13th Constitutional Amendment of Sri Lanka

The Thirteenth Amendment (13A) to the Constitution of Sri Lanka is based on the Indo- Sri Lanka Accord which was signed between the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President H.R. Jayewardene, which incorporated the devolution of powers to provinces. The amendment aims at creating Provincial Councils in Sri Lanka and enables Sinhalese and Tamil as national languages while preserving English as the link language. The Sri Lankan Parliament passed the Thirteenth Amendment to the constitution on November 14, 1987.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution provides for:

• The establishment of Provincial Councils.
• The appointment and powers of the Governor of Provinces.
• Membership and tenure of Provincial Councils.
• The appointment and powers of the Board of Ministers.
• The legislative powers of the Provincial Councils.
• Alternative arrangements where there is a failure in the administrative machinery.
• The establishment of the Finance Commission.
• Tamil as an official language
• English as a link language
• The establishment of the High Court of the Province

But, this amendment did not provide sufficient powers to elected legislators, ministers and Chief Ministers; it did give some powers to them. It was by no means a great amendment at all because it gave far too many powers to State Governors and important subject like police and land kept out from provinces.

Opposition to this amendment: The 13^th amendment, along with finding support from some sections of the society has also been subjected to various forms of opposition. Those who oppose the 13th Amendment believe that it is a colossal waste of public funds as the people in these provinces receive no benefit whatsoever. Also, there are fears that the amendment will be a danger to the unity and the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka if police and land powers are transferred to the Northern Provincial Council. The Sinhalese majority is opposed to the devolving of land and police powers to the Northern Provinces, mainly because of the bitter experience of 1990 when the first and only elected Chief Minister of temporarily amalgamated North and East Provinces

What Is India's instance on this: India has been pressing Sri Lanka to implement the 13th amendment on devolution of powers in "letter and spirit" and to fulfill the aspirations of the ethnic Tamils.

By: Parveen bansal