17 May 2020 09:24 pm
A record of 14,617 other ranks of Sri Lanka Army would be promoted in view of the National War Heroes’ Day which falls on May 19, the Army said.
The National War Heroes’ Day (19 May), the pinnacle of the day’s state commemoration, is scheduled to be held at National War Heroes' Monument at Battaramulla, Sri Jayawardenepura, headed by HE the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces on Tuesday (19).
The driving-force behind the project, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army who was keen on turning those long overdue and stagnant promotions of a five-digit number of Army Other Ranks, finally to a reality, maintains that granting of long-awaited but inspiring promotions, would inevitably serve a motivating fillip to their untiring, dedicated and life-threatening ongoing national services, and amounts to recognition of their selfless and numerous commitments in times of natural disasters, terrorist threats, global epidemics, and also whenever Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity and unitary state is under threat.
Accordingly, Lieutenant General Shavindra Silva who initiated the move on the guidelines of the Army Directorate of Personnel Administration (DPA), led by Brigadier Sisira Pilapitiya, Director, DPA on the guidelines given by the Adjutant General of the Army has elevated those Other Ranks in all Army Regiments to their next rank, effective from 18th May 2020 to coincide with the National War Heroes’ Day, a project that would also go into this Directorate’s history as the biggest ever share of promotions, hitherto granted at one given point on a single day.