Northern Province, Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan Tamil is the major language spoken in the province by the vast majority of the population. The other language spoken is Sinhala by 1 percent of the population. English is widely spoken and understood in the cities. Tamil and Sinhala is official language of the Sri Lanka. Tamil is the official language and administrative language of the Northern Province.

• Population: 1,311,776 (2007 est.)
• Official language: Tamil
• Majority group: Tamil (98.96% native language)
• Percentage population fluent in Tamil: (99.9%)
• Minority group: Sinhala (1%)

Economy

Majority of the people earn their livelihood as farmers, fishers and professionals in the civil and business sectors. Small scale industry such as chemical, light manufacturing and textiles were present before the civil war.

Gross State Domestic Product in Rs. Crores and Current Prices^[14]

Northern Province being an agricultural dominant province, where agricultural sector is 25.9% and trade sector comes next to it is 19.3%. Most of the people engaged in service sector covering 31.2% of the total.^[14]

Transportation

Transportation in the Province are poorly developed and it is still hindrance to the development of the Province. Most of the people still using the traditional Bullock carts for transportation. Major roads in Province are divided into two categories such as:

• A Class roads or National Highways which is maintained and controlled by Central Government.
• B Calss roads or Provincial Highways which is maintained and controlled by Provincial Government.

There are number of C and D Class roads in the Province, which are under developed.

Sri Lanka Government Railway operates the country’s railway network and the lines to Jaffna, Kankesanthurai and Mannar have been destroyed by the LTTE. Most of the railways were developed during the British colonial period.

Airways and airports are under developed in this province. Palaly Airport, once an international airport had regular passenger flight service between Colombo and Trichirapalli, India is under the control of Sri Lankan Navy now. Daily flights are between Colombo and Jaffna are available. There are few small airports and airstrips in Vavuniya and Iranamadu.

Politics and government

According to the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka, The Governor is the Constitutional head of the province while the Chief Minister is the head of the government and the head of the council of ministers. The Chief Justice of the High Court is the head of the judiciary.

The Parliamentary representatives from the province are elected through

• Two Electoral District such as Jaffna Electoral District and Vanni Electoral District which elects 15 of the 225 members of the Sri Lankan Parliament.

Provincial Government is not is functioning in Northern Province at present. It is ruled directly from the Central government. Governors are care taker of province. Most of the governors were retired army generals.

• Major General G.A. Chandrasiri was sworn in as the Governor, Northern Province with effect 12 July 2009. The local political parties are pushing for more autonomy for the provinces, especially the Tamil majority Northern province. The vast executive powers are held by the governors, who are appointed by the President is the drawback of the provincial council. Peoples asking for more powers to the elected council. According to the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka High courts should be made in each provinces, police and land powers should be given to the provincial governments, but it still that were not given by Sri Lankan central government to the provinces are the biggest problems.

Provincial Council

The 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils. The first elections for provincial councils took place on 28 April 1988 in North Central, North Western, Sabaragamuwa, and Uva provinces^[15].

Elections in the newly merged North-East Province were scheduled for 19 November 1988. However, the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), which at that time occupied the North-East Province, rigged the elections in the north so that the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF), two Indian backed paramilitary groups, won all of the 36 seats in the north uncontested^[16]. However, elections did take place for the 35 seats in the east. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress won 17 seats, EPRLF 12 seats, ENDLF 5 seats and the United National Party 1 seat. On 10 December 1988 Annamalai Varatharajah Perumal of the EPRLF became the first Chief Minister of the North-East Provincial Council^[16].

On 1 March 1990, just as the IPKF were preparing to withdraw from Sri Lanka, Permual moved a motion in the North-East Provincial Council declaraing an independent Eelam^[17]. President Premadasa reacted to Permual's UDI by dissolving the provincial council and imposing direct rule on the province.

The north-east was ruled directly from Colombo until May 2008 when elections were held in the demerged Eastern Province. However, the Northern Province continues to be ruled from Colombo. More than 20 years after the introduction of provincial councils the people of the Northern Province remain the only ones in Sri Lanka who have never a cast a vote to elect their provincial council. This is despite the fact that the provincial councils were only established to satisfy the demands for autonomy by the Tamils, the majority of whom live in the Northern Province.

Political parties

Major Political parties in the province are Tamil National Alliance or also known as Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi, DTNA, United National Party, Sri Lanka Freedom Party and EPDP.

• Tamil National Alliance is a Sri Lankan Tamil political alliance in Sri Lanka. It was formed as an amalgamation of moderate Tamil parties as well as number of former rebel groups. It has participated in elections since 2001. The alliance supports self-determination in an autonomous state for the island's Tamils. It also supported negotiations with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to resolve the civil war in Sri Lanka. Three of its sitting Members of the Parliament K. Sivanesan, Joseph Pararajasingham and Nadarajah Raviraj have been assassinated since 2006.

• The Eelam People's Democratic Party is a political party and a Paramilitary organization in Sri Lanka. It is led by its founder Douglas Devananda.

Education

The Northern Province has one university, the University of Jaffna which became independent in 1979, previously having been a campus of the University of Sri Lanka since 1974^[18]. The university has approximately 7,000 students. The province is known for its institutions of education, many of which were established by Christian missionaries.

Media

The first newspaper in Jaffna, Uthayatharakai (Morning Star) was published in 1841 by C.W. Thamotharampillai^[19] By the 1940s, daily newspapers had already been started Eelakesari and Virakesari in 1930 and Thinakaran in 1932 and journals committed to the growth of modernistic, socially purposive literature Bharati and Marumalarchi in 1946 had also started coming out.

Few newspapers are published in the province now in the principal language of Tamil. None in English and Sinhala. Before the Civil war commences dozens of newspapers and magazines were published. Press freedom is limited and mostly censored by Government and Pro-government paramilitaries.^[20] Now most of the Tamil, English, Sinhala magazines come from Colombo and Chennai, India.

North-East Province

The Indo-Lanka Accord signed on 29 July 1987 required the Sri Lankan government to devolve powers to the provinces and, in the interim, to merge the Northern and Eastern provinces into one administrative unit. The accord required a referendum to be held by 31 December 1988 in the Eastern Province to decide whether the merger should be permanent. Crucially, the accord allowed the Sri Lankan president to postpone the referendum at his discretion^[21].

On 14 November 1987 the Sri Lankan Parliament passed the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Provincial Councils Act No 42 of 1987, establishing provincial councils^[5][22]. On September 2 and 8 1988 President Jayewardene issued proclamations enabling the Northern and Eastern provinces to be one administrative unit administered by one elected Council^[23]. The North-East Province was born.

The proclamations were only meant to be a temporary measure until a referendum was held in the Eastern Province on a permanent merger between the two provinces. However, the referendum was never held and successive Sri Lankan presidents have issued proclamations annually extending the life of the "temporary" entity^[24].

The merger was bitterly opposed by Sri Lankan nationalists. The combined North-East Province occupied one fourth of Sri Lanka. The thought of the Tamil Tigers controlling this province, directly or indirectly, alarmed them greatly. On 14 July 2006, after a long campaign against the merger, the JVP filed three separate petitions with the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka requesting a separate Provincial Council for the East^[23]. On 16 October 2006 the Supreme Court ruled that the proclamations issued by President Jayewardene were null and void and had no legal effect^[23]. The North-East Province was formally demerged into the Northern and Eastern provinces on 1 January 2007.

See also

• North Eastern Province, Sri Lanka
• Sri Lankan Tamils

References

External links

• Northern Provincial Council