People’s representatives salaries should be reduced: Dhammananda Thera
I am now 103 years old. I have experiences in the the pre and post independence eras. Although I am very old, I do not forget the social change that took place within many decades
Senior member of Karaka Sanga Sabha of Malwatte Chapter Aggamaha Panditha Ven. Aluthgama Dhammanada Thera said that if the ministers and other parliamentarians who survive on public money did not render a service to the country, their salaries should be pruned.
He said that they would not hesitate to put up the sign boards with their names and titles on the large scale development projects, bridges, culverts and sanitary systems which are built using people’s taxes.
He added, “I am now 103 years old. I have experiences in the the pre and post independence eras. Although I am very old, I do not forget the social change that took place within many decades. When it comes to thinking of the politicians in the past, the behaviour of the present politicians are shameful. The parliamentarians in the past were like libraries and well versed with knowledge. It is not only the people, but also the media men who report their speeches gain knowledge.”
He said that the situation today is regretful because hundreds and thousands of money are spent for parliament sessions but they are absent. They spend money in vain and that their speeches are not only useless but some of them are not worthy of listening. They are the ones who rule the country and that there is little or no service done by them on behalf of the country, according to him.
In conclusion, he questioned whether the general public can live with an ordinary salary when the parliamentarians are making every effort to increase their salaries while people are oppressed on all hands. He reminded how a certain minister said that he was unable to live with Rs. 300,000 as his salary. According to him, a large number of parliamentarians and ministers depend on the tax payers money and arrangements had already been made to sell valuable resources of the country and that they have come up to the extent of selling the cemeteries in the country.