Ministry joins with SLT, Mobitel in flood relief

Disna Mudalige

Telecommunication and Information Technology Ministry in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and Mobitel will provide free telephone facilities to the displaced people in camps in flood affected areas.

The SLT has also reserved a free telephone line in its every branch for the public to connect with the flood affected people.

“There are over 500 branches islandwide with over 7,000 SLT staff. From today onwards these branches convert into aid collection and distribution centers. Public is requested to hand over food, money and other essential items to these centres. The Ministry has joined with two major stakeholders to cater to the common need of the country” said Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya addressing a press conference at the Information Department yesterday.

The Mobitel has also launched an SMS short code to collect public financial donations. Public can contribute Rs 10 either by sending an SMS to 5050 or by sending a message to [email protected] through SLT City Link CDMA phones. The company will also add another Rs 10 for each SMS it receives to this short code. People can send any number of SMS messages to this special code. The Minister noted that the total sum of the fund would be donated to the Presidential fund to facilitate flood victims welfare activities.