Three-wheeler drivers taken for a ride in Matara

In appealing for their support, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa made an election campaign promise to three-wheeler drivers that a future Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Government would relax laws governing modifications to three-wheelers.

This week, a group of three-wheeler drivers from around Matara who tried to organise a protest calling on him to keep his word got a rude shock when police started rounding up their three-wheelers claiming the modifications on them were “illegal.”

A video of an address given by Mahinda Rajapaksa to three-wheeler drivers when he was still Opposition Leader and campaigning in support of his brother Gotabaya for the presidency, shows him bashing the then Government for being too strict on modifications to three-wheelers.

“When we were in power, three-wheelers were so colourful and decorative. Now they look like skeletons,” Mr Rajapaksa quips, pledging to relax laws so that three-wheelers can be modified more.

This week, a group of three-wheeler drivers from around Matara, frustrated that the Government had still not relaxed these laws, tried to organise a protest using their modified three-wheelers reminding the PM of his pledge. Police preempted them, rounding up dozens of three-wheelers on their way to the protest on the charge that these modifications were illegal under the Motor Traffic Act.

The drivers now find themselves facing legal action, and a fine anywhere between Rs 50, 000 to Rs 100, 000 if found guilty by courts.