• President hands over letter of appointments

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa handed over letters of appointment to a selected group of graduates symbolising the recruitment of 60,000 graduates to the public service in order to create a culture of ‘Rata Wenuwen Weda’ (Work for the country) as envisaged in the Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour policy statement. A simple ceremony was held at the Presidential Secretariat, today (02) which opened opportunities to 50,177 graduates to join the public service. The number of graduates that were recruited from the Art stream was 31,172, while 29,156 internal graduates and 20,322 external graduates were recruited. Appointments were also given to 1,000 monks. Among other graduates 1,839 were from Commerce stream, 7,278 from Management, 4,494 from Science, 143 from Indigenous Medicine and 161 from Allied Health Science, 989 from Computer Technology, 233 from Engineering and Law and 1,906 from Diploma in Accounting. Job recipients are to be directed to a leadership, skills and attitude development training programme. At the end of the one year training period appointees will be employed in institutions directly related to the rural sector such as Rural and Estate Schools, Department of Agrarian Services, Regional Irrigation Offices, Department of Wildlife, government Ayurvedic hospitals, Rural Hospitals, Dispensary and Department of Minor Export Crops. Even though applications were initially called to recruit 50,000 graduates, the government decided to recruit 60,000 graduates on the instructions of the President. (www.pmdnews.lk)