Police officers could not be paid travelling allowance due to political instability last year – Kiriella
The travelling allowance increment to police officers could not be provided during the two months of political instability last year, Leader of the House, Public Enterprise Development, Upcountry Heritage and Kandy Development Minister Lakshman Kiriella said in Parliament yesterday.
He was responding to an allegation by the JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake that all public sector workers got an increase in their travelling allowances known as Combined Allowance but policemen had not been paid the increment.
MP Dissanayake said the travelling allowance of all public sector workers had been increased from Aug 23, 2018. However, the allowance paid to policemen had not been increased. Policemen are expected to work round the clock for seven days a week and are not entitled to obtain Saturday, Sunday or Public holiday leaves. “It is unfair to deprive them of the allowance meant for other public workers,” he said.
Minister Kiriella said the government servants are entitled to the Combined Allowance only as and when they spend over one day out of their duty stations on official engagements.
“With the Public Administration Circular 20/2018 dated Aug 21, 2018, the combined allowance paid to the public servants had been increased after 12 years. Thus far the public servants had been paid the Combined Allowance as per the Administration Circular 06/2006 dated April 25, 2006. Even though the salaries of the public sector workers had been increased periodically, this allowance had not been increased for 12 years. The government decided at a Cabinet Meeting held on July 24, 2018 to increase the combined allowance of the public servants and it was implemented,” he said.
He said the allowance entitled to police officers is paid along with their monthly salary. As a special relief, this allowance is paid to them even if they remain in the station for 24 or 30 days a month depending on the divisions that they serve.
As per the Public Administration Circular 20/2018, the allowance had been increased for other public sector workers, but police officers were paid the allowance even if they stayed in their stations.
On occasions that they complete the requirements mentioned in the Public Administration Circular 20/2018, they too had been paid the allowance he said. The government later decided to submit a special cabinet paper to remove this anomaly. That cabinet paper had been submitted on August 23, 2018.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake said these issues deprived the police officers of their increment. “You have submitted a cabinet paper in August last year and nothing has been done about it. You have failed to reveal what action has been taken over the past five months. When will these police officers be given this allowance?” he asked.
“We accept that the policemen should be given this allowance. Although we submitted the Cabinet paper, the illegal government stalled this process for almost two months,” he said.
“We will provide them with this allowance as soon as possible,” Kiriella said,
PMB submitted four reports on paddy warehouses – COPE
The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) report states that Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) has submitted four reports on setting up warehouses of paddy and improving standards of the present warehouses following the COPE inquiries on the availability of a scientific study on the total storage capacity to purchase sufficient paddy for price control.
According to the COPE report, a scientific study was not conducted on purchasing, maintaining stocks and selling paddy until the COPE inquiry.
COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti, submitting the first report of the COPE for the period from July 1 to September 30, 2017, pointed out that the PMB is one public entity that has recorded large-scale financial discrepancies over the years.
According to the report, “A deficiency of 16,853,527 kilos of paddy to the value of Rs. 560 MN at 235 warehouses in Polonnaruwa-South and North West, Anuradhapura and the Ampara zones were detected, while 586,107 kilos of paddy to the value of Rs. 17 MN in the zone rotted.”
The deficiency was detected at the verification of stocks in 2014. The report stated that Rs. 9.17 MN will be recovered from the 14 officers responsible for damages. The committee has recommended submitting a report on the available facilities in the warehouse of the PMB to issue first stocks first. The report is due from the Auditor General’s Department, the COPE report states.
According to the COPE report, “The Committee discussed at length the loss of Rs. 2,487.7 MN that the Board had incurred by selling paddy to private companies at Rs. 24 a kilo for animal feed in 2016 when it was possible to sell a stock of paddy (Nadu) purchased at Rs. 45 a kilo. The availability of paddy unsuitable for human consumption and quality paddy in the stocks that was issued and maintenance of such stocks to be sold to mills that do not produce animal feed were also discussed.”
According to the report, the Chairman of the Board has stated that paddy had to be sold in this way to secure storage facilities for the harvest of the upcoming season as there was a huge surplus of paddy in the PMB at that time.
The COPE has demanded for a report from the PMB including details of all storage facilities where paddy can be stored throughout the country, the ministries/departments/private institutions that control warehouses, the storage capacities of the warehouses, the values of paddy stored in those warehouses, whether the present warehouses have enough storage capacities and if not, where to set up new warehouses. The report on the matters was submitted to the Secretary to the Prime Minister in 2017.
