India's opposition party delegation to visit Sri Lanka to discuss 13th Amendment
Sat, Jun 1, 2013, 10:38 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Jun 01, Colombo: A six-member Indian delegation led by the deputy leader of Indian opposition Bharatha Janatha Party (BJP) Ravi Shankar Prasad will arrive in Sri Lanka on June 04 for a five-day visit to hold discussions with the Sri Lankan President and Defense Secretary on power devolution.
The purpose of the Indian delegation's visit is to discuss the issue of granting police and land powers to the provinces under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and Northern Provincial Council election with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Sinhala language Sunday Divaina reported.
Quoting unnamed top sources, the newspaper said that the BJP delegation would meet the representatives of the government in the evening of June 7.
A 15-member Sri Lankan delegation comprising five senior Sri Lankan ministers, a senior intelligence official, a member of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), and four officials of the Ministries of External affairs and Defense will participate in the bilateral discussion, according to the newspaper.
In addition to the leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, Indian delegation will include Shiv Sena leader Suresh Prabhu, senior Indian journalist Swapan Dasgupta, retired IFS officer Vivek Katju, RSS representative Ram Madhav and human right activist Monika Arora.
Reportedly, Ministers Rauf Hakeem and Douglas Devananda are also to take part in the discussions while ministers Wimal Weerawansa and Patali Champika Ranawaka who oppose granting land and police powers to provinces will not be participating.

According to the newspaper this is the first discussion BJP will have with the Sri Lankan government prior to India's general election in 2014.

SL military intelligence backs Buddhist extremist move in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 June 2013, 22:25 GMT]
The threatening act of Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives, who took close-up photographs of the Tamil protestors against the construction of Buddha statue at the entrance to Batticaloa city on Wednesday, has exposed the nexus between the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry and the Sinhala Buddhist extremists, alternative political activists in Batticaloa said. The harassment by the SL military intelligence has also provoked Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr S. Yogeswaran to react saying that if any untoward incident befalls the peaceful demonstrators, it would be considered as the work of the Sri Lankan intelligence operatives who were involved in the act of public harassment on peaceful demonstrators. In the meantime, Batticaloa Magistrate NMM Abdulla has issued an injunction order prohibiting the construction of the Buddha statue, legal sources in Batticaloa said. 

The SL Police in its report to the court had admitted that the construction of the statue at the site would cause public controversies, the legal sources further said. 

However, news sources in the city said that the chief Buddhist monk at the Mangalarama Buddhist temple in Batticaloa has vowed to appeal the decision of the magistrate court and resume the construction of the statue at the same spot. 

The Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian of Batticaloa Mr. S.Yogeswaran has condemned the act of the Intelligence personnel for taking photographs of the participants of the demonstration. 

Mr. Yogeswaran said that he, as a member of parliament, took photographs of those intelligence operatives who were involved in the hostile act against the peaceful protestors. 

A tense situation emerged at the scene for a while during the protest on Wednesday when the demonstrators were rounded up by the SL military intelligence.