‘Urge Ranil to call for Provincial Council polls’

CHENNAI: Members of civil society in the Northern and Eastern Province of Sri Lanka have appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to persuade the visiting President Ranil Wickremasinghe to call for an early Provincial Council election in Sri Lanka.

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“We are fully aware that the Government of India has been consistently calling for the full implementation of the 13th Amendment and to have functioning provincial councils in the Tamil Provinces. We earnestly appeal to you to reiterate that position and use this opportunity to persuade the visiting President Ranil Wickremasinghe to call for an early Provincial Council election in Sri Lanka,” the civil society members comprising a group of religious leaders, educationists and professionals wrote in a letter to Modi.

While thanking the Indian government for its assistance during the financial crisis and support to rebuild infrastructure in the Tamil Provinces, they noted that even 14 years after the end of the war, the social and economic conditions of the people have not progressed as expected. The Provincial councils in the island nation are defunct with no elections held for over four to five years.