Vehicles for journalists:

Eligibility criteria revised

Sandasen Marasinghe, Irangika Range and Disna Mudalige

The government's decision to give an interest-free vehicle loan of Rs 1.2 million to media personnel who have more than 25 years working experience is likely to be revised due to requests that have been made to reduce the number of years service for eligibility for the facility, Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella stated in Parliament yesterday.

The minister said President Mahinda Rajapaksa who will attend parliament on December 21 when the final vote on the budget will be taken up announced the new terms for granting of the loan. "Many requests have been made to the President. Several MPs too have made such requests.

So the President will make an announcement when he comes here," minster Rambukwella said while winding up the committee stage debate of the Media Ministry.