On 20th August, the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka H.E. Santhosh Jha visited Mahtma Gandhi International Centre (MGIC) , Matale. Notably, the MGIC was constructed under Indian grant Assistance in 2015.
The High Commissioner inaugurated an Indian Gallery at the Centre. The gallery houses rich informative resources on cultural, historical, social, political, economic and other aspects of India.
The High Commissioner distributed solar lanterns to some of the beneficiaries of Phase III of Indian Housing Project (IHP), and notebooks and school bags to students of plantation schools. The distribution will now continue and for the solar lanterns, cover all the 4000 beneficiary households of the Phase III of the IHP, and for the notebooks and school bags, 10,000 beneficiary students from the plantation regions.This assistance forms part of the special multi-sectoral grant assistance package of INR 750 million to mark 200 years of arrival of Indian-origin Tamil community to Sri Lanka, that was announced last year during the visit of His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka to India. Additional District Secretary, Matale, officials from the Provincial Councils of Central, Uva, Sabaragamuwa and North Western Provinces, and members of the Board of the MGIC also attended the event.
Earlier in the day, the High Commissioner visited one of the centres at Peradeniya Hindu College of the STEM teacher-training program underway in Sri Lanka and interacted with the teachers and teacher-trainers. The 10-week STEM teacher-training program is also an initiative being conducted under the special multi-sectoral grant assistance package of INR 750 million to the Indian-origin Tamil community in Sri Lanka. The program is scheduled to be conducted across 40 centers and is expected to benefit hundreds of teachers from the plantation schools by the time of its conclusion. Senior officials from Central Province including Deputy Chief Secretary and officials of Ministry of Education, Central Provincial Council also participated in the event at Peradeniya Hindu College.
