Northern interim council to act like PC, says Douglas

The proposed interim council for the Northern Province, to be set up next week, will be a de facto Provincial Council, a Cabinet Minister declared last night.“The administrative structure for such a council already exists. What is lacking is the political leadership,” Jaffna District parliamentarian and Social Services Minister Douglas Devananda told The Sunday Times.

The council with a year-long term, Mr. Devananda said, “will try to improve human and democratic rights of the people. It would also develop the area economically and thus create a momentum for the people to enjoy their political rights.” Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader V. Anandasangaree is strongly tipped to be named the Governor for the Northern Province. Mr. Devananda is to head the interim council.

All-Party Representative Committee chairman and Minster Tissa Vitarana told The Sunday Times the interim council the Committee recommended should go beyond an advisory capacity and involve itself in laying the groundwork for the holding of elections to the province as soon as feasible.

Prof. Vitarana said the APRC had recommended that the proposed council should consist of people with sufficient political experience. “It should not be purely a bureaucratic exercise but should also comprise elected representatives of the people in the area,” he said. However Sri Lanka Freedom Party General Secretary and Minister Maithripala Sirisena told a press briefing last Thursday that the powers of the interim council would be restricted to advising the Governor on how to administer the province in the absence of a Provincial Council.

The APRC report released on Wednesday spoke of the requirement for “an alternative arrangement in the Northern Province to enable the people of the Province to enjoy the fruits of devolution” as a free and fair election in the North will not be possible in the near future.

The APRC in its report recommends the setting up of an interim council for the Northern Province to aid and advice the Governor in the exercise of his executive powers and it function until PC elections are held in that Province. Two of the members to the council will be appointed by the President while the remaining three will appointed on the recommendation of Minister Devananda also by the President.