Sri Lanka opposition, civil society mount authorized problem to Chinese-backed Port City Bill

Filing a few dozen petitions at Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Thursday, opposition events, civil society teams, and labour unions challenged a recently-gazetted Bill on the Chinese-backed Port City in capital Colombo, arguing it “directly affects” Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. The circumstances are scheduled to be heard by the highest courtroom on Monday.

The ruling Rajapaksa administration tabled a Bill, titled Colombo Port City Economic Commission’, in Parliament final week, outlining proposed legal guidelines for the $1.4 billion-Port City being constructed on reclaimed land at Colombo’s seafront.

Constitutional validity

However, Sri Lanka’s Opposition events Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB or United People’s Front), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the United National Party (UNP), Colombo-based NGO Centre for Policy Alternatives, and labour organisations have challenged the constitutional validity of the proposed laws for the Port City, touted by the federal government as an funding hub for overseas capital.

SJB legislator Harsha de Silva stated whereas the social gathering needs the Port City mission to succeed, for its potential to “catalyse” the subsequent stage of fintech and high-end data services-driven progress within the nation, “a solid legal framework” was key. “For this long-term project to succeed it must be consistent with the Constitution of Sri Lanka. It must not be discriminatory…we see multiple clauses that are inconsistent with the Constitution,” he advised The Hindu.

Senior lawyer and SJB Legal Secretary Thisath Wijayagunawardane stated the Bill seeks to arrange a Commission whose powers — in regard to registrations, licensing and authorisation — “interfered” with the provincial authority, and allowed for a crew of foreigners, “accountable to none other than the President”, to successfully run the Port City.

“The clauses prohibit investment in the Port City in Sri Lankan rupees, which will keep out Sri Lankans…it will be like a forbidden city within Colombo,” he stated, including: “The government claims it stands for ‘one country, one law’, but the Bill allows for running the Port City like a foreign country with special laws.”

Terming the mission as one in all “national importance”, the UNP stated the Bill was “inconsistent with Parliament’s control over public finances, allows for the abuse of power and fails to ensure a transparent system of checks and balances”.

Eyeing investments

The Port City was launched by President Xi Jinping throughout his state go to to the island nation in September 2014, throughout former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second time period in workplace, months earlier than his ballot defeat. The successor authorities, led by President Maithripala Sirisena and PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, vowed to develop the location into an “Indian Ocean financial hub”, regardless of an election promise to scrap it, and amid protests from environmentalists and fisherfolk.

Following their return to energy, the Rajapaksa administration promised to expedite the mission, that it says would entice $ 15 billion in investments, and emerge a “leading business, retail, residential and tourist destination in South Asia”.

Sharp criticism

However, along with the authorized problem, the federal government additionally faces sharp criticism from a few of its backers, together with sections of Sri Lanka’s influential Buddhist clergy. “We will not allow Sri Lanka to become a Chinese Colony,” Chief Incumbent of the Abhayarama Temple in Colombo, Ananda Muruththettuwe Thero, stated on Thursday. “It is clear the country is heading on the wrong path,” he stated.

Months in the past, Buddhist monks, amongst others, fiercely opposed Indian involvement on the East Container Terminal on the Colombo Port, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to return on his announcement that the Adani Group would put money into the mission, together with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. Subsequently, Colombo supplied the West Container Terminal to the Group.

Meanwhile the Ceylon Federation of Labour voiced issues over the Bill exempting employers working inside the Port City from compliance with Sri Lanka’s labour legal guidelines. The Union had fought and gained a case within the late Seventies when the J.R. Jayawardene authorities tried to disclaim labour regulation safety to employees on the newly established Free Trade Zone.

The nation’s hard-won labour protecting laws had come beneath menace once more, Federation General Secretary T.M.R. Raseedin stated in a press release, cautioning that: “Should this Bill be enacted, we will be going back to an era when ‘hire and fire’ ruled employer-employee relationships.”