Plantation workers’ demand should be met – Anura Kumara
JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, moving the adjournment motion on estate workers in Parliament yesterday, said the plantation workers are now in a struggle demanding a Rs. 1,000 wage per day.
“It is a reasonable demand. The workers walked to Colombo from Bogawantalawa and staged a protest opposite the Plantations Ministry demanding that they be paid Rs. 1,000 wage per day. Six rounds of talks were held, but the government did not resolve the issue. MP Vadivel Suresh insisted that he will immolate if the government fails to grant the demand. The government should not delay delivering this demand to make company owners happy,” Disanayake said.
“They live in harsh conditions. I read an editorial in Divaina that describes the way those workers were brought down here. It says if 100 workers arrived at the local port from India, only around 50 would survive the harsh journey to the estates. Since then they live a life of slaves. They spend 50 per cent of their earnings on food. How could they spend on their other needs then?” he asked.
Leader of the House, Public Enterprise Development, Upcountry Heritage and Kandy Development Minister Lakshman Kiriella said the government accepts that a Rs. 1000 day wage should be granted. “You accept it in principle. Between accepting and granting the demand has big difference. This should be granted.” Dissanayake said.
JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti told Parliament yesterday that estate workers live like slaves in plantations and no government has done anything to get rid of their slavish mentality and their paymasters.
He said the leaders of estate workers too have neglected problems of the plantation workers.
“Whenever political leaders in the plantations sector sit round a table, they first resolve their issues and problems. If the time permits only, they discuss the workers’. None of the past governments were able to get rid of that slavish mentality of these workers and their masters. There is an uprising in the estate sector against injustice. It will push the government to uplift the living standards of these workers,” he said.
Kalutara District JVP MP Dr. Nalinda Rajapaksa said that even today estate workers are identified as Indian Tamils in government documents. They live and work here. They were born here. It is unjust to call them Indian Tamils. They are a part of our nation. They should be entitled for equal treatment like any other citizen of the country. Around 30,000 estate workers live in the Kalutara District. They too suffer as the estate workers in the upcountry plantations do. Not even a road is developed for their benefit. Plantation companies do not permit to develop infrastructure for the plantation workers. All community halls and dispensaries in the plantation sector are inactive,” he said.
Central Expressway Phase 1, II: Contractors had overvalued cost by Rs. 29 billion
The first report of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) of the 3rd Session of the 8th Parliament which was presented to Parliament yesterday revealed that the contractors of the phase 1 and 2 of the Central Expressway had overvalued the cost by Rs.29 BN.
The report presented to the House by COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti is for the period of July 1 to September 30, 2017.
The report states that the engineers’ estimate for the section one of the project was Rs. 129 BN whereas the contractors’ value had been Rs 158 billion. The engineers estimate for the section II had been Rs 126.89 BN, while the contractors’ cost had been Rs 137.1 BN.
The COPE, considering this fact, has recommended that the Road Development Authority (RDA) has to submit a detailed report to the Committee and the Auditor General on the procurement process that has been undertaken to award contracts for the Central Expressway. The COPE had requested the Auditor General to conduct an audit on it.
The RDA, however, has failed to submit the requested report even by March 31, 2018.
‘Many estate workers left here to work in Middle East’
Nuwara Eliya District UNP MP Mylvaganam Thilakarajah participating in the adjournment motion on estate workers yesterday in Parliament, said the country has 600,000 tea estate workers and the number has come down to 100,000 as many workers had left the country to middle-eastern countries because slaving there is more lucrative than slaving here.
“The British brought Indian workers to estates in 1817. They lived a life of slaves. In 1917 trade unions in estate sector started. Had not been for those unions, we would not have been even imagined the situation of those workers today. Only 30 per cent of tea produced from upcountry plantations is now exported. Today the plantation industry in the upcountry has collapsed,” he said.
Labour Minister Ravindra Samaraweera said that since 1990s, the wage increases of plantation workers is done on a collective agreement between them and the company owners.
The salaries had been increased once in two years. One party demanded after 2015 elections for a higher salary. That is the origin of the present problem. The collective agreement should have been renewed in 2018, he said.
Hill Country New Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development Minister Palani Digambaram said the estate workers draw the lowest salary in the country.
The daily wage of an estate worker is Rs. 500. They used to live in line-room houses. Only after we came to power they could get houses.”
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