In Tamil-dominated Jaffna, President Wickremesinghe pushes for land connectivity between Sri Lanka and India

Colombo: President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday expressed his desire to have land connectivity between Sri Lanka and India as he visited the Tamil-dominated Northern Province capital of Jaffna to engage in a wide-ranging discussion on developing the war-battered region.

Wickremesinghe said he had discussed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the idea to build the bridge between northeastern Mannar and south India.

President Wickremesinghe has highlighted his desire to create land connectivity between Mannar and south India and has already discussed the idea to build a bridge with Prime Minister Modi, said the President's office.

Jaffna holds great significance as it was the region where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had run a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader V Prabhakaran.

Amnesty International reported in 2017 that the number of disappeared persons in Sri Lanka could be between 60,000 and 100,000 since the late 1980s.

The region has lacked economic development and the Sri Lankan leaders in recent years have said that they are committed towards the development of the Tamil-dominated Northern and Eastern provinces of the country.

Wickremesinghe also said he was willing to take unpopular decisions to revive the bankrupt Sri Lankan economy.

He pledged ways to connect the northern economy to the national economy.

"Among the pressing issues in the Northern Province, the matters of land disputes and missing persons have taken precedence. As a government, we have devised plans to provide expeditious solutions to address these concerns,” he said.

Wickremesinghe said he would address both land and the issue of missing persons before the conclusion of 2025.

He highlighted the significance of religious harmony for economic development and expressed his intention to expedite the development program aimed at restoring the revenues lost during the war in the North back to the region.

During his four-day visit, the president highlighted the importance of the India-backed 13th Amendment (13A) to the Sri Lankan constitution.

He said that the provincial administrations created by the 13A must be better used to achieve economic growth without interference from the centre.

India has been pressing Sri Lanka to implement the 13A which was brought in after the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement of 1987. The 13A provides for the devolution of power to the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.