'Transfer of Northern GAs, a routine shuffle' - DEW

P.Krishnaswamy

Refuting Tamil political leaders' charges recently that the transfer of some Northern GAs to other provinces was politically motivated, Senior Minister for Human Resources D.E.W.Gunasekera said that the transfer was a routine reshuffle of senior public servants.

Only one senior GA has been transferred to Mannar to replace the Tamil GA who had been transferred to Moneragala. There is no truth that GAs belonging to the majority community are being sent to the North to replace Tamil officers, he said.

What is more important is the change in communal attitude of some political leaders, he said.

The Batticaloa GA, a Tamil, has been transferred to Jaffna and the Vavuniya GA has been sent to Batticaloa. Neither the people of Moneragala nor their political parties have made any complaints about it. As public servants they are liable to be transferred from one district to another, the Minister said.

The country is going trilingual and the Government has made it its policy known under the Mahinda Chintana. Tamil government officials are learning Sinhala and Sinhalese officers are learning Tamil, he said, adding that he had made Tamil compulsory for Sinhalese officers in July 2007 when he was Constitutional Affairs Minister.

Mutual understanding and communal harmony is now being fostered. Unlike earlier, brotherhood and mutual understanding between the two communities is now building. In the past Hambantota, Matara and other places in the South had popular Tamil GAs, he said.