ECT must be brought under SLPA : Trade Unions

COLOMBO (News1st) : Trade unions have reiterated that the East Container Terminal (ECT) must be completely brought under the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), after calling off two days of protests. "Our first request is that the ECT and its operations must fall completely under the SLPA and that it must not be given to private entities," Sanjaya Kumara Weligama, the President of the Port, Commercial Industries and Progressive Workers Union said. Shamal Sumanaratne, the general secretary of the union, claimed that port officials had provided false and incomplete information to the President's Secretaries during the last four and a half years. "A committee has been appointed to investigate past and present irregularities. Within 45 days we will provide these details to the committee," Sumanaratne told News 1st. He claimed that India is trying to bring the terminal under its purview, as it challenges a project initiated by Adani Group a key Indian port company. "They are constructing a port that would connect all ports in India. The main obstruction for that is the East Container Terminal in Sri Lanka," the union general secretary remarked. He also said that India's diplomatic ties with Sri Lanka in this aspect is not smooth as the Hambantota Port and the CICT Terminal at the Colombo Port have been given to China. Meanwhile, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the National People's Power, said the people have an opportunity to clean the Parliament of corrupt individuals at the parliamentary election. "We must stop electing those people to Parliament," Dissnayake said pointing out that the country has been destroyed over the last 72 years.