Northern Principals propose fully empowered IA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2003, 17:00 GMT]
The Northern Province Principals' Association (NPPA) said Tuesday that it has sent a memorandum to Mr. Velupillai Pirapakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers, urging him to ensure that the proposed Interim Administration (IA) for the Northeast is vested with fiscal, executive and judicial powers.

"We have suggested that if our people are to reap the real benefits of peace then the IA should unequivocally be in charge of land, law and order, resettlement and local government in the northeast", a spokesman for the NPPA told TamilNet Tuesday.

The NPPA memorandum to the LTTE leadership was handed over on Monday, according to him.

"We cannot continue with the current unsettled state where it has become quite evident that neither the central government in Colombo nor Northeast Provincial Council are equal to the task of rebuilding the northeast and resettling refugees. There is a clear limit to what these two systems can deliver. Neither can these be made effective in fiscal and administrative terms unless the constitution is amended. Talking about amending the unitary constitution is absolutely unrealistic, given the interminably divisive dynamics of the Sinhala polity. it would only fool us into futilely endless negotiations, which would, sooner than later, test the patience of our people. We are concerned that the Tigers should take this into account", said Mr. K. Thiraviyarasah, Principal of the Aaliyavlai, Tamil Mixed School in Jaffna.

"We believe that the only way out of this problem is to establish an interim administration vested with necessary and substantive powers to rebuild and develop the northeast tangibly and efficiently", he added.

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