• Seeks to remove Police powers in the context of devolution to PCs

In the wake the Government consulting all the political parties represented in the Parliament regarding the devolution of power to Provincial Councils (PCs), Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) Leader and Opposition Parliamentarian attorney Udaya Gammanpila announced that he is to bring a new constitutional amendment seeking the removal of Police powers from the Constitution.

Speaking at a media conference held yesterday (24), Gammanpila said that the new constitutional amendment Bill will be brought with the idea of defeating the incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s efforts to make the minority community happy in order to get their votes at the upcoming Presidential Election.

He also noted that the proposed constitutional amendment bill was drafted by a group of President’s Counsels (PCs) and senior attorneys and that the particular bill will be named as the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution Bill. “We saw that the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) MP M.A. Sumanthiran PC said after a meeting held with the President that President Wickremesinghe is keen on implementing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and that he (Wickremesinghe) would later devolve Police powers too (however, per the relevant President’s Media Division publication, the President had talked of the need for a constitutional amendment for the same sans the grant of Police powers to the Provinces and that any provision of such should be approved by the Parliament). Anyone who reads history can understand that Wickremesinghe has been endangering national security every time he got power. It is because the Police powers are in the Constitution that the President calls the members of the TNA from time to time and makes promises about the Police powers. The 22nd Amendment Bill, which removes Police powers from the Constitution, has been handed over to me by a group of reputed lawyers. We will submit this to the Parliament within the course of next week,” he added.

Gammanpila stressed that it is necessary to decide whether the MPs stand with the position taken by seven Executive Presidents that Police powers should not be given to PCs or whether they support separatism for the sake of privileges.

During a meeting with MPs representing the Tamil community on 18 July, Wickremesinghe had said that the 13th Amendment would be implemented with full powers, except for those related to the Police, subject to agreement among political parties in the Parliament. Wickremesinghe assured the Tamil MPs that the 13th Amendment would be fully implemented, without Police powers, in the PCs. However, the TNA, on the same day, “categorically rejected” the President's offer to implement the 13th Amendment without Police powers, terming the proposal for power devolution, “another hollow promise”.

On 29 July 1987, the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was signed between the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and then Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene which provided for the devolution of powers to the Provinces. On 14 November 1987, the Parliament passed the 13th Amendment and the PCs Act, No. 42 of 1987 to establish PCs. The Amendment aims at creating PCs and enabling Sinhalese and Tamil as the national languages while preserving English as the link language.