{"id":44479,"date":"2015-12-16T01:09:04","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T05:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=44479"},"modified":"2015-12-16T01:09:04","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T05:09:04","slug":"northern-chief-minister-wigneswaran-opposes-sri-lankan-govt-proposal-of-grama-rajya-scheme-of-devolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=44479","title":{"rendered":"Northern Chief Minister Wigneswaran Opposes Sri Lankan Govt Proposal of \u201cGrama Rajya\u201d Scheme of Devolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

By P.K.Balachandran<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Chief Minister of Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamil-majority Northern Province on Tuesday expressed opposition to the Lankan government\u2019s plan to introduce \u201cGrama Rajya\u201d as the unit of devolution of power.<\/p>\n

Presenting the Northern Provincial Council\u2019s budget for 2016, Wigneswaran said that as per a circular sent by the Central Government, under the proposed \u201cGrama Rajya\u201d scheme of devolution, the Center\u2019s village and provincial level development programs will be implemented by committees which come directly under it. <\/p>\n

This is tantamount to sidelining the Provincial Administration and the Provincial Council, Wigneswaran pointed out.<\/p>\n

Although the Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe government has a pleasant visage as compared to the regime it replaced, it is continuing the discredited policy of chipping away even the limited powers devolved to the provinces under the 13 th.Amendment of the constitution, Wigneswaran said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Although there are no irritations from the present provincial Governor and the Chief Secretary (the incumbents being amiable in comparison with those who held these offices previously), the bureaucracy as such is still not under the control of the Provincial Council, Wigneswaran said.<\/p>\n

In Sri Lanka, there is only administrative service or bureaucracy and this comes entirely under the control of the Center.<\/p>\n

Wigneswaran complained that the Center has given only 40 percent of the funds sought by the Northern Province for development work in 2016. The NPC had sought LKR 7,978.03 million but got only LKR 3,199 million.<\/p>\n

However, the Leader of the Opposition, S.Thavarajah of the Eelam People\u2019 Democratic Party (EPDP) said that it would not be fair to expect the Finance Commission (which recommends the quantum of funds to be allocated to the various provinces) to accept in toto, a provincial administration\u2019s demand. The commission has to examine a demand from various angles, he argued.<\/p>\n

Further, the Northern Province administration is not utilizing the funds already given, he pointed out.
\n\u201cTill October, only 38 percent of the funds allocated for 2015 had been spent. And the expenditure up to November has not been released to avoid further embarrassment,\u201d Thavarajah said.<\/p>\n

E.Saravanapavan, MP for Jaffna district who belongs to Wigneswaran\u2019s party, told Ceylon Today, that the Northern Province is so badly administered by Wigneswaran, that it will be returning 70 percent of the development funds allotted to it by the Center for the year 2015.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Ceylon Today<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By P.K.Balachandran The Chief Minister of Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamil-majority Northern Province on Tuesday expressed opposition to the Lankan government\u2019s plan to introduce \u201cGrama Rajya\u201d as the unit of devolution of power. Presenting the Northern Provincial Council\u2019s budget for 2016, Wigneswaran said that as per a circular sent by the Central Government, under the proposed \u201cGrama …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Northern Chief Minister Wigneswaran Opposes Sri Lankan Govt Proposal of \u201cGrama Rajya\u201d Scheme of Devolution’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44479"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44480,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44479\/revisions\/44480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}