Amid raging fighting with the LTTE in the north, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday said his government was determined to go ahead with the power devolution package which will be submitted on January 23 to resolve the over two-decade-old Tamil ethnic conflict.
"I had asked the committee to submit the proposals on January 23 and after studying it will put it before the cabinet and publish the same," Rajapakse told PTI.
He said the proposals will be placed before Parliament and his government was determined to implement them after getting necessary approvals.
The President was talking on the sidelines of a get-together at his residence to mark Pongal festival.
Rajapaksa said though the proposal of the All Party Representative Committee(APRC) will be in the form of an interim report but the final recommendations will also be submitted subsequently.
The APRC, which was set up in 2006, had held about 57 meetings before finalising the package to set up provincial councils in the trouble torn North and Eastern Part of the country.
Fighting between troops and LTTE militants has escalated in recent weeks with the government's move to scrap a tattered 2002 ceasefire with the rebels. Nearly 300 Tamil Tigers have been killed this year while the LTTE have intensified their attacks on civilians.
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