‘Sinhala Only’ imposed on name boards in East

‘Sinhala Only’ imposed on name boards in East [TamilNet, Saturday, 16 October 2010, 08:10 GMT]

Sri Lanka government Road Development Authority (RDA) in Eastern Province using only Sinhala language in the name boards reveals the intention of Sri Lanka government to impose the ‘Sinhala Only’ Act again, Batticaloa residents said. The name board of the road to Vaakarai from Batticaloa is written only in Sinhala language and despite the request made by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa parliamentarian Pon. Selvarasa to RDA to include the names in Tamil and English languages in August in the Vaakarai Development Meeting, the name board remains with the Sinhala name only.

Meanwhile, people in Eastern Province express fear that the name boards next to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps written Sinhala language only show that their areas are to be Sinhalicized in the future.

The Government Agent, Presidents of Prethesa Chapai and Divisional Secretariat Secretaries do not take any action on the issue due to political pressure exerted on them, they said.

The lands of the Tamils are first encroached by SLA and police to establish their camps where they later erect Buddhist shrines to claim that the area belongs to Sinhala people. This is what is happening in many places in Eastern Province, they added.