India urges Lanka not to go against amendment
A concerned India has asked the Sri Lankan government to not take steps that would go against its commitments on the 13th amendment following media reports that Colombo is considering the removal of land and police powers from the provinces ahead of elections in the northern provinces. External affairs minister Salman Khurshid called up his Sri Lankan counterpart G.L. Peiris and also raised the issue of 26 Indian fishermen who are in detention in his country while seeking their early release.
According to sources, Mr Khurshid urged the Lankan government not to take any step in the light of its own commitments relating to the amendmentand their expressed intention to build upon it.
According to media reports, Udaya Gammanpila, whose party is a key nationalist ally of Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is planning legislative action for the abolition of the country’s provincial councils while opposing local elections in the Tamil-dominated north. Mr Gammanpila said his party’s policy making central committee on Thursday decided to move parliament within the next two weeks.
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Trade union secy disrupts kharge speech
Age correspondent
New Delhi, May 17
The inaugural session of the two-day Indian labour conference was disrupted briefly by secretary of the Assam unit of All-India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Subhas Sen, who demanded a response from Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the alleged inaction of the Assam government over a CBI probe into the killing of his colleague there in March.
Interrupting the speech of Union labour minister Malliakarjun Kharge, he alleged that the “Congress goons” killed his friend and AICCTU leader Gangaram Koul as he was fighting on behalf of the tea garden workers’ movement in Assam.
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