PSC PARTICIPATION: VASU KEEN TO WOO VICTORIOUS TNA

Following the victory of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) at the country’s first Northern Provincial Council election, National Languages and Social Integration Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara said yesterday that he would ask the chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), assigned to evolve constitutional proposals, to extend a fresh invitation to the TNA to participate in it.

Minister Nanayakkara

There is a new political chapter created after the TNA’s victory in the North. It is important to have its participation in the PSC. I will ask PSC Chairman and Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva to act in this regard

who is a member of the PSC said he would ask PSC Chairman and Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva to act in this regard.

“There is a new political chapter created after the TNA’s victory in the North. It is important to have its participation in the PSC,” he said.

The PSC will meet again on October 3 to review submissions made by public representatives on the proposals for the amendment of the Constitution.

Minister Nanayakkara also said if President Mahinda Rajapaksa travelled to the North to swear in the elected members of the TNA, it would usher in a new political era.

“I believe it will be a positive move. If the President swears in them, it will mean that the writ of the central government applies in the North. Likewise, it will signal the President’s recognition of the Northern Provincial Council,” he said.

Besides, the Minister said the TNA leadership should act cautiously to keep the pressure from what he called ‘Tamil extremist groups’ at bay when discharging the functions of the provincial council.

“There are extremist groups both within the country and outside. They have a powerful lobby. If the TNA leadership gives into them, it will be politically disastrous,” he said.

TNA leadership should act cautiously when discharging duties of the PC