TNA in need

By Dilrukshi Handunnetti-

 

Monday, 30 Sep 2013

A senior parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has urged the Centre to urgently facilitate the setting up of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) by disbursing adequate funds to secure the necessary infrastructure.
TNA Parliamentarian, Suresh Premachandran, had made a request to the government in this regard.

The senior parliamentarian said, the NPC being new, it lacked the basic infrastructure including a building and furniture for it to become functional, claiming that the Centre should duly acknowledge the political aspirations expressed through the recent election results.

“It is the Centre’s responsibility to ensure that the first NPC is officially set up at its earliest, and elected representatives are facilitated to become functional,” Premachandran said, emphasizing that a previous example of sharing power with the North had proved a ‘political disaster,’ which only made the Centre suspicious in the eyes of the Tamil

people. “Before the Chief Minister-elect and his administration is installed in office, the basic infrastructure needs to be in place. There should be quick plans, funds and personnel,” he said, emphasizing that the people of the North had waited well over half a century to see the area where they form the majority, to be governed by elected Tamil politicians.

Premachandran added that any constraints, financial or otherwise, should not be allowed to delay the process of setting up this vital provincial administration, established by the Tamil people of the North with an overwhelming majority. The TNA secured 30 out of 38 seats at the 21 September polls, garnering 78.55 of the popular vote.

It is likely that the NPC’s inaugural session will be held at temporary premises, either at a Pradeshiya Sabha building or a hotel.

The North-Eastern Provincial Council set up in 1988, collapsed two years later owing largely to the lack of financial, political and logistical support from the Centre. It functioned from Trincomalee, the capital of the merged North-East Province.

On the eve of the provincial elections, Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, hailed the conducting of the Northern Provincial polls as an important step in the process of reconciliation. The establishment of the NPC and devolving power to the former warzone through the institution has been a key recommendation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).