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Election Com. permits jobs during campaign
The National Election Commission has given the green light for the Public Administration Ministry to go ahead with a programme to provide jobs to more than 40,000 graduates even if it runs into a period of elections.
Ministry Secretary S. Hettiaarachchi said they were planning to expedite the delivery of appointment letters and hoped to have a special postal service on Sundays for this purpose.
This was after the NEC sought clarification on the proposed job schemes, interviews and appointments.
The Ministry has explained that under the graduate employment scheme to provide some 42,000 jobs, it has already sent out 15,000 appointment letters and the rest will be delivered soon.
The secretary said the NEC had granted approval to continue the scheme as the programme was announced well ahead of the polls.
UNP Parliamentarian Kabir Hashim told the Sunday Times that during their government the NEC did not allow the implementation of such employment schemes during election campaign periods.
He said they were calling on the NEC not to allow the job scheme after the dissolution of parliament and the announcement of the election date.
JVP spokesman Vijitha Herath said the programme should be suspended until the elections were concluded. He said his party was not opposed to the job scheme but wanted to make sure that it was done in a proper manner.