29 Jun 2009: CHENNAI: The 13th Constitutional amendment that is being proposed as the panacea for the woes of Tamils in Sri Lanka could be nothing more than a ‘legal arrangement’ to crush the legitimate aspirations of the minority Tamils, general secretary, Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK), Viduthalai Rajendran said on Sunday.   

He was Speaking at a conference on the current situation of Tamils in Sri Lanka organized by a collective of Information Technology professionals here.

Rajendran said a section of people had been saying that a solution to the problems faced by Tamils in Srilanka could be the 13th amendment to the Lankan constitution. But, the amendment did not even accept that there were two different national races, the Tamils and the Sinhalese.

The proposal consolidates unitary rule and seeks to set up provincial councils. Even ministers in such councils are not given any powers. The ministers could be nothing more than stooges to the governor of the province who would be a nominee of the Srilankan president.  

The amendment did not give powers to the council of ministers but only to the governor on all key subjects including public administration, finance and land. "In the name of devolution of powers, sharing of mere administrative functions was done," he said adding that the police department too would come only under the control of the central authority, which is the Lankan president.  Also, the councils did not enjoy powers to have their own annual budgets and also could not halt demographic alterations as the authority on land matters was vested with the president.