Lanka north chief minister must seek approval to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan government today said that the Chief Minister of its Tamil-majority Northern Provincial Council will have to seek prior approval before heading-off to India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Media minister Keheliya Rambukwella said Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran would have to take permission to travel to India.

"If he is going abroad, he will have to get permission from the Governor (the President's appointee in-charge of the province)," Rambukwella told reporters at the weekly cabinet press briefing.

Wigneswaran's Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leaders last month travelled to New Delhi for talks with Indian leaders including Prime Minister Modi.

Colombo has privately expressed unease at Modi granting an audience to TNA members. The Tamil party is at loggerheads with President Mahinda Rajapakse's administration over issues of political power sharing.

The TNA looks upto New Delhi's support to win full autonomy to the northern province on terms of the India moved provincial council system.