Colombo (LNW): The Sri Lanka State Engineering Corporation (SLSEC) has decided to sell land at Peliyagoda to pay salaries, arrears of salaries and Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) contributions for its employees and the National Machinery and Equipment Authority, in the backdrop where the Construction Sector suffered a serious set back amidst the country’s worst economic meltdown.
With the set back, the SLSEC and its affiliates had lost their income, and the Corporation Chairman Ratnasiri Kalupaha said a Cabinet paper seeking approval to sell the aforementioned land for Rs. 10 billion had already been drafted.
Accordingly, the land of more than 17 acres adjacent to the Peliyagoda Fish Market will be sold for Rs. 10 billion, to settle the employees’ salaries, the Corporation Chief noted.
Protests have been escalating at the National Machinery and Equipment Authority, as its employees had been paid only Rs. 7,000 each as salaries in May, and the employees of the SLSEC had been paid only a part of their paycheque in May.
Corporation Chief Kalupahana disclosed that 1,100 employees who opted to retire alone should be paid Rs. 2,600 million.
