'I am Ranil Wickremesinghe, and not Ranil Rajapaksa,' - President tells tamil politcal parties

COLOMBO (News 1st); 'I am Ranil Wickremesinghe, and not Ranil Rajapaksa,' said the Sri Lankan President during a meeting with political party representatives from the Tamil community in the North and East of the country on Tuesday (18).

He made this particular comment as a response to activists and political groups for naming him 'Ranil Rajapaksa' for obtaining the support of the Mahinda Rajapaksa led faction to become the successive President of Sri Lanka.

The President met with the representatives of the Tamil political parties in Parliament to discuss the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

"I do go along with him (Mahinda Rajapaksa) saying that there has to be full implementation of the 13th amendment. But in the discussions we had earlier, when I mentioned full implementation, there was a big outcry, and we decided that we'd go ahead and take up police powers later," he said.

President Wickremesinghe expressed his intention to resolve the issues faced by the Tamil people without any political motivations. 

He elaborated on various bills and plans concerning the functioning of provincial councils, the Office of National Unity and Reconciliation, the Truth-Finding Mechanism, the Office of Missing Persons, and the development of the Northern and Eastern provinces.

The 13th Amendment, an outcome of an agreement reached between India and Sri Lanka after the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement of 1987, deals with the devolution of land and police powers to the provinces in Sri Lanka.