{"id":81032,"date":"2023-01-27T00:45:56","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T04:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=81032"},"modified":"2023-01-28T00:33:02","modified_gmt":"2023-01-28T04:33:02","slug":"i-am-acting-in-accordance-with-the-supreme-court-decision-regarding-the-13th-amendment-i-oppose-a-federal-state-but-not-devolution-of-power-the-provincial-councils-in-sri-lanka-haven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=81032","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI am acting in accordance with the Supreme Court decision regarding the 13th Amendment. I oppose a federal state but not devolution of power. The provincial Councils in Sri Lanka haven\u2019t even the powers that are vested in the London City Council. Hence we can\u2019t define this as a federal state.\u201d- President Ranil Wickremesinghe"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Text of Press Release Issued by the President’s Media Division)<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that he is bound to implement the existing law in accordance with the executive powers of the President.<\/p>\n

He said further that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution should be implemented accordingly or the Parliament should abolish the 13th amendment.<\/p>\n

President Wickremesinghe also pointed out that any parliamentarian could move a private member\u2019s bill to abolish the 13th Amendment to the constitution and the same amendment would have to be implemented provided that the bill was voted against by the majority of the House.
\nThe President stressed that he was not ready to divide the country at all and would not betray the Sinhalese nation as well.<\/p>\n

President Wickremesinghe made these remarks at the All-Party Conference, which was held at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday (26).<\/p>\n

The statement made by the President is as follows.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It is my responsibility as the Executive to carry out the current law. For approximately 37 years, the 13th Amendment has been a part of the constitution. I must implement or someone has to abolish it by way of a 22nd amendment to the constitution by moving a private member\u2019s bill. If the bill was voted against by the majority in the House, then the 13th amendment would have to be implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t remain in a middle position saying that either we don\u2019t implement the 13th amendment or abolish it,\u201d President Ranil Wickremesinghe said.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m acting in accordance with the decision delivered by the Supreme Court Bench regarding the 13th Amendment, in particular, Chief Justice Palinda Ranasinghe\u2019s ruling. If we stick to that, we might say that we are in a \u2018united\u2019 state. I oppose a federal state but not devolution of power. The provincial Councils in Sri Lanka haven\u2019t even the powers that are vested in the London City Council. Hence we can\u2019t define this as a federal state.<\/p>\n

The late President J. R. Jayawardena introduced many clauses along with the lawyers not to make Sri Lanka a federal State. So far, every President has decided to put this into action. So either we ought to get rid of the 13th amendment or should implement it.<\/p>\n

A massive extent of land was under the government by the time the conflict came to an end in 2009 and thereafter most of those lands were released to the public under the reigns of former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena. The largest extent of lands in Jaffna was issued under the reign of former President Maithripala Sirisena. There is only a land extent of 3000 acres under the government as of now.<\/p>\n

The release of those lands too should be entrusted with the security forces to be done without causing interruption to the security activities. We discuss the release of those lands with the Defence Secretary, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the Commanders of Tri Forces and acted upon their views.<\/p>\n

The Land Commission needs to be established immediately. The draft bill in that regard could be moved by March. The Constitution has it that nine representatives from each province should be included while 12 are appointed by the President. Then a national land policy should be formulated. Thereafter the National Land Policy could be put into action by the Land Commission.<\/p>\n

Thirty per cent (30%) or more of the country is covered in forest. Here the lands have been allocated suddenly for forests in an unorganized manner. However, we have deforested up-country as well as the areas where the Mahaweli, Kelani and Kalu rivers commence. Somehow, the forest cover should be increased. <\/p>\n

We should allow the Land Commission to decide on the extent of land required to enhance the forest cover in accordance with the government\u2019s policy up to 30%. I am dedicated in that endeavour too.<\/p>\n

If establishment of the National Police Commission instead of a Provincial Police Commission is objected to , an amendment should be made. However either should be done.<\/p>\n

The measures that would be taken in this regard would be presented to the Parliament on February 08. And if there are any suggestions, they could be made so before February 04th that they may be considered and submitted on February 8th.<\/p>\n

Neither any ome here nor I am ready to divide our country. We are all Sinhalese who are sitting here. These individuals will not betray the Sinhalese. If they are Sinhalese, they should coexist with other ethnic groups such as Tamils, Muslims, and Burghers.<\/p>\n

I have no doubt that if we protect the notion in the line \u2018Children of one mother\u2019 in our national anthem, we could go forward united.<\/p>\n

We shall work toward a consensus-based solution for the political and economic issues one step at a time. Let\u2019s solve our political and economic issues step by step in a manner that could be accepted by all.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s act as we agreed earlier without being stuck in this problem. We neither betray any nor divide the country and the country is united today.<\/p>\n

Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thero, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena Former Presidents Mahinda Rajapakse & Maithripala Sirisena, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Douglas Devananda, Tissa Vitharana, Vajira Abeywardena, Rishad Bathiudeen, Kumara Welgama, Rajitha Senaratne, Duminda Dissanayake, Mahindanada Aluthgamage, M. A. Sumanthiran, Rauff Hakeem, C. V. Vigneswaran, Suren Raghavan, Sarath Weerasekara, Sivanesathurai Santhirakanthan, Sagara Kariyawasam, Tiran Alles, Gevindu Kumaratunga, A. L. M. Athaullah, Imran Maharoof and representatives of the party representing the Parliament were present.<\/p>\n


\n************************************************<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

(Text of Press Release Issued by the President’s Media Division) President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that he is bound to implement the existing law in accordance with the executive powers of the President. He said further that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution should be implemented accordingly or the Parliament should abolish the 13th amendment. President …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘\u201cI am acting in accordance with the Supreme Court decision regarding the 13th Amendment. I oppose a federal state but not devolution of power. The provincial Councils in Sri Lanka haven\u2019t even the powers that are vested in the London City Council. Hence we can\u2019t define this as a federal state.\u201d- President Ranil Wickremesinghe’ »<\/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\/81032"}],"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=81032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81033,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81032\/revisions\/81033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}