50 Jaffna youths join Army

18 February 2018 12:30 pm

A total of 50 unemployed boys and girls in Jaffna, including rehabilitated former LTTE combatants, had joined the Sri Lanka Army under the militarized category reported for non-military duties on Thursday at the Security Force Headquarters in Jaffna (SFHQ-J), Ministry of Defence said.
The new initiative had been launched by Major General Darshana Hettiarachchi, Commander, Security Forces - Jaffna (SF-J) in close coordination with the Bureau of the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation and other state officials in Jaffna with the blessings of the Commander of the Army who pioneered the project in the peninsula when he was the Jaffna Commander.
Accordingly, the new recruits will entitled to a monthly salary of about Rs. 40,000 in addition to meals, transport and medicine.  They are also entitled to pension rights on retirement at 55 years of age.
Also, members of their families, including parents have access to Army medical facilities depending on their marital status.
They are to be deployed basically on the Army Farm inside the Palaly Army Cantonment where a massive coconut cultivation project is now underway to grow 100,000 coconut trees, to be in parallel with the ongoing national drive for tree planting. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)

Pics courtesy : Army Media Unit