ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s State Transport Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna sees privatization of railways as the permanent solution to prevent inconvenience faced by the public due to strikes by railway employees.
Alagiyawanna’s comments come after millions of people faced inconvenience after the railway Station Masters’ Union launched a strike earlier this week demanding some vacancies be filled and other administrative issues be resolved.
Hundreds of scheduled train journeys were cancelled on Wednesday due to the strike, leaving very few trains that ran jam-packed with passengers.
A passenger from Alagiyawanna’s constituency of Gampaha District was killed after falling from a packed train on Wednesday when he risked his life as hundreds of people tried to go in a few trains by barely hanging on to the sides of the train, balancing on footboards made slippery by the rain.
“People now say railways should be privatized. It is because of the action by those who are in that institution. Today, the opinion of the majority of the people is that,” Alagiyawanna, a lawmaker from center-left Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), said.
His political affiliation, the SLFP, has strongly resisted privatization of state entities in the past.
“My personal view is that the state should have standard regulations and these must be privatized. Without that, we will not have a permanent solution for this,” he told EconomyNext when asked if the government is considering any privatization move to avoid such incidences that would lead people to face inconvenience.
He said strict state regulations should be in place when the government goes for privatizing to prevent people being exploited for profits by private sectors firms.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has proposed to go for privatization or Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) for mainly loss making state enterprises in line with the economic reforms under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan.
However, many political parties including ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), and Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are against the partial privatization move by Wickremesinghe.
Sri Lanka has already frozen recruitment into state enterprises to reduces losses. The island nation almost has a government employee for every 16 citizens, leading to heavy spending on the bloated public sector.
President Wickremesinghe’s move to sell less than 50 percent stake in some strategic state entities also have been slowed amid protests by government employees ahead of a presidential poll in October this year. (Colombo/July 12/2024)