Army to be restructured giving prominence to national security

Monday, 13 October 2014 00:34 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Giving prominence to national security, the entire Sri Lanka Army will be restructured to elevate the qualitative aspects of the force and to provide more welfare benefits to the members, the Army Commander said.

Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Daya Ratnayake, addressing the troops at the ceremony, held Friday (10) on account of the Army Day and 65th Anniversary of the Sri Lankan Army, said the Army has understood the national security interests as a decisive priority. “So, we all must firmly resolve to act accordingly, giving prominence to the national security aspect at all times,” he told the troops. According to the Army Chief, a fully-fledged, cohesive and brief scheme, covering all those security aspects, has been drawn, and is now in effect. The entire Army is to be accordingly restructured, based on the organizational module, training and armoury under three domains. Lieutenant General Ratnayake said during the wartime, training of Army personnel was more focused only on skill development, but now the troops are also being supplemented with knowledge, wisdom and scholarship under a program in effect. He said, to reach this goal, improvement of the entire infrastructure of all training schools to match with international standards, is underway to suit both the Sri Lankan troops as well as foreign trainees. The Army has made arrangements to re-design the curricula of its training institutes to be in parallel with international standards and explore simultaneously possibilities of affiliating with universities or other recognized training institutes to further improve the qualitative nature of all training modules. To provide more welfare benefits to the troops, the government has launched various welfare projects under the aegis of the President and the Secretary Defence and Urban Development. The Army Commander said a comprehensive welfare project, aimed at the needs of the troops, has already been implemented and it is his wish to further broaden its scope in the future.