President Maithripala Sirisena, speaking at the inauguration of the ‘Kalana Mithuru – Poth Sumithuru’ programme to increase interest for reading among students, said reading made a human knowledgeable and more disciplined.

The Development and Special Projects Unit of the Presidential Secretariat, in line with the national reading month, organized the program. The objective of the project is to build balanced children and nurture them with knowledge.

Under the first phase of this project, 2,820 schools with Advanced Level classes island-wide will be facilitated. Accordingly, a bundle of books written in Sinhala, Tamil and English were distributed among those schools. A programme is being implemented in parallel to this, to promote children's interest in reading by holding competition Island-wide.

The President further said that at present the interest in reading have been diminished among the children as well as the adults. The President pointed out that the modern technology and the influence of Facebook and the social media have caused this decline. He also said that all must commit to build a society which is well-disciplined and have a high sense of literature.

President Sirisena presented symbolically  bundle of books to the schools.

Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, State Minister V.Radhakrishnan, Chief Minister of the Central Province Sarath Ekanayake,  Ministers of Provincial Education, public servants, including Secretary to the President Austin Fernando and many others participated on this occasion.