Chairman has to act independently- WPC Chairman
 

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

Western Provincial Council Chairman Jagath Angage yesterday said that as the council chairman he has to act independently according to the council rules and has no right whatsoever to go far beyond the council rules. Commenting on the crisis in the Western Provincial Council (WPC) on the No-confidence motion moved against the WPC Chief Minister Reginald Cooray, WPC Chairman urged that the council rules of five Provincial Councils are different from each other.

According to the council rules of several Provincial Councils, the Chairman can reject a No-confidence motion because there is no specific provision mentioned in their rules to move a No-confidence motion, said Angage at a press briefing held yesterday.

"However the council rules of the WPC 55 (1) has clearly mentioned specific provisions to move a No-confidence motion against the Chief Minister or any other council Minister. The signatures of three council members of the WPC are enough to move a No-confidence motion.

Therefore the WPC Chairman has no power to act outside the scope of these rules and comment in favour or against this No-confidence motion," he said.

Angage said in order to discuss this situation created particularly based on the change of council rules of five Provincial Councils, he has already sent a letter to Provincial Councils and Local Government Deputy Minister Jayatissa Ranaweera requesting him to call a meeting of the chairmen, deputy chairmen and council secretaries of all Provincial Councils to discuss this situation.

The Deputy Minister has pledged to give an early date to discuss this matter without delay. The Chairman said three UNP Provincial Councillors moved this No-confidence motion against the Chief Minister by suspending council rules on April 5.

However, the manner in which the UNP moved this motion was immoral because the Chief Minister was not present in the chamber on this day. As a result, I had to refuse the move this No-confidence motion. Then the Council Committee met on 07-04-2005 decided to include this No-confidence motion in the agenda of the next council meeting.

Next to Parliament, WPC represents the highest number of council members totalling 104. This includes UPFA (59), UNP (39), SLMC (4), United Democratic Alliance (1) and the Western Province People's Front (1).