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| Sunday, 19 December 2004 |
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Army withdraws cars, provides tractors by Jayampathy Jayasinghe The Sri Lanka Army has planned to import 54 tractors under its procurement program for the use of army personnel serving in the North for operational duties, Lieutenant General, Shantha Kottegoda, Commander of the Army said answering questions to media personnel when he visited the Diyatalawa camp. Providing tractors for service personnel in operational areas was a top priority than providing superfluous cars for use of high ranking officers in the army. The tractors will be imported from India in the near future, he said. The Army Commander was the chief guest at the passing out parade of officer Cadets, Airmen and Airwomen of the Sri Lanka Air Force last Friday. He said that several additional cars provided to high ranking officers had been withdrawn to eliminate wasteful expenditure in the army and to utilise these resources for productive work. Each hired vehicle cost the army around Rs. 40,000. Around fifty such hired vehicles had been returned to Sri Lanka Navy and other business establishments. Referring to the desertion problem, he said there were about 40,000 army deserters but few had fled with arms and ammunition. Steps had been taken to court martial them under the existing law. Underworld elements hired some of the deserters who were top marksmen to get their jobs done. The Army Commander said that he was delighted that 49 Officer Cadets and 654 recruits of the Sri Lanka Air Force had made a solemn pledge to safeguard the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the motherland. "It is one of the noblest duties that any youth can perform for his or her country,". He thanked the parents for their courage in allowing children to join the Air Force. The Commander of the Sri Lanka Air Force, Air Marshall Donald Perera also spoke at the passing out parade. |
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