TNA seeks public views to resolve ‘ethnic issue’

June 5, 2014  03:04

The TNA has sought suggestions from the public on ways to resolve the long-standing ‘ethnic issue’. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) senior parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran said the channels for feedback were now open and will remain so until the end of this month.

“We have had several different attempts made since 1957 to solve the issue. Nothing has materialised ,” he told reporters in Jaffna yesterday.

Premachandran said the Tamil minority has suffered since Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948 without any meaningful action to deliver justice to the Tamils.

The public could either email the TNA or hand in their proposals to their party office in Jaffna. The majority Sinhalese and the minority Muslims were free to send in the proposals.

The move comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his bilateral talks with President Rajapaksa had made clear last month that India wishes to see Sri Lanka fully implement the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution.

Sri Lanka remains averse to conferring police and land powers on the Tamil-dominated northern provincial council.

External Affairs Minister GL Peiris told the Parliament here yesterday that President Rajapaksa told Modi that granting police powers to the provinces was not possible.

Colombo wants a parliamentary select committee to decide on the powers to be devolved to the provinces.

TNA is suspicious of the move, claiming that the PSC was a mere stalling tactic.

Sri Lanka’s thirteenth amendment was introduced in 1987 as a result of direct Indian intervention, PTI reports.