By Chris Kamalendran
The Tamil National Alliance wants the Government to grant the Northern Province police powers besides the right to manage land and forest reservations.
This request will be placed before President Mahinda Rajapaksa through a government committee in the course of periodic consultations. The TNA points out that these subjects are already listed in the Concurrent List of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
These are the major subjects of power sharing the TNA wants to discuss with the Government. TNA MP Mavai Senathiraja told the Sunday Times this would be the first time issues relating to power sharing would be discussed by the TNA with UPFA leaders.
In the previous meeting with the President, the TNA delegation had discussed welfare measures for people affected by the war in the north. TNA leader R. Sampanthan who has been overseas for medical treatment for nearly three months is expected back on April 4 and a TNA decision on power sharing proposal would be finalized after that.
President Rajapaksa told newspaper editors on Friday that even though talks with the TNA had proceeded well, the party was still to come up with proposals on power sharing.
“We will look into the TNA proposals and have discussions with other parties before taking a decision. They will ask for more, but we will have to strike a balance,” he said. “Whatever proposals they make, I will not give what the LTTE has been asking for,” he said.