A six-member delegation of the Sri Lankan Tamil National Alliance reached New Delhi on Sunday evening, to discuss with Indian leaders the Lankan government’s move to dilute the powers given to provincial councils under the India-Sri Lanka accord.
The delegation, led by TNA Member of Parliament R Sampanthan, will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and external affairs minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday. They will also meet the national security advisor Shivshankar Menon on Monday.
“The Sri Lankan government is acting in breach of the India-Sri Lanka accord. We naturally have to turn to India and bring it to their notice,” TNA delegation member, M A Sumanthiran told Express.
He was referring to the Lankan Cabinet last week’s approval for the proposal to modify the constitution to remove the power of the president to merge two or more provinces. A constitutional amendment bill is likely to be introduced in the Lankan parliament on Tuesday.
The other controversial proposal on the centre’s power to legislate subject under provincial councils had been referred to a parliamentary select committee.
India had already made it clear to Lanka that it would be opposed to any unilateral changes in the 13th Amendment, which was conveyed by a phone call by Khurshid to his counterpart G L Peiris. (ENS)
