PHU to President: Dissolve NPC

The Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) yesterday requested the President to dissolve the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and take the administration under his purview because it had passed a Bill calling for the merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces and federalism.

PHU general secretary, Udaya Gammanpila MP, said that if President Maithripala Sirisena really loved the country and wanted to show that he was capable of taking straight decisions he should dissolve the NPC.

“Otherwise, he should summon the chief minister of the Northern Province and severely warn him not to take arbitrary decisions hereafter. This is not the first such resolution passed in that Council. When the then Chief Minister Varadharaja Perumal declared Tamil Eelam, President R. Premadasa dissolved the Council,” he said at a media briefing at party headquarters.

Saying that both the president and the premier were still silent on the issue, he requested the president and the government to launch a programme to ensure national security.

He said federalism was not an option when devolving power but a means of bringing several independent nations together. “The US, Canada, Germany, Australia, India and Pakistan were federated to keep different independent countries together -not to divide one nation,” he said.