Elderly home short of funds

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The head of the Kaithady government Home for the Aged in Jaffna told a government bureaucrat who visited the institution today that she cannot maintain the inmates with the forty rupees (70 US cents) daily allowance per person which the home now gets from the state.

There are 183 elderly people in the Kaithady home which is run by the Sri Lankan government's Social Services Department.

The Chavakachcheri Divisional Secretary, S. Sunderampillai, had a meeting at the home today, to discuss the problems faced by the institution.

The head of the Kaithady Home for the Aged told him that the Social Services Department should provide at least fifty rupees per person daily, as the cost of living in Jaffna is still much higher than it is in other parts of the island.

She also told him that the government should permit the home to obtain funds from sources abroad.