Trinco Tamils urged to boycott State banks

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 September 2005, 11:00 GMT]
Tamil civil groups in Trincomalee have called on the Tamil speaking people not to open new accounts in State Bank branches in the district and to boycott these branches on Tuesday September 27 to show their token opposition for the blatant discrimination meted out to educated qualified Tamil speaking youths in the recruitment process. The boycott is to continue until the bank administration steps to recruit more Tamil speaking youths, sources said.

Of the 1350 youths recruited by the Bank of Ceylon and Peoples Bank recently, only sixty-six have been posted to northeast province. Of these sixty-six, except six, others are Sinhalese youths residing in the other provinces in the south and not from the northeast province. Of the sixty-six, 59 (53 Sinhalese and six Tamils) have been posted to Trincomalee district.

In a statement the Tamil civic groups have said the procedure adopted in the recruitment clearly shows the attempt by the government to make these institutions Sinhala dominated banks in Tamil speaking areas.

Even Sinhalese youths from the Trincomalee district are not recruited. Tamil speaking people should not allow this dangerous trend to succeed at a time when hundreds of educated Tamil and Muslim youths idling without job opportunities, the statement said.