Sri Lanka parties unhappy over working of parliamentary panel

The nationalist allies in Sri Lanka's ruling coalition today expressed dissatisfaction over a delay in decision making by a parliamentary committee on reducing land and police powers of provincial councils.
"We are not satisfied about it. There needs to be a time frame for the PSC," said Mohamed Muzzamil, a central committee member of the National Freedom Front (NFF).
The party had deliberated on the matter and a majority view favoured withdrawing their representative in the parliamentary select committee (PSC) over its working, he said.
The government had earlier announced that a parliamentary select committee will look at powers of the 13A amendment of the constitution and strip the provincial councils of land and police powers.

Any decision on the matter is now being delayed until the conduct of elections in September. The decision was taken after pressure from India, analysts claimed.
The NFF representative in the committee and Minister of housing Wimal Weerawansa has threatened to quit if the government goes ahead with conducting the northern council election without amending the powers.

"There needs to be a clear agenda and a roadmap for the PSC. Amending police and land powers need to be taken up by the PSC," said Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe, a spokesperson of the Heritage Party.
The opposition has already boycotted the committee proceedings over concerns at attempts to take power away from the provinces.

The northern council polls - the first ever since the provincial councils became part of the island's statutes in 1987 - are much anticipated by international watchers who have asked Colombo to achieve reconciliation with the Tamil minority.