SOMEONE USED P.B. FOR ULTERIOR MOTIVES : OPPOSITION MPS

It looks as if someone had got President’s Secretary to issue a statement requesting public servants to sacrifice 50 percent of their salaries with the objective of fulfilling their political motives, two former Opposition MPS alleged yesterday.

Former MP Karu Paranawithana told a press conference that government may use this to suppress struggles by certain sections of public servants. “Government teachers are currently in a struggle to win some of their demands at the moment. If they decide to restart the struggle the day on which the current Covid-19 crisis ends, the government will try to create a negative image on them by reminding that the teachers refused to sacrifice 50 percent of their salaries,” Mr. Paranawithana said.

“It is clear that the statement made by Dr. Jayasundara was not a private request as he had used his official letterhead to make the request from the public servants while he had sent copies to President and the Prime Minister,” he added. Former MP Ranjan Ramanayake who also participated in the press conference made another allegation and said top brass of the government might oppose the suggestion made by Dr Jayasundara and would try to become heroes in the future. “Top brass in the government might even reject the proposal made by Dr Jayasundara just to become heroes before the eyes of the people,” he said. Also, Mr Ramanayake proposed Rs.829 billion which the country has lost from bond issues from 2005 to 2015 and Rs.12 billion which was lost as a result of the bond scam in 2015 should be recovered from those who are responsible and should be used in this crisis period. “Also, one should recover the stolen funds of lotus tower project and sell the bungalows in Malwana which has no owners and use those proceeds instead of asking public servants to sacrifice their salaries,” Mr. Ramanayake said.

It is clear that the statement made by Dr. Jayasundara was not a private request