Wickramasinghe's ‘national policy’ ministry practices Sinhala Only policy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 August 2018, 17:11 GMT]
The SL Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs, which is led by SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, has issued appointment letters in the Sinhala language to Eezham Tamil applicants in Batticaloa, who applied to the positions of ‘development officers’ which is offered to unemployed graduates at a district level. The applicants who struggled to find out the details of their appointment letters were shocked to learn that they had been posted to Sinhala areas in Polonnaruwa and other districts. Those who received positions in Polonnaruwa district in the North Central Province said they would have to spend 21,000 rupees a month to commute to work. Wickmrasinghe's ministry has only promised “an all-inclusive monthly allowance of Rs 20,000”.

Unemployed graduates in the North-East have been agitating for a long time demanding employment in the public sector. There have also been similar agitations in the South.

The latest appointments are being made with electoral politics in mind and are being offered to Sinhala applicants.

Tamil applicants have been posted away from their native districts. Only a few of them managed to secure transfers back to their areas and that too through political influence, Tamil academics at the Eastern University told TamilNet.

The applicants have marked their GS divisions as requested in the application forms. However, the appointing authorities have posted them to long-distance knowing that most of the applicants would not be prepared to accept the offer, they said.

The positions are offered as "Graduate Training" to unemployed graduates in the age group of 21 to 35 years.

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