Minister Sirisena said that the government has received reliable information that certain NGOs had directly funded trade union leaders to organise the working massesto demonstrate against the government to show the world that there is worker unrest in Sri Lanka.
He said that farmers have also been dragged into these machinations against the country. The minister said that farmers are being forced by NGOs to demand higher prices for a kilo of paddy from the government. “Some farmers have been paid to stage protests against the country in certain areas and all efforts were aimed at creating unrest in Sri Lanka.
The NGOs had offered big amounts of funds to certain trade union leaders to stage strikes, Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena said.
According to minister Sirisena,the health sector is the most important sector to the people as any disruption in this sector affects the ordinary masses the most.
This is why the NGOs targeted the health sector for their ‘operation’.
But, members attached to any of those health trade unions did not know the real situation and thought that the strikes were staged for their benefit.
Minister Sirisena pointed out that one NGO had given funds to some persons to act as ordinary paddy farmers and carry out demonstrations demanding for an increase the price for paddy.But the representatives of paddy farmers’ organizations and ordinary paddy farmers did not fall for this bait.
Instead they decided to participate in discussions held at the Finance Ministry stressing that they never staged any demonstrations and came to the ministry to discuss their issue. “The facts were discovered after finding out who organized the demonstrations and strikes and why they did it because all demands of all health sector had already been granted (before they commenced the trade union actions). So there was no reason for them to launch strikes”,minister Sirisena said in Colombo yesterday.
Nadira GUNATILLEKE
CDN