Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2019-05-21

Declaring an Official Languages Day and a Week Concurrent for same

- In terms of the present Official Languages Policy, Sinhala and Tamil are used as official languages while English is used as a link language. In order to ensure the language right of all Sri Lankans and further highlight the anticipated benefits it has been proposed as appropriate to declare an Official Languages Day along with a language week concurrent for same and commemorate it annually. By this, it is anticipated that the bilingual service opportunities in the Government Institutions could be enhanced, the equal rights of all communities could be safeguarded while discarding disparities and by which a society which would value peace and reconciliation could be created. Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Mano Ganesan, Minister of National Integration, Official Languages, Social Progress and Hindu Religious Affairs, to declare the 03rd of June as the Official Languages Day with the objective of carrying out programmes for the effective implementation of the Official Languages Policy with the full contribution of the Public and Private Sectors for a whole week commencing from the said date, was approved by the Cabinet.