Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-07-05

Creating a Special Head in Annual Budget Estimates for the effective implementation of the Official Language Policy

- Sinhala and Tamil languages have been recognized as official languages by the Constitution of Sri Lanka and the right of the citizens of Sri Lanka to satisfy their service needs from any public institution in an official language of their preference has also been safeguarded. Accordingly, all the public institutions in Sri Lanka, are bound to deliver their services in Sinhala and Tamil Languages in terms of the Official Languages Policy. Therefore, with the objective of facilitating the citizens to satisfy their service needs in an official language of their preference by the year 2020, the proposal made by Hon. Mano Ganeshan, the Minister of National Co-existence, Dialogue and Official Languages, to allocate provisions by creating a separate object code in the Budget Estimates of the Ministries and Government Departments, from the year 2017, for the implementation of the Official Languages policy, was approved by the Cabinet.