Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka

The Thirteenth Amendment (13A) to the Constitution of Sri Lanka is amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka which created Provincial Councils in Sri Lanka. This also made Sinhala and Tamil as the official language of the country and English as link language.

History

On 29 July 1987, Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was signed between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene which stated the devolution of powers to the provinces. Hence 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 to establish provincial councils.The amendment aims at creating provincial councils in Sri lanka and enable Sinhalese and Tamil as national languages while preserving English as the link language.

However there are practical problems in devolving land, police and financial powers to the provinces and the Government has stressed that the structure that is implemented should be aceeptable to all parts of the country.