SI training for 40 Tamil police officers

Yasaratne GAMAGE

The Police will start basic training for 50 Tamil speaking police officers who got through the interviews to be police Sub-Inspectors at Kalutara Police Training School, from January 25.

They are youths from the North and East to be trained as Sub-Inspectors, police constables and woman police constables.

The Police have decided to recruit Tamils to the Police service as a remedy to the language barrier which is a common issue in maintaining law and order and in administering the North and East.

In a special press release, Police Public Relations Unit Director SP Ajith Rohana states that to safeguard the hard-earned peace after defeating LTTE terrorism there should not be anything that would deny the North and East community from enjoying life as the rest of the country.

The LTTE earlier used the language barrier as an instrument to attract Tamil civilians for anti-government activities saying that they were underprivileged minorities in the context of language. The government will erase any doubt among the people in the North and East by recruiting Tamil speaking police personnel who will be deployed in those areas.

The statement also says that as certified by the Constitution, the right to use the Tamil language by people when engaged in civil administration is an accepted right and this recruitment will confirm the fact.

This is the first time ever in the 146 years Police history that such a large number of Tamil speaking persons were taken into the Police as Sub Inspectors. The move is also seen as a step in line with both national and international prescriptions to solve the language issue in Sri Lanka.

In the near future, selected applicants for men and women police constables will be trained and deployed in the North and East which will enable the people to communicate easily when dealing with the Police.

The Police Department aims to continue with the process and allow the people to enjoy equal opportunities to use language of their choice to build harmony.