The Issues Encountered in The Usage of Tamil Language Providing a Government Service: A Study Based on Puttalam District

Abstract

Language planning can be considered the best example of cultural linguistics. It combines the theoretical need for understanding language with the need for real-life application. As such, the official language policy is one of the key policies enacted by the government that plays a significant role in Sri Lanka's administrative sector. According to the official language policy, both Sinhala and Tamil should be the official languages throughout Sri Lanka. Article 12(2) of the Constitution states that 'No citizen shall be discriminated against on the basis of his race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion or place of birth'. Therefore this study focuses on whether the language policy used in the Puttalam District Secretariat is properly implemented. The main objective of this study is to investigate how the official language policy for administrative policy is followed by Puttalam District Secretariat and how the departments providing services in Puttalam District Secretariat implement this language policy. According to the data received, significant progress and commitment have been identified in the implementation of official language policy in the Puttalam District Secretariat. However, this implementation is not 100% successful because both the staff and the service receivers face various linguistic problems during the process. Language issues in service boards, documents and applications Lack of bilingual skilled manpower have been identified as some of the major problems faced by the Puttalam District Secretariat. Therefore, it has been recognized that there is a problem in the implementation of the language policy in the Puttalam District Secretariat, and this research has been carried out on the basis of solving this problem and creating a position to conduct activities to provide better public