Senior journalists in Sri Lanka yesterday received free laptops and bank loans under a relief loan scheme introduced by the government.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa awarded the initial round of cheques to recipients at a ceremony held yesterday.
“This was a pledge made by the President at his last budget speech where he said that car loans would be given to journalists, artistes and writers”, secretary to the ministry of information Charitha Herath said.
Loans would be made available to the journalists at a maximum of 1.2 million rupees with no interest.
Some 515 journalists are to receive the loan in the first phase. In addition to that 500 laptops will also be distributed among the working journalists free of charge.
“The government will pay the interest to banks”, Herath said.