Public awareness of Government's development programs

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

The Ministry of Mass Communication and Information has formulated a plan to communicate the Government's development efforts to the public in a more practical manner. The main objective of this programme is raising awareness of the public on the Government's different development drives, Mass Media and Information Ministry Additional Secretary Priyantha Mayadunne said.

Mayadunne said the Government has been carrying out several major development drives all over the country such as Gama Neguma, Maga Neguma etc without much publicity. There are several success stories within these development drives which are scattered countrywide but do not get the attention of the media or the public.

Apart from the information on development drives, the media needs to communicate certain other types of information to the villages and organisations in order to assist them for development projects.

For example, concrete roads have become very popular in Sri Lanka and it is one of the best options to develop rural roads. But still many do not know the accurate formula for the concrete mixture use to build roads. The media can communicate the information regarding the concrete mixture to the public.

There is a specific standard in the mixture that should be used for concrete roads and without that a quality finish cannot be achieved, he said.

There are certain villages that have totally eradicated alcohol and cigarettes and does not sell alcohol or cigarettes at all but even the people living in the next village do not know that there are such villages existing in their neighbourhood.

It is the media which should communicate such useful and important information to the public. What we need to do is communicating these success stories to the public in order to motivate them to achieve better living standards and higher level of morals. The main expectation is achieving material and spiritual development through changing attitudes, he added.

Senior Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Mass Media and Information, D.D.Waniganayake said that the ministry has been taken steps to develop journalism in Sri Lanka as a profession and under this programme relevant training, financial assistance for higher studies, equipment and all the other requirements will be provided to all journalists.

Special attention will be paid to assist provincial journalists.