Politics in a mess in the North

In the recent years the Northern Provincial Council ( NPC) has come under heavy criticism with political opponents accusing it of merely passing resolutions but doing little work. There were also corruption allegations against provincial ministers.

This week, the Northern

P r ov i n c e ' s former Chief

Minister C. V. Wigneswaran appeared b e fore the Supreme

Court on charges of contempt of court. A minister had accused Mr Wigneswaran of arbitrarily removing him from the Provincial Cabinet. Significantly, Mr Wigneswaran is a former judge of the Supreme Court.

There is another crisis in the North. The Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) has also been accused of under-performance and inefficiency. The JMC Secretary has accused the council of failing to generate adequate revenue, but it paid Rs 5.7 million as total telephone expenses for its 45 councillors. Each member was given Rs 6000 to pay their telephone bills.

As outlined in the 2019 budget the JMC's expenditure was Rs 217 million, but its revenue was only Rs 59 million as of now. Around Rs 12 million that was allocated for a separate project was returned to the Treasury due to administrative lapses. An Opposition Councillor was heard saying in the Council meeting: "what is the point of demanding more powers to PCs when we cannot utilise the available powers for the betterment of the people?" On November 28 the JMC is to debate the annual budget for 2020. But many members have expressed reservations on how funds were utilised by the council run by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

An Opposition Councillor was heard saying in the Council meeting: "what is the point of demanding more powers to PCs when we cannot utilise the available powers for the betterment of the people?