are mentioning to the government is that the structure of the constitution is faulty. If you have a unitary constitution, the power will be in the hands of one community. I must tell you one important thing, Northern and Eastern Tamils are not minority. They are the majority in their areas for over 2,000 years,
"The unitary constitution is structurally faulted. We would like to have a federal constitution. Now, you can call it federal or you call it in any other way," he said.
Mr Wigneswaran also said that a town-twinning project between Jaffna and the UK's Royal Borough of Kingston, has stalled as Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera had not responded to a letter the chief minister sent.
"There was no need for me to get permission from the government because these are devolved subjects. Still, I wanted to be sure that nothing was to be seen as if the Northern Province Chief Minister is trying to do things on his own. On November 4 last year, I wrote to Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and asked him to approve this. Till today, he has not approved it. I sent it on November 4 last year. I called attention. No reply,"
See the full interview here.