COLOMBO: Over two months after the Sri Lanka Supreme Court declared temporary merger of north and east as `null and void', the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government has initiated action for separate administration in the two provinces.

Mohan Wijewickrema, who is currently the Governor for the merged North-Eastern Province, has been appointed the Governor of the Eastern Province and President Mahinda Rajapakse would soon appoint a separate Governor for the Northern Province.

The two provinces were merged after the 1987 India-Sri Lanka agreement.

A referendum was to have been held within a year after the temporary merger. However, because of the prevailing security situation, it was postponed every year and successive Presidents have routinely extended the merger.

The Supreme Court on October 16 this year ruled that the 1987 order by the then President of Sri Lanka merging the two provinces was not in keeping with the country's constitution and should therefore be separate provinces.

The verdict was based on technical grounds that the merger should have been routed through Parliament rather than through Presidential decrees.

The principal opposition party, United National Party (UNP) gave enough indications that if the Government desires to bring legislation in Parliament to re-enact the merger, it would be willing to consider support to it.

In view of the sensitivities of Tamils and India as well as the international community on the subject, the Government assured that nothing would be done in haste.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa went on record that while the Government would not interfere with the Supreme Court judgement, the people of the Eastern Province should be given the choice to be merged or de-merged at a referendum. It is not immediately clear as to what prompted the Government to affect de-merger now.

The newly appointed Eastern Province Governor told the media that there will now be two separate administrations as was ruled by the Supreme Court and "it might be another year or so until we formally set up the Northern Province administration."

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