A Win-Win Solution To The Provincial Council Dilemma In Sri Lanka

Dr. Yohan Heenatigala

On 29 July 1987, Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was signed between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene which stated the devolution of powers to the provinces. Hence on 14 November 1987 the Sri Lankan Parliament passed the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Provincial Councils Act No 42 of 1987 to establish provincial councils. The amendment aims at creating provincial councils in Sri Lanka and enable Sinhalese and Tamil as national languages while preserving English as the link language.(Wikipedia).

Establishment of Provincial Councils is outlined in CHAPTER XVII A of The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (Page 122 – Revised Edition – 2015).

Looking back the Provincial Council system is an utter disaster. NOBODY is satisfied with it.

For the past three years or so, there were no PCs and nobody has missed them.

In spite of the “non-existent” PCs the cash disbursements for the year 2019 was

Rs. 203,525,201,150 – (Provincial Councils & Local Government Division –

Annual Performance Report for the year 2019 – Expenditure Head No : 155 – (Page 19),

In short, the Provincial Councils are a “white elephant.”

There is a more efficient alternative.

Establish Provincial Councils with Members of Parliament elected at the General Election.

This will save the enormous amounts of money spent during a separate Provincial Council election.

The MPP will elect a leader among themselves who will be the “de-facto” Chief Minister of the province.

Alternatively, the Prime Minister can appoint a Cabinet Minister from the province as the “de-facto” Chief Minister.

Here is how the 9 Provincial Councils will look like.

ADVANTAGES TO THIS SYSTEM

1. All the members are locally elected Members of Parliament.

2. The Chief Minister will be a member of the Cabinet.

3. There will be no duplication of services between the central and provincial administration.

4. There will be ONLY ONE National standard, instead of many different provincial standards.

5. All governmental services will come under the National government. All the Provincial Council members are Members of Parliament, thus representing the Province whilst being lawmakers of the Nation.

6. And the savings to the treasury will be in hundreds of billions.

This will fulfill the objective of the 13th Ammendment.