Sri Lanka’s President cancels Trincomalee visit

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 July 2003, 19:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge, cancelled her scheduled Trincomalee visit on August 1 to hand over Millennium Scholarship grants to about four thousand poor students in the northeast province on the advice of the provincial governor, North East Provincial Education Ministry sources said.

The event was to be held at the Trincomalee Naval Headquarters. It was cancelled on the advice of the North East Provincial Governor and the event is to be held in Colombo in September. The selected North East students will be brought down to Colombo for this purpose, and Ms. Kumaratunge will participate as the chief guest at the Colombo event and hand over scholarship grants, the Ministry sources said.

Under the Millennium scholarship scheme, 4121 students in the northeast who are below the poverty line are to be provided with financial assistance from the President’s Fund, the sources further said.