13th Amendment To The Constitution Of Sri Lanka:
India’s External Affairs minister during a recent visit to Sri Lanka expressed India’s “considered view” with the Sri Lankan President that the full implementation of the 13th Amendment was “critical” for power devolution.
- 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka is an outcome of the India-Sri Lanka Peace Accord of July 1987, signed by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President J.R. Jayawardene.
- It was an attempt to resolve Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict that had aggravated into a full-fledged civil war, between the armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
- The 13th Amendment, led to the creation of Provincial Councils.
- It assured a power sharing arrangement to enable all nine provinces in the country, including Sinhala majority areas, to self-govern.
- Subjects such as education, health, agriculture, housing, land and police are devolved to the provincial administrations.
- It made Tamil one of Sri Lanka’s official languages and English, a link language.
- The amendment has never been fully implemented because of the overriding powers given to the President.
