Minister Chandrasegaran condemns effort to tax plantation workers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 May 2009, 08:59 GMT]
”Efforts to have deducted a day’s pay from innocent Tamil plantation workers to help people affected by war will only assist the government in its war against the Tamils,” Up-country Peoples’ Front (UPF) leader and Sri Lanka Minister, P. Chandrasegaran said in a press report, condemning demands made by certain trade unions and voluntary organizations on the plantation workers to give a day’s wage to help war affected people, sources in Colombo said.

The following is the gist of the report:

“The plantation workers had voluntarily contributed to tsunami affected people which was a natural catastrophe. In contrast, the Vanni people have been made refugees in a systematic manner and the wages of plantation workers contributed to this cause will only help the war waged on the Tamils.”

“The persons who are trying to demand a day’s wage for relief work should take this into consideration.”

“The Indian government which assists the war by providing weapons and training to Sri Lanka Armed Forces causing horrible situation in Vanni, at the same time says that it is giving relief assistance to the war affected people; this is but ridiculous.”

“Likewise, the money collected from the plantation workers, in the name of relief funds for the war refugees, is the same as giving funds to war efforts.”