Provincial Councils duplicate and complicate system of governance
By A. Kandappah
Many have commented that the Provincial Council system should be reviewed. Other than the gigantic cost it imposes on the National Treasury, in many cases, it duplicate and complicate the earlier system of governance. This is felt mostly in the Western Province where even senior officials of the Municipalities are confused and the ratepayers even more so. The people have neither gained nor has the process made business transaction between them and the government more convenient and less costly.
The very notion of devolving power from the centre to the periphery was aimed at addressing the power-sharing plea of the Tamils in the North-East. No other district in the country asked for power-sharing — at least not in the post-1956 period, as far as I can remember. Therefore, will it not be a timely idea to make changes to the 13th Amendment and make Provincial Councils to function only in that merged-now de-merged Province? This will also offer substance to the present call of ‘Maximum Devolution’ all political parties seem to be agreed on and which the President mentioned several times in his recent visit to India.
I realise there are problems such as (1) who are the Tamil representatives with whom GoSL should sit for talks? Subramaniam Swamy in his recent prescription in the Hindu is quite emphatic this should exclude the LTTE, whom he described as “part of the problem and, therefore, should not be recognised in the process of solution”. The Editor of Uthayan, said to be a frequent visitor to Kilinochchi says in 1987 Rajiv Gandhi “usurped” for himself the role of speaking for the Tamils and signed the agreement on behalf of the Tamils
What are the parameters of the “Maximum Devolution” now being talked of? Can this be sold to the ‘Sinhala hawks’ who seem to demonstrate more political clout than their actual Parliamentary strength shows?
Even the chief of the Army, now visiting the US, has said the armed forces should be allowed to prosecute the war against the LTTE in whatever manner they chose while at the same time the political process should make the necessary political arrangements at power-sharing” with the Tamil people (of the North-East). For sometime many who have studied the matter at depth in the South have felt – if we allow the Tamils in their majority areas to “run their affairs by themselves” they are responsible for the development of their areas and for their welfare thus removing a major burden of the Centre.
The Centre naturally will retain the usual “Reserved List” of Finance, Foreign Affairs, the Armed Forces etc., to themselves as done in most countries sharing power with the periphery from the Centre.
