Abstract:
Sri Lanka is engaged in making the third Republican Constitution to resolve the national issue and the
areas which need reform have been identified and dealt with. The subject of devolution of power, a
contentious subject, occupies significant place in the reform process. The Public Representation
Committee has substantially dealt with this subject and various recommendations have been made out of
numerous representations made, including for strengthened provincial councils and local governments
thus making the governance closed to the people and accountable to them. The report of the
SubCommittee on Centre-Periphery relations too have recommended for an independent provincial
structure without interference from central executive and legislature and local governments in line with
principle of subsidiarity and more participation of people in governance.
Although the above two reports have made recommendations toward substantive devolution of powers
at provincial and local government tiers, the recommendations have not received wider acceptance. The
report of the Public Representation Committee itself reveals the amount of disagreements among its
members over the matter of devolution of powers to the provincial councils. The sub-committee report
on Centre-Periphery relations too did not receive consensus, some members from joint opposition and
JVP did not sign the document. The Sub-Committee report have been attacked on several grounds, the
total abolition of the control of centre by removing concurrence list, suggestion to bring the district
secretaries and the divisional secretaries under the control of the provincial councils, the fear on
devolution as an incentive for division of the country are few factors among many cause criticism on the
report.
The main objective of the research is to explore the recommendations made by Public Representation
Committee and the Sub-Committee on Centre-Periphery relations and the different expressions made in
terms of devolution in and out of the reports. The research will also explore the ideologies based on
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which different expressions are made on devolution, they are on numerous grounds such as the
sovereignty of state, unity in diversity, self-governance, regional/provincial autonomy, devolution within
unitary framework, devolution under federal system, corporative devolution, greater devolution,
minimum devolution, devolution as in the 13thamendment, division or session of country, etc. Overall,
the research attempts to assess the prospects for devolution of power under the proposed new Constitution
based on the progress taken place so far and against the absence of any final document consists of
information with regard to devolution of power.
