Training for unemployed graduates begins in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2004, 13:16 GMT]
A three month training program for hundred and sixty eight unemployed graduates in the Vavuniya district was inaugurated Thursday. The program is part of a controversial scheme by President Chandrika Kumaratunga's government to provide state jobs for more forty one thousand unemployed graduates. The scheme was introduced after mass protests and hunger strikes backed by the Marxist Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, President Kumaratunga's mail coalition ally. Critics say it will cause a huge strain on the cash strapped Sri Lankan treasury.

The hundred sixty eight unemployed graduates in Vavuniya were selected for the first phase of the training and employment program, Vavuniya Government Agent Mr. K. Ganesh said.

The large number of graduates in the district who weren't selected would be included in the next phase of the training program he said.

Seventeed thousand unemployed graduates are to be trained all over the island in the first phase. Tamils complain not enough of them have been selected in this phase.

Once the training is over, the graduates would be emlpoyed in various government departments in the district, the GA said. Vanni district MPs Mr. Sivanthan Kishore and Mr. Sivasakthi Anandan also took part in the inauguration of the training program Thursday.