News

The failure of Ports Minister Mangala Samaraweera to engage in discussions with Ports Authority employees who were engaged in the work-to-rule campaign had angered many JVP legislators.

Talking to a scribe, one MP who is in the forefront of the trade union action couldn’t help quipping ‘the Minister has time to attend Anarkali’s birthday party and feed her cake, but he has no time to talk to the workers about their grievances.’Inflated figures create problems.

Another fact that had angered the MPs was Mr. Samaraweera’s very public announcement that a port employee had drawn a salary of over Rs. 100,000 a month, a claim denied by parliamentarian Sunil Handunnetti who said this amount consisted of overtime arrears and back wages for several months.

He said the minister’s remarks had not only misled the public into believing Port workers were paid such massive salaries but also created problems at home for them.

“Now the wives of the workers are asking them what they do with the rest of their money because they bring home only around Rs. 12,000,” he said.

House malfunctioning

We have written several times about the problems in Parliament, its problematic fire alarm system, its faulty electronic voting and access control systems, etc. Last week the Secretary General of Parliament herself experienced such a malfunction. She was stuck in one of the lifts for nearly ten minutes.

The Speaker himself seems concerned about the various shortcomings highlighted about the Parliament complex. He was seen visiting the staff canteen and various parts of the building as well as the Police posts in and around the building to see for himself what changes need to be made. After that a long list of instructions has been sent out to the concerned officials who have been asked to attend to the shortcomings soon.

Some scribes travelled north last week and had to pass the last Government entry/exit point at Omanthai. Unlike before travellers were asked to make an entry with the Police stating that they were travelling to unsecured places and were doing it at their own risk and take an extract of this entry with them. When the Tamil scribe asked the Police why he wasn’t being asked to make such a declaration, he was told it was only for the Sinhalese saying that Tamils were safer in the north.