FUTA strike continues

July 18, 2012, 10:49 pm 

by Dasun Edirisinghe, the island

University teachers were disappointed that Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga had not called them for the third round of discussions, which was earlier scheduled to be held on Monday or Tuesday evening, at the Presidential Secretariat.

President of the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri said that their strike was continuing as the government authorities had failed to address their demands so far.

Dr. Devasiri said that FUTA executive committee decided to boycott the GCE (A/L) paper marking if the government does not provide an acceptable solution to their demands before September.

"President Mahinda Rajapaksa proposed to appoint a presidential commission to investigate our problems," he said adding that the FUTA executive committee had rejected that proposal too.

He said that there was no need to appoint new commissions as all relevant officials, including those in the Higher Education Ministry, University Grants Commission, Treasury, Finance Ministry, National Salaries and Cadre Commission and the Presidential Secretary were well aware of their problems as it was a longstanding affair.

The senior academic said that this time they would not end the strike until government provides a permanent solution.