NEW DELHI: India will look for a reassurance
from Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa on “genuine” devolution of power to
the provinces as a step towards solving the ethnic problem.
Mr. Rajapaksa, who arrived here on Tuesday on a four-day
visit, will hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on
Wednesday. He has unveiled plans to set up an Upper House that will ensure all-round
representation, but Indiafeels this step would amount to only decentralisation. Provinces should be the
unit of devolution, and Sri
Lanka must activate the provision of a
Finance Commission in the 13th Amendment to ensure they are financially viable.
With the war having ended a year ago, India feels it is high time that Sri Lanka began
negotiations. Government sources said Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao recently
pointed to “apprehensions that things may not work out the way they should, and
another opportunity may slip away.”
The two sides will also discuss a Comprehensive Economic
Partnership Agreement (CEPA) as a follow-up to the Free Trade Agreement in
goods. After protests broke out in Sri Lanka,India does not want to be
seen as promoting the pact, especially because it feels Sri Lanka will gain owing to its
vibrant services sector that would counter the decline in vanaspati and copper
exports.
Discussions will also cover opening of two Indian consulates,
one in the north at Jaffnaand the other in the Sinhala-dominated Hambantota.
India andSri Lankaare poised to sign seven or eight agreements and discuss a credit line of $382
millions, which comes on top of an earlier commitment of $416 million for
rehabilitation of the railway infrastructure in the war-hit areas. One of the
agreements will cover cooperation in railways and another in the security arena.
The two sides will also seek to cap four years of negotiations by announcing a
pact to construct a coal-fired power plant at Trincomalee in eastern Sri Lanka.
To assist Sri
Lanka, a memorandum of understanding will be
inked to rehabilitate the war widows with assistance from the Self-Employed
Women’s Association. The two decades of war has made the issue a huge social
problem. – (The Hindu)
Photo caption: CRUCIAL VISIT: Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapaksa and his wife Shiranthi being received by Minister of State for
External Affairs Praneet Kaur on their arrival in New Delhi on Tuesday. Rehabilitation
of the displaced Tamils in Sri
Lanka and the devolution issue are expected
to figure in his talks with Indian leaders.
