Jaffna students' savings highest in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 June 2004, 13:57 GMT]
In Sri Lanka, school students save most in Jaffna, a senior state bank official in the north said Friday. Mr. S. Ilampirainathan, special executive of People's Bank, northern region , said Jaffna school children have 157.8 million rupees in savings accounts in his bank. Private and state banks in Jaffna say savings are highest in Jaffna despite two decades of war that has left the northern peninsula in tatters.

Tamils say that billions of rupees of their savings in Sri Lankan state banks have been utilised by Colombo to finance the war and develop Sinhala areas.

Mr. Ilampirainathan said that 39130 students in Jaffna have savings accounts in People's Bank branches in Jaffna.

He said People's Bank is planning to change its children's and student's savings account names to Tamil.

All state owned and private banks in Sri Lanka name special accounts and savings promotions exclusively in Sinhala.

Mr. Ilampirainathan spoke to the press Friday at the state owned People's Bank branch at Kannathiddy in Jaffna town in connection with the bank's 43rd anniversary.