Sri Lanka's main Tamil party TNA- controlled northern provincial council yesterday adopted a resolution seeking a federal solution to the long-pending issue of political independence for the counry's minority Tamil community.

The resolution adopted by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) aims to have the federal solution included in the current constitution-making process.

However only 28 of the 38 members were present at the time of voting.

The government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has already launched a process to formulate a new Constitution for the country replacing the 1978 statute.

The Tamil demand for a federal solution dates back to the days when Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, came to be granted independence by the British in 1948.

Later, the campaign was extended to a separate state demand when the LTTE fought a decades-old war with the government to carve out a separate Tamil homeland.

With the defeat of the LTTE in 2009, the Tamil leadership has adopted a softer approach to give up on the separatist demand.

(With inputs from PTI)