Indian technical assistance for Lanka trilingual plan

Sri Lanka will enter into a technical assistance plan with India under its national trilingual programme that will also provide knowledge of Tamil to "empower its citizens".
"An MoU is to be signed with India with regard to Sri Lanka's 10 year national plan for a trilingual Sri Lanka", Cabinet spokesman and minister Keheliya Rambukwella said, after the cabinet approved the proposal.
The Trilingual National Plan envisages to empower every Sri Lankan citizen with knowledge in Sinhala, Tamil and English.
The language issue was one of the deep-rooted causes of ethnic unrest between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamil population.

The demand for equal recognition to Tamil gained momentum in the late 1950s with the then government's Sinhala Only Act of 1958.
The demand took a violent turn and manifested as a campaign for a separate Tamil homeland since the early 1970s.

Although Tamil came to be recognised as a national language alongside Sinhala in 1987, the Tamils have been complaining of state business being conducted mostly in Sinhala.
Trilingualism and state patronage are being seen, among other things, as crucial to ethnic harmony in the island.
The move comes ahead of the UNHRC session later this month amid international pressure on the country over war crimes charges.