NPC adopts resolution backing federal solution

Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party TNA- controlled Northern Provincial Council today adopted a resolution seeking a federal solution to the long-pending issue of political independence for the country’s minority Tamil community. 

The resolution was presented by Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran while the Ministers and members of the council expressed views on the proposal afterwards. 

UPFA councilors Vannihamige Jayathilaka and Dharmapala Senevirathna had raised objections to the resolution, stating that it was not the solution to the issue and that it would have harmful repercussions.

Apart from them, only 19 Northern Provincial Council members of the total 38 were present during the vote on the resolution today.

The resolution adopted by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) aims to have the federal solution included in the current constitution-making process. 

The government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has already launched a process to formulate a new Constitution for the country replacing the 1978 statute. 

The Tamil demand for a federal solution dates back to the days when Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, came to be granted independence by the British in 1948. 

Later, the campaign was extended to a separate state demand when the LTTE fought a decades-old war with the government to carve out a separate Tamil homeland. 

With the defeat of the LTTE in 2009, the Tamil leadership has adopted a softer approach to give up on the separatist demand.

With PTI inputs