Govt. strangling the Public servants deceitfully instead of solving their problems openly- UNP

(April 07 , Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) UNP Chairman and M.P. Gamini Jayawickrema Perera , speaking at a news conference at the UNP media unit yesterday (6 Apr) said, at a time when the workers are suffering most and struggling to eke out a living due to the ruthless burdens heaped on them and the people , the Govt. instead of searching for solutions to give them relief is trying to further deepen their woes with new regulations through Gazette notification depriving them even of their basic rights and privileges they are enjoying now.

Their problems are further compounded by the deceitful practices of the Ministers who are thinking that the Govt. servants are fools. Citing the utterances of a senior Minister , Sarath Amunugama who said, just before the postal voting began for the Govt. servants that this Gazette notification was cancelled was a tomfoolery in order to win votes , must be thinking these Govt. servants will believe him and vote for the Govt. Doesn’t this Minister of Public administration know that a gazette notification cannot be cancelled by a word of mouth ? Either this Minister is so stupid as not to know the gazette notice regulations ,or he thinks the Govt. servants are also stupid like him , he added.

The gazette regulations aim at withdrawing many of the hard fought and won rights and privileges of the workers . Among the many are : those who fail to pass the Efficiency bar exam. are to be dismissed unlike earlier ; rights of workers unions are restricted ; agitation privileges are curbed etc. he noted.

Recalling the time when Ranil Wickremesinghe Govt. was in power , he said , the country’s economy was so well managed , that Chandrika’s Govt. loan outstanding of Rs. 60,000 million was re paid to the local Banks, Bank of Ceylon and Peoples Bank by Rail’s Govt.. The UNP Govt. did all this to save the country and the local Banks which were tottering unable to recover the loans from the Chandrika Govt. The Bank interest rates were brought down to 9 % per annum to enable business community to boost their activities. But, what has happened now, all factories ad Industries are closing because the present rates of Bank interest ranges from 25 to 36 % per annum , at which rates the Business community is unable to re pay the loans , especially in the context of the Govt.’s fiscal mismanagement and lopsided economic policies., he lamented.

-Sri Lanka Guardian