By Skandha Gunasekara The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) are engaged in a bitter battle after the TNA demanded a separate Tamil divisional secretariat in the Kalmunai Pradheshiya Sabha. The TNA has convinced the Government to present a cabinet paper proposing a separate Tamil Divisional Secretariat in Kalmunai, The Sunday Morning learnt. However, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) has opposed the proposal and at least one SLMC Minister has threatened to resign if the cabinet paper is submitted. SLMC Parliamentarian and State Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government H.M.M. Harees told The Sunday Morning that his party has strongly opposed the establishment of a separate Divisional Secretariat on an ethnic basis. He said that the Prime Minister had instructed the SLMC and TNA to meet and discuss the issue and reach a resolution. “The Prime Minister had instructed the TNA to meet with the SLMC and resolve the matter. The SLMC leaderships and the TNA hopes to meet this week,” Harees said. He said that the SLMC had informed the TNA that they were willing to discuss the matter and reach an amicable solution but the TNA had instead reached out to the Prime Minister, seeking his intervention on the matter. “Instead of discussing the issue with us, the TNA went directly to the Prime Minister and made their demands,” the State Minister said, adding that the SLMC was opposed to such a move of setting up a separate divisional secretariat for the Tamil populace in Kalmunai, in the Ampara Districrt. According to Minister Harees, 74% of the population in Kalmunai are Muslim while the remaining 26% were Tamil. Harees told The Sunday Morning that he would resign from the Government ranks if the issue went unresolved. Meanwhile, senior TNA Parliamentarian Mavai Senathirajah confirmed that a meeting between the leadership of the two parties would be held in the coming days. “The TNA leadership will meet with our counterparts in the SLMC and discuss the matter,” MP Senathirajah said. Senathirajah, however said that a cabinet paper is nevertheless expected to be submitted on the establishment of a separate Tamil divisional secretariat in Kalmunai.