Railway plagued by nepotism and mismanagement
Stagnation without promotions in the Railway Department for the past 15 years has irked its employees; the JVP affiliated All Ceylon Railway Employees’ General Union (ACREGU) said.
As a result of stagnating in their posts the railway employees have been compelled to go on retirement in the same post they were in, while the political appointees were granted regular promotions according to the whims and fancies of the Railway Minister, allege ACREGU sources.
Secretary, ACREGU, Sumathipala Manawadu told The Morning Leader that unless Minister Dulles Alahapperuma re-introduced the promotion scheme the railway department could not expect a satisfactory service from its employees.
“Although we have been requesting the re-implementation the promotion scheme for the last few years the respective Ministers have always turned a deaf ear to all our requests. It is disheartening to note that the Ministers never give promotions to the deserving. In some instances double promotions have been given to political appointees,” Manawadu said.
Manawadu also said that the government’s failure to allocate adequate funds to the ‘distress loan fund’ and the failure to rectify the salary anomalies created by Salary Circular 2006/6 have resulted in a major setback in the working of the railway.
“If the government is not concerned about addressing workers grievances the employees too are not keen to discharge their work,” Manawadu said.
“Although the government boasts of allocating enormous amounts to the Railway Department in the 2008 budget nothing has been done in the department for the first four and a half months,” claimed Manawadu.
“If the Ministry has failed to bring down even a single carriage till mid May then what is the use of allocating huge amounts to the railways. Will all that money go into the hands of the politicians rather than being utilised for the betterment of the Sri Lanka Government Railways as it has happened in the past,” Manawadu queried.
By Nirmala Kannangara
Source: The Morning Leader
Tags: adequate funds, ceylon, major setback, political appointees, promotion scheme, railway department, railway employees, railway minister, railways, satisfactory service, sri lanka government
