Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa promised to solve the teachers’ salary anomalies issue through the Budget proposals as it was promised by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendor’ National Policy Framework, said said Samurdhi, Household Economy, Micro Finance, Self Employment and Business Development State Minister Shehan Semasinghe in Parliament yesterday.
He said that the Finance Minister had discussions with the Teacher Organizations and promised them to solve them. He added that the Opposition would lose another slogan with this proposal. He added that the base of the proposal was envisaged in the ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendor’ National Policy Framework prepared on the proposals of the teacher organization of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. State Minister Semasinghe further said that however the Opposition’s slogans are totally different on the same matter on the different days of debates.
He added that the Opposition which spoke of the foreign remittances by the Sri Lankans working abroad on Wednesday, contradicts what they say on the same matter yesterday. He told Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP Harsha de Silva that the Government is listening to the Opposition members but the former Good Governance Government at least didn’t listen to them.
He further said that priority should be given to strengthen the country’s economy over any other issue as it has been affected the worst by the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that equal priority should be given by all the other nations in the world as they too have been affected by this global pandemic.
He made these observations joining the Second Reading debate on the Appropriation (Amendment) Bill, Regulations under the Imports and Exports (Control) Act, Immigrants and Emigrants (Amendment) Bill and Resolution under the Essential Public Services Act. He said the Opposition MPs spoke of the long queues at the passport office. They have to agree that nearly 50,000 passports are issued by the Passport office. But, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years, the issue of passports was delayed. But, this situation has been overcome and the issue of passports is progressing smoothly.
“They also spoke of the vaccination programme,” State Minister Semarsinghe said. “The USA has fully vaccinated only 60 percent, Canada 78 percent, Britain 68 percent, India 25 percent, Bangladesh 19 percent and Sri Lanka 62 percent. But we did it amidst the political challenges levelled by the Opposition. The Opposition organised protests against them as well. One MP said that they would surround the Parliament with weapons.”
They also attempted to use the Teacher protests against the Government. But they would lose the slogan for Finance Minister Bassil Rajapaksa promised to solve the teachers’ salary anomaly issue through the Budget proposals as it was promised in the election pledges by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
by Daily News Sri Lanka
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