Sri Lanka’s 13th Amendment

The 13th Amendment is an outcome of the Indo-Lanka Accord of July 1987, signed by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President J.R. Jayawardene.
It was an attempt to resolve Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict that had aggravated into a full-fledged civil war, between the armed forces and the LTTE (which sought a separate state).
It mandates a measure of power devolution to the provincial councils established to govern the island’s nine provinces, including Sinhala majority areas, to self-govern.
Till date, the 13th Amendment represents the only constitutional provision on the settlement of the long-pending Tamil question.
Subjects such as education, health, agriculture, housing, land and police are devolved to the provincial administrations.
But because of restrictions on financial powers and overriding powers given to the President, the provincial administrations have not made much headway.
In particular, the provisions relating to police and land have never been implemented.
Recently many social groups have openly called for the abolition of provincial councils after the new government took charge.