20A can't resolve problems of the people, Chief Sanghanayake says

COLOMBO (News1st): The 20th amendment cannot resolve the problems of the people by vesting the President with more powers, the Chief Sanghanayaka of the North Western Province has said. "We don't think the 20th Amendment can solve these problems after centralizing all these powers to one person," the chief Sanghanayaka told media on Tuesday. Ven. Karakole Piyadassi Thero, the Registrar of Social Development in the Ramanna Sect has said that the people had granted the government the mandate to bring forward a new constitution. "...we did not give the power to cancel the 19th Amendment and bring the 20th Amendment," the Thero said adding that a new constitution is the need of the hour. Meanwhile, senior lecturer Dr Athulasiri Samarakoon has said that parliamentarians are not commenting freely on the 20th amendment due to the fear of the President. "But the Maha Sangha has boldly come forward to show the arbitrariness of the 20th Amendment to the constitution," the lecturer at the Open University said. He pointed out that foreign countries such as the China and US are also silent on the matter. "They want to bring this state under one person and manipulate that person the way they want," Dr Samarakoon added.