The State Minister to the Ministry of Information and Communication said that it has been planned to provide benefits to a wider circle of journalists by introducing a loan scheme for them to purchase the equipment and the annual “Asidisi Media Scholarship Programme-2020” has already been launched aiming at improving the professionalism of the journalists. The state minister revealed this at a press briefing held at the ministerial auditorium today (7).
The state minister disclosed that an amount of Rs.200,000 is to be offered for a journalist between 18-55 in order to obtain the degree if he/she has completed three years of service as a journalist and has got registered at the Department of Government Information. He further said that an amount of Rs.100,000 is to be offered for short term courses and the applications must be sent to the Ministry of Information and Communication before 7th of February.
The state minister hereby emphasized that he has taken discussions with the Ministry of Finance to provide this loan scheme for purchasing equipment, at the end of March upgrading it in a manner enabling more journalists to reap benefits of this loan scheme.
The state minister further added that several modal post offices have intended to be established to revive the efficiency of the Postal Department and as the first stage of this project, the Central Mail Exchange, Colombo, Matara-Makandura post office, and post offices in Slave Island, Homagama and Kurunegala have planned to be upgraded. Moreover he stated that 500 more sub post offices would be established in the form of teleshops in collaboration with Sri Lanka Telecom in order to provide all the online facilities of the people under one roof.
