Sri Lanka's cabinet of ministers decided to amend the country's constitution for the 18th time. The Draft Bill of the Constitution will taken up before the five judges bench of Supreme Court in accordance with the law. Registrar of the Supreme Court said that the court would notify its determination as to whether the proposed Bill is inconsistent with the Constitution to the Speaker and the President as required by the Constitution.
The proposed amendments envisaged include, deletion of clause 2 of article 31 which relates to restricting the number of terms of holding the office of the Presidency by an individual, changes to the Constitutional Council, changes to appointment of Commissions, delegation of powers to Secretaries of Ministries to institute public service transfers, and making mandatory for the holder of the office of the President to attend Parliament every three months.
Upon obtaining the Supreme Court’s determination, the Speaker in accordance with Article 82 of the Constitution governing the rules relating to the ‘Amendment or repeal of the Constitution’ needs to place the Bill on the Order Paper of the Parliament. It is mandatory under section (5) of the same article in order for the Bill to become law, the number of votes cast in favour of the Bill should be not less than two-thirds of the whole number of Members (including those not present).
The Secretary General of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Minister of Health Mr. Maithripala Sirisena has said that the Bill will be presented in Parliament on 8th September. He has expressed confidence of getting at least 160 votes in favour of the Bill, and getting the Bill passed in the Parliament.
The main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP) had decided to vote against the 18th amendment to the constitution the leader of the opposition Ranil Wickramasinghe said addressing the media. He further said the government kept on changing the proposals from one meeting to the other during the bilateral discussions on constitutional changes.
The opposition repeatedly accused the government for being deceptive during the discussions.
"First proposal was to establish an executive Prime Ministerial post after getting rid of the executive presidency. On the second round of talks they told us that they are proposing to allow the sitting president to contest a third term." The opposition leader said.
"People gave a mandate to reduce the executive powers, not to centralise more power to the presidency". He said.
The UNP is against Abolishing the 17th amendment which they say will further concentrate power to the president. Such a move, they claim will weaken the power of the parliament.
However, with the Sri Lanka Muslim Congres support, the government is now assured a two third majority in parliament.
India today assured Sri Lanka's war-displaced Tamils of all kind of assistance, as foreign secretary Nirupama Rao visited the IDP camps in Sri Lanka's north to get an overview of the process of their resettlement.
"We are prepared to assist to the best of our capacity and do whatever we can," Rao said as soon as she arrived in Colombo.
She visited the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Vavuniya and asked about their welfare. Rao flew to the Wanni security forces headquarters and travelled by road to the IDP camps.
She visited the Chetikulam Menik Farm IDP camp and later headed for a meeting with the Vavuniya government agent.
The foreign secretary is scheduled to inspect de-mining programs in the north before heading for Jaffna.
In order to facilitate and enable rapid resettlement and rehabilitation of the IDPs, India has deployed seven teams in the neighbouring country.
In June 2009, India announced Rs500 crores for relief and rehabilitation and resettlement in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The immediate relief assistance last year included 2.5 lakh family relief packs which were mobilised by Tamil Nadu government; deployment of an emergency field hospital for six months and two consignments of medicines for the use of the IDPs.
India also sent three consignments of 2600 MT each of shelter material and distributed 70,000 agricultural starters packs to revive agricultural activities. It had also gifted 55 buses to the northern, eastern and central provinces besides conductingan artificial limb fitment camp.
Recently New Delhi gifted four lakh cement bags for resettling IDP families to assist them to repair their damaged houses.
India has announced construction of 50,000 houses for the IDPs in the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka.
It is also assisting Sri Lanka in several infrastructural projects in northern and eastern Sri Lanka including railway lines, harbour, cultural centre, stadium and vocational centres.
Rao is scheduled to visit Mullaittivu in the north and Trincomalee in the east tomorrow before returning to Colombo in the afternoon of the same day to interact with Tamil and other leaders.
She is expected to meet Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and foreign minister GL Peiris on Thursday before flying home.
Rao was accompanied by the Indian high commissioner to Sri Lanka Ashok Kanta and deputy high commissioner Vikram Misri besides senior Sri Lankan officials.
Rao also expressed hope that Sri Lanka government will do their best to overcome the problems faced by IDPs.
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