Lanka builds bilingual public sector - Govt.

by Mario Andree

(November 05, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) National Languages and Social Integration Minister S. B. Navinna said that the government has taken steps to recruit public servants with knowledge in both Sinhala and Tamil Language.

Addressing the media at the launch of the Java World Congress and Exhibition he said the government has noticed that it was vital to enrol staff with knowledge of both languages to sustain the gained peace in the country.

He said language was a major factor which led to the 30 year civil conflict which kept both sides apart.

The country recruits nearly 100,000 public servants annually and since 2007 the government has started to recruit staff with knowledge of both languages.

The progress of the 350,000 staff recruited since 2007 has yet not shown the expected results, but there is hope that within the next 4 to 5 years the public sector would be more affective to assist both the Sinhalese and Tamil citizens of the country, he said.

Recently, John Keells Holdings, Chairman, Susantha Rathnayake told the LLRC committee that the country needs to focus on developing facilities to the Tamil citizens of the country.

He noted that the 30 year conflict was based on the issue of language and as a citizen of the country Tamil people also has the right to get their certificates and many other public documents in Tamil.

He further said that equal opportunities should be provided to those citizens to sustain the peace gained.