(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – President Ranil Wickramasinghe has signed an Extraordinary Gazette notification declaring services related to ports, airports and passenger transport as essential services with immediate effect, President’s Media Division said.
Extraordinary Gazette notification has been issued by the Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake, by order of the President today.
President Wickremesinghe, considering it necessary that the services provided by any state institution which is engaged in provision of the specified services, is essential to the life of the community and is likely to be impeded or interrupted, declared the services specified below to be an essential public service
1. Public transports services for passengers or goods.
2. The discharge, carriage, landing, storage, delivery and removal of articles of food or drink, or of coal, oil or fuel from vessels within any port as defined for the purposes of the Customs Ordinance (Chapter 235)
3. The provision and maintenance of facilities for transport services by road, rail or air, including roads, bridges, culverts, airports, ports and railway lines.
President Wickremesinghe’s declaration of essential services comes in the wake of the announcement made by the Professional Trade Union Alliance (PTUA) that 40 trade unions from various sectors will engage in an island wide token strike on Wednesday, 1st of March against the government’s oppressive tax policy.
