Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran, responding to an invitation to attend a Special District Development meeting to be chaired by President Rajapaksa in Jaffna on October 13, accuses the Sri Lankan government of overlooking the Northern Provincial Council.
Signalling a boycott of the meeting, Mr. Wigneswaran said the Council would not attend the meeting or any other “politically motivated meeting” in the province when the Tamils were continuing to be marginalized, pointing to an “authoritarian regime foisted on the NPC.”
The Sri Lankan President is to hand over land permits to 20,000 people in the Northern Province.
ADVERTISEMENT
Questioning the process and the legal basis for the selection of recipients, the Chief Minister, a former Supreme Court judge, has said the move was only to create political capital. “Clearly, the NPC is not viewed as a partner in addressing the concerns of the war-ravaged north,” Mr. Wigneswaran said.
India, which is said to have had a role in persuading the Sri Lankan government to hold elections in its Northern Province, has been reiterating the importance of the 13th Amendment for devolution.