CEB workers in North, East protest demanding salary arrears

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 July 2011, 20:15 GMT]
Ceylon Electricity Board workers in Trincomalee and Jaffna on Tuesday and Wednesday staged protests demanding immediate payment of salary arrears for 10 months. While the Sri Lankan government has been waging a propaganda inviting foreign countries to invest money in a “developing Sri Lanka”, the State is unable to pay salary arrears for more than 10 months, CEB workers in Jaffna said Wednesday. For the first time after several years, electricity board workers from North and South joined in the protest that took place in front of CEP office situated on KKS Road.

A similar protest was reported in Trincomalee on Tuesday.

If the SL government doesn't meet the demands of the workers, a wide scale protest would be launched on July 29 in Colombo, the representatives of CEB workers union told media.

Several other workers unions in South have also begun to protest against the lack of salary increase.

Meanwhile, SL Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen has been campaigning to woo Chinese companies to invest more in the island.

Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday that China was the island's largest aid donor with 1.2 billion U.S. dollars. The Xinhua reported cited SL government data published last year.

In the meantime, war-crimes accused SL Defense Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has gone on record wanting Tamil Diaspora to invest in his country.

“The Tamil Diaspora should throw its weight behind the war affected communities. The President repeatedly urged the Diaspora to end its anti-Sri Lanka campaign and invest in the country,” Gotabhaya said in an interview to state a Sinhala nationalist daily The Island on Wednesday.

Attempting to blame the Tamil Diaspora war the war he waged, the SL presidential sibling came with a warning to the West by saying that a destabilized Sri Lanka could become a source for “would be illegal immigrants” seeking to secure political asylum in the developed world.