India on Saturday iterated the need for Sri Lanka to implement a constitutional amendment aimed at empowering Tamils to carry forward the reconciliation process on the island nation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the ticklish issue before his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa at a time the Indian government has come under criticism from within for ignoring the Lankan Tamils in the religion-specific Citizenship Amendment bill.

“I am confident that the Government of Sri Lanka will realise the expectations of the Tamil people for equality, justice, peace and respect within a united Sri Lanka. For this, it will be necessary to carry forward the process of reconciliation with the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka,’’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after a meeting with Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa, in his statement to the media, did not touch upon the subject. In turn, he urged India to consider further assistance to expand housing projects to all provinces of Sri Lanka so that people living in the rural parts of the country also benefit from this project launched in 2010 as part of the post-conflict rehabilitation efforts.

After the conflict ended in Sri Lanka, India had announced that it would construct 50,000 houses, and most of them have been handed over in the Northern and Eastern provinces. As many as 44,434 houses had been handed over in the two Tamil concentrated provinces by July 2017. In the third phase, India has decided to build 4,000 houses for estate workers in the Central and Uva provinces.

India has been pushing for the full implementation of the 13th Amendment that was part of the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987.

Last month, while addressing envoys of the European Union, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had said that certain areas of the 13th Amendment cannot be implemented, urging politicians to explore other alternatives.

In particular, he is not in favour of handing over policing powers to the provincial councils that have been set up as a result of the partial implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. His contention is that handing over police powers to the provincial councils would result in their politicisation.

Another aspect of the 13th Amendment that has been opposed by all non-Tamil parties of Sri Lanka is the transfer of powers relating to land from the unitary state to the provincial councils.