Incomplete Citizenship of the Plantation Community: Access to Governance Institutions and Public Service Delivery it seems that institutional weaknesses in implementing these laws and policies continue to be an obstacle to access public services in Tamil language in general, and for the people of the plantations in particular. This demonstrates that a high-level of autonomy in all state institutions, where minority groups form a majority, is more likely to protect and foster language rights and access to public services. Successive governments declared many local - level government institutions i.e. Divisional Secretariat Divisions as bilingual offices2 with a view to ensuring language rights of minorities. In 2005, for instance, the Ministry of Public Administration issued a circular, which stipulated that DS Divisions with 12.5 per cent of Tamil-speaking population should be declared as a bilingual institution, where administrative functions should be conducted in both Sinhala and Tamil. However, a significant number of DS divisions with 12.5 per cent of Tamil-speaking population located in the plantation areas function only or mainly in Sinhala. In 2005, to improve the access to public services in the plantation sector, the then Ministry of Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure Development appointed 250 youth as Estate Community Communication Facilitators (ECCF), in bilingual DS offices in plantation areas. These officers have bilingual skills and they assist the translation process where Tamil speakers have to transact business with Sinhala-speaking officers. These ECCFs have become a beneficial category of employees, facilitating the communication between Sinhala-speaking officials and Tamil2 Administrative transactions of those institutions should be performed both in Sinhala and Tamil, which gives equal importance to the Tamil language. 37