New Delhi: Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday, August 9, said that it was “practical” to initially focus on implementing the 13th constitutional amendment on devolution without police control to the provincial councils.In a special statement to parliament, Wickremesinghe acknowledged that police powers in the 13th amendment have “emerged as the most delicate issue in the transfer of authority to the Provincial Councils”.“As a result, I propose that it might be more practical for us to initially focus on reaching consensus concerning other powers. It’s advisable to progress step by step,” he said.Wickremesinghe added that “prioritising sensitive matters could potentially hinder the attainment of any mutual agreement”.The 13th constitutional amendment was a result of the 1987 India-Sri Lanka accord which led to the creation of provinces and devolution of land and police powers to the elected provincial councils. While the provinces have been created, the powers of land and police have still not been devolved due to opposition from all the Sinhala political parties.India has repeatedly called for the full implementation of the 13th amendment, which was also reiterated during Wickremesinghe’s visit to New Delhi last month. Ahead of the visit, Sri Lankan Tamil lawmakers had written to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ask him to pressurise Wickremesinghe on the implementation of 13th amendment and holding the much-delayed provincial council elections. After returning to Colombo, Wikremesinghe had convened an all-party conference over the issue of reconciliation, which he admitted turned out to be a failure. “However, during the conference, we couldn’t arrive at a comprehensive agreement on power devolution. Divergent perspectives on a specific national decentralisation program were evident. It became apparent that certain political parties were hesitant to share their ideas, possibly due to past negative experiences from prior all-party conferences,” he said.Presenting a series of proposals regarding the 13th amendment, Wickremesinghe called for political parties to express their views. “Taking all these viewpoints into careful consideration, the responsibility of arriving at the final decision regarding the role and future of provincial councils rests solely with this honourable council,” he told the parliament.He also indicated that the provincial elections can only be held after there are legal changes made to legal framework governing the polls. Addressing criticism that the government was “selling out”, Wickremesinghe stated that no one could progress alone, “that too especially in the instance of a nation emerging from an unprecedented economic crisis, as has been the experience of Sri Lanka”.“It must be understood that engaging in a robust relationship with our closest neighbour India would undoubtedly strengthen our ability towards ensuring mutually beneficial cooperation,” he said.