Facility to record police statements in Tamil soon

All police stations in the Northern Province will have the facility of recording statements from residents in Tamil from next month, according to the Sri Lanka Police Department.

DIG North Rohan Dias has told a Jaffna District Development Committee meeting that arrangements have been made at all police stations in the Northern region to initiate facilities to assist residents who speak in Tamil.

The Government has initiated a program to make public sector workers bilingual, with the ability to converse in both Sinhala and Tamil. The program has been initiated with special focus on enabling police personnel serving in the North to have a sound knowledge of Tamil.

The Police Department had deployed 900 Tamil police officers and 1,500 Sinhala police officers fluent in the Tamil language to police stations in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Measures have also been taken by the Department to deploy more Tamil-speaking police officers to the North and the East to avoid miscommunication and delays due to the language barrier in carrying out their services.