Ampaa'rai DCC meeting conducted in Sinhala only

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 April 2011, 11:02 GMT]
The civil authority of the Ampaa'rai administrative district, where seventy five percent are Tamil speaking officers, is conducting the meeting of the District Coordinating Committee (DCC) only in Sinhala excluding Tamil language, complained district Parliamentarian Mr.P. Piyasena who has been supporting the Mahinda Rajapakse led United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA). He was elected on the ticket of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) at the last general election held in April 2010 from the Ampaa'rai electoral district.

Piyasena further says that 75 percent of the parliamentarians, councilors of the Eastern provincial Council (EPC), chairmen of local authorities, Divisional Secretaries and departmental heads attending the DCC meeting are Tamil speaking.

But the DCC meeting in Sinhala only causing hardships to these officials as they are prevented from participating in discussions on development in the district, thus violating their fundamental right.

Sinhala and Tamil have been constitutionally recognized as official languages. Tamil speaking people dominate the eastern province.

The authority concerned should take steps to conduct the DCC meeting in Tamil also, he has appealed.