Cannot agree to Railway TU demand to remove GM – Minister
Transport, Highways and Urban Development Minister Bimal Rathnayake said, he cannot agree to the Railway Union demands to remove the General Manager.The Transport Ministry Secretary held a discussion with railway trade union representatives on Monday (14) but the talks concluded without an agreement to cancel the planned 48-hour strike.
They have presented two demands and the immediate removal of the Railways General Manager was one demand among them.“We cannot agree to the demand presented by railway trade unions to remove the Railways General Manager, nor can we manage the institution in that manner. I do not believe that the issue regarding the Railways General Manager of is a significant factor here. However, for this reason, it is wrong to cause inconvenience to the public.
“We recruited 100 assistant train drivers recently. If the strike goes ahead, we are committed to minimizing public inconvenience. We aim to provide all necessary transport alternatives to keep people moving. “We urge the public to pay close attention and consider whether these actions are fair and justified because some of these trade unions have certain political affiliations as well.This will definitely cause inconvenience to the commuters, but it is not fair,” he said. Meanwhile, the Transport Ministry is co-ordinating with the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) and private bus operators to introduce extra bus fleets on major commuting routes to absorb the high volume of daily train passengers, ahead of a planned 48-hour token strike by 27 railway trade unions scheduled for September 17 and 18.
