Salary increments for Bilingual Govt Servants

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

Government servants with fluency in Tamil and Sinhala will get special salary increments on the merits of their being bilingual in due course as moves contemplated by the National Languages and Social Integration Ministry, to position the National Language Policy on a pragmatic footing.

National Languages and Social Integration Minister SB Navinna has instructed Ministry officials to ensure that bilingualism envisaged in the state policy be established in their environs as this will be vital for social integration.

The Official Language Policy requires that state institutions and departments should be bilingual. A time span of three years had been given to Government servants to become proficient in Tamil, in the case of them being native Sinhala speakers.

Sources close to National Integration Minister Navinna said, the native Tamil speakers are also required to learn the Sinhala language to become entitled to the salary increments that are to be introduced in due course by the Ministry to promote bilingual education.

Meanwhile , the Social Integration Ministry has reportedly turned 29 Divisional Secretariats to bilingual functioning.

National Language Education Institute Director General Prasad R Herath said, the 29 secretariats that had been converted to bilingual functioning were selected from divisions where there is a large number of native Tamil speakers.

Herath said the ability to work in Tamil has been made compulsory to the officers at the Secretariats.

"Hence , we have started Tamil language programs for these officers at our National Language Training Institute in Agalawatta," he said.

However according to National Integration Ministry sources, Minister Navinna had met all Ministry Secretaries and District Secretaries where he had pointed out that there has been setbacks in promoting the National Language Policy due to lethargy.

Meanwhile, the Social Integration Ministry is planing to make bilingual education compulsory to those Government servants in management services, they added.