Govt.-FUTA crucial talks today

October 4, 2012, 6:45 am , The Island

by Dasun Edirisinghe

The government would hold a crucial meeting with the striking university teachers today to solve the problems which had led to the strike, Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake said.

He said that the meeting would most probably be held with the Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Treasury Secretary Dr. P. B. Jayasundera, following a request by the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA).

Addressing the media at Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Minister Dissanayake said that he had met the Venerable Mahanayake theros and they too had wanted the university teachers’ problems solved through negotiations.

Dissanayake said that talks between the presidential secretary Lalith Weerathunga and university teachers had failed due to The FUTA’s opposition to a presidential commission to solve the problem.

The FUTA had initially agreed to the appointment of a presidential commission to solve the problem, but it had later changed its position, he said.

When contacted for comment, FUTA President Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri said that the government had yet to inform them of the meeting to be held today (04).a