Sri Lanka to recruit 50,000 more troops

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 June 2007, 12:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s government plans to recruit 50,000 more soldiers, the Sunday Leader newspaper said this week. The paper quoted Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse telling a cabinet meeting on Wednesday June 6 that unnecessary government expenditure has to be avoided to fund the expansion of the Army.

Sri Lanka’s army has 120,000 troops. The security forces, including police trained for military operations in the Northeast, number 250,000.

Addressing the ministers, the President after explaining the financial crisis faced by the government had requested the ministers to immediately halt granting jobs in their ministries as well as departments.