The JVP yesterday urged the government to scrap the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and do away with provincial councils without wasting time in making amendments to the existing Provincial Council Act.

JVP Propaganda Secretary Vijitha Herath told The Island that the government’s draft amendment to the Provincial Council Act had been postponed for two weeks, when it was presented to the Cabinet yesterday.

He said that the proposed amendment would only pave the way for passing something at the provincial council level even though it could not be passed by a council.

Herath said that, for example, when the impeached Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake ordered that the approval of Provincial Councils had to be sought before taking up the Divi Neguma bill in Parliament, it was asked how the approval of the Northern Provincial Council could be obtained as there was no sitting council.

According to the new amendment, it was not necessary to obtain the approval of all provincial councils, but the approval of a majority out of the nine provincial councils was enough to present it in parliament, MP Herath said.

The Gampaha District MP said that the Provincial Council system set up on the Indian model had failed to be a solution to the national issue.

“We have been against the PC system since the inception and our stand on that remains the same,” Herath said, adding that first of all the government had to abolish the provincial council system and thereafter it should look after the needs of Tamil people in the Northern and Eastern Provinces without further delay as four years had already passed since the defeat of terrorism. (By Dasun Edirisinghe)

Source: The Islands (Sri Lanka)