Ponnambalam’s TNPF comes out opposing Provincial Councils

By Dinasena Rathugamage

The Tamil National People’s Front, on Saturday, expressed its opposition to the provincial council system which is being promoted by many other Tamil political parties.

Addressing the media in Jaffna, TNPF leader MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam said that the Provincial Councils could neither solve the national problem nor were suitable for a country the size of Sri Lanka.

MP Ponnambalam said that he would campaign against the Provincial council system in and out of parliament.

The MP said the provincial council system had been implemented only to suit India and that system did not help solve the national problem as that had been envisaged by the then Indian government; it had not benefited the Tamils of Sri Lanka. The provincial council system had inherent problems within itself to weaken the power bases and those problems surfaced in certain situations.

Ponnambalam said that the majority would never permit anyone to devolve powers to the provinces under the provincial council system. No government in the South would ever think of going against the Buddhist forces led by the members of Maha Sangha and, therefore, the provincial council system would never become a successful administrative system, the MP said adding that the most practical solution should be one that was acceptable to all communities in the country.

His party TNPF had submitted a set of proposals to the government in response to its calling for suggestions for a new Constitution and among those proposals the TNPF stated its standpoint that the provincial council system had become a failure in Sri Lanka, the MP said.