The Island, June 14, 2011, 8:51 pm, by Zacki Jabbar
S. B. Dissanayake has gone back on his word
Even budget proposals are being abandoned by the Mahinda Rajapaksa government and a glaring example was its pledge to increase the salaries of university lecturers, the UNP said yesterday.
General Secretary of the UNP Tissa Attanayake, addressing a news conference in Colombo, said that the 2011 budget proposed a pay hike for university teachers, but it was yet to see the light of day.
He said that the Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake, on more than one occasion, had agreed to grant a salary increase, but nothing had come out of it, except endless talks.
Trade union action was bound to continue if the pay dispute was not resolved and it was the students who would suffer, Attanayake said.
He said that the Rajapaksa regime’s world record number of ministers had been showered with all perks and privileges at enormous cost to the tax payer, but it was baulking at giving those entrusted with educating the younger generation their dues.
The government has taken the working class for a bunch of fools who can be hoodwinked with false election promises and budget proposals, Attanayake said adding that it should change its attitude and behave responsibly without acting like a power drunk thug.
Commenting on last week’s talks between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and a visiting Indian delegation, headed by Foreign Policy Advisor Shiv Shanker Menon, on the 13th Amendment and devolution of land and police powers to the provinces, he said that the government was duty bound to immediately table in parliament the agreement reached.
