Minister exposes Opposition Leader

Nadira Gunatilleke

The Opposition Leader is now demanding the Government to increase salaries in the public services and says if not, stern action will be taken against the Government. But when he was in power from 2002 to 2004 he brought a special circular to stop all recruitment into the public service, cut down pensions and attacked graduates who demanded employment, Information and Media Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said.

Minister Yapa was addressing the weekly Cabinet press briefing held at the Government Information Department Auditorium yesterday. He said the Opposition Leader planned to shrink the public service through the budget and reduced the number of public servants from 700,000 to 400,000.

The balance 300,000 were deprived of pensions. Another 1,500 public servants were removed from the public service. Minister Yapa said President Mahinda Rajapaksa re-commenced recruitment into the public service and increased the number of public servants up to 1.1million. He provided pensions for the people who had been deprived of pensions during the UNP regime.

He added Rs.1,000 to the cost of living payment and also increased it up to Rs.4,500. He provided employment to 45,000 graduates, the Minister said.

President Rajapaksa removed all anomalies in the pension scheme and gave due recognition and honour to public servants and pensioners. He settled unrest among public servants. The Opposition Leader lied to the public when he was in power to stay in power and now he has started again to lie to grab power. We protest against this and consider it is necessary to reveal his true nature to the public, the Minister added.