‘Police recruitments based on vacancies’

Sandasen Marasinghe, Irangika Range and Disna Mudalige

Ethnicity is not considered as a criterium when recruiting personnel to the Sri Lanka Police, Water Supply and Drainage Minister and Chief Government Whip Dinesh Gunawardena told Parliament yesterday.

He observed that all recruitments are based on the existing vacancies and requirements of the Police Department as well as the instructions of the IGP on the approval of the Defence and Urban Development Ministry Secretary and the Director General of the Department.

The minister also observed that the number of police personnel in the service representing the ethnic groups of Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher and Malay is respectively 81,328, 1093, 952, 9 and 25.

He also noted that measures have been taken to recruit Tamil speaking police personnel.

Tamil speaking police personnel who are recruited are given a special training in the English Language. The minister also stated that a special training on the Tamil Language will be given to selected Sinhala police personnel at the Kotmale Language Training College.

The trained police personnel have been deployed on duty according to the service requirements and ethnic population.

The minister also revealed that the number of policemen in service as at July 1, 2011 is 83,423 where as the actual number of policemen required is 92,023.

There are 430 police stations in the country at present.

The minister was responding to a question raised by UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake.