Transport, Highways and Mass Media Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardhana engaged in a special tour to the Kottawa and Athurugiriya interchanges on the expressway, to observe the current situation regarding traffic on the expressways as a result of the strike action launched by several trade unions of the Road Development Authority and cashiers issuing tickets to expressway users by reporting sick leave.
Tickets were issued and money was being charged by Army officials at the Kottawa Expressway Interchange and tickets are being issued and charged by Sri Lankan Air Force officials at the Athrugiriya Interchange. Subsequent to observing the activities of these places, the Minister spoke to the media.
The strikers, who have reported sick leave, have made it impossible to issue tickets and collect money on highways. All the workers on the highway have reported sick leave and taken away the machinery and equipment that could be used by someone else to perform their duties. All those are public property. It is not possible to hand them over to the Army or any other party to issue tickets without checking whether they have been dismantled and in what kind of condition they are. As a result, measures are being taken to avoid the loss of Government revenue by issuing a temporary ticket.
As a country, as a Government, when we are on the verge of a serious financial and economic crisis, there is a risk of increasing tax pressure on the people in the situation caused by the Government not receiving the revenue it should receive. The loss of revenue from sources of income is caused by such activities. This is a political action. This action taken by the trade unions is a strike to politically force a change in the policy decisions of the Government. It cannot be done. I have intervened in any of their grievances as the Minister in charge. I am not capable of abusing the power of a Minister. According to the matters submitted to the Public Services Commission, Salaries and Cadres Commission, their decisions should be adhered to as a responsible Minister. It is not possible to support them through violence and such disruptive actions and kneel down before them. Therefore, if there are any Government properties in their possession, I request them to hand over these properties as soon as possible to someone who can work, if they are not working. If any damage has been done to those properties, the Secretary of the Ministry has been instructed to take legal action which can be done subsequent to an investigation.
Currently, an experiment has been conducted on a system that includes automatic charging of money under digital technology, control of entry and exit, with no fraud and corruption, which includes security camera systems.
A request is being made to the President to make this fully automatic as soon as possible and to give permission for full digitisation and thereby intervene to prevent disruptive activities that block the government’s revenue. It is a national crime to obstruct the receipt or receipt of income in places where the public’s salary paid using public taxes, does not generate sufficient income to sustain the institution. We will not allow that crime to take place.
In a discussion held between the officials and the trade unions last week, instructions were clearly given not to carry out this strike action. Currently, the budget has been passed, and the International Monetary Fund’s second tranche has been received, and as a country that is trying to restructure its debt, it is not possible to allow the use of public property for narrow political agendas and personal purposes in this way. Through this, the collection of Government revenue has been deliberately and through planning, halted. We are looking into it.
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