‘Style of governance should relate to current challenges’

The Northern Provincial Council is attempting to carry out a comprehensive and professional Needs Assessment, C.V. Wigneswaran, Chief Minister of the Northern Province said on Friday.

Speaking at a conference titled ‘Democratising the North: A Dialogue on Governance, Development and Vulnerability’, organised by the Colombo-based International Centre for Ethnic Studies, the former Supreme Court judge said the post-war context in Sri Lanka’s North demanded a different approach to governance.

“Good governance is about how we make decisions,” he said, adding that his ideas on governance were shaped by the challenges currently faced by the Northern Provincial Council administration.

Elaborating on the challenges, he pointed to militarisation as a major impediment to governance. Many families that were internally displaced during the war were yet to be resettled. The Sri Lankan Army, he said, had taken over private land and in some cases even agriculture. “Locals have to purchase produce from their own land cultivated by the Army,” he said, adding that women and children suffered periodic intimidation by the Army.

Inequalities posed a further challenge to society, Mr. Wigneswaran said. Referring to “braindrain” from the North, he said there was the need for professionals who could engage and work in the region. In this regard, he has initiated a dialogue with the Sri Lankan government to aid the return of Sri Lankan nationals of the North living in other countries at present.

The Northern Provincial Council — which was formed after the Tamil National Alliance won a massive mandate in last September’s polls--was constrained in many ways, he said.

Having started from scratch, the Council was grappling with lack of adequate staff and infrastructure. Pointing to his recurring differences with the Governor, a former major general of the Sri Lankan Army, he said: “We are having difficulty as our staff is used to the Governor’s ways.”

The Chief Minister, who recently met President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is said to have raised some of these concerns with him. “Things are moving better after the meeting.”

Good governance is about how we make decisions,” he said, adding that his ideas on governance were shaped by the challenges currently faced by the Northern Provincial Council administration