Apropos The Island exclusive reports headlined ‘NPP govt. urged to reconsider decision to abolish concession granted to military families’ (11 November) and ‘Reverse move to abolish concession granted to military families: Ex-Chief of Defence Staff’ (14 November), the Defence Ministry yesterday said that the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) hadn’t decided to abolish the 50% concession granted to the children of service personnel.

The MoD said that the Board of Management of KDU, in 2011, approved the allocation of a quota for the children of military families to pursue degree programmes, conducted by the university, excluding the MBBS programme and Aircraft Maintenance. In terms of this decision, 20% of seats from military families, who fulfill the criteria stipulated, were granted with a 50% concession of the total course fee.

Declaring that the scheme had never been interrupted, the MoD has said that the quota is applicable not only to the children of serving and retired members of the Armed Forces, with a minimum of 20 years of unblemished service, but also to the children of those killed or permanently disabled in action, provided their service record remained unblemished up to that time.

Further, approval was granted by the Board of Management in subsequent years to expand the welfare scheme as follows:

a. 2013: Extension of the facility to the children of KDU civilian staff, allocating up to 5%of seats with a 40% concession on course fees.

b.   2015: Provision of a 40% concession for the children of officers of the                                      National Cadet Corps (NCC).

c. 2016: Extension of the 40% concession to the children of Sri Lanka Police and                       Special Task Force (STF) personnel under the military Quota.

The MoD has emphasised that annulment, amendments, or suspension of the military quota, or the related concessions, can only be made by the Board of Management of KDU, not by the university administration.

According to the MoD only 20% of military families were entitled to receive the concession. The MoD stressed that the welfare facilities provided for the children of those who served the nation with honour and sacrifice would be maintained as they have been in the past, without any change or reduction under any circumstances.

News Editor:

We stand by the original disclosure regarding the move to do away with the military quota and we are glad the MoD has clarified the government position.