Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations

Group of disabled members of the forces and Ravana Balaya invited attack to fulfill obligations of ‘contractors’ who hired them? (video)

(Lanka-e-News - 08.Nov.2016, 11.45PM) Doubts have proliferated whether the attack launched yesterday on a group of retired disabled officers of the forces who had been in service for less than 12 years and the maniacal extremists under the name of Ravana Balaya when they tried to forcibly enter the presidential secretariat was the outcome of the sly maneuvers ,and was an evil attack orchestrated by bankrupt discarded politicos .

The reasons that support this view are …

This group was staging a fast for the last 5 days demanding that their ‘service pension salaries ‘ be paid , while the president had already decided to grant this payment as far back as end of last year , and a gazette notification too was released in that regard. This payment was to be made from February next year after the allocations are made under this year’s budget .

As soon as this group commenced the fast , the commander of the forces , the defense secretary and other relevant officials clarified the position to this group most lucidly supported by documents while also giving a written promise. Yet the group yesterday tried to break the barriers and enter the presidential secretariat. Mind you , this same group after being subjected to tear gas and baton attacks dispersed based on the same promise given to them earlier and not on a new assurance. Therefore it is as clear as day , this group invited this attack at the behest of the behind the scene bankrupt politicos and to serve the foul and destructive agendas of the latter based on their contract.

The case history is as follows …

There are two specific schemes under which payments are made to the disabled officers who are victims of the war :

1.The officers who had become disabled while they were in service for 12 years in the forces, and have completed that period (taking into consideration the right of these officers to retire after 12 years)
2.Those who became disabled while serving in the forces for 10 years, and have completed that period.

These are officers who can of their own accord go before the medical board , and retire .

Accordingly , the first category, that is those who have completed 12 years , are entitled to three payments per mensem :
The salary based on their service in the forces
The disability pension salary
The service pension salary

Whereas , the second category of officers who have completed only ten years (not 12 years) are entitled to the other two payments only and not the service pension salary .

When deciding on the ‘disability pension salary’ the disabled state is assessed b y the Medical board , and based on the extent to which he/she is disabled, it is computed. The maximum payable is 80 % of the salary.

The ‘service pension salary’ is computed based on their period of service ,and a percentage of the salary is paid.

These war heroes who transformed into pawns of evil bankrupt political forces and invited attacks yesterday were receiving all the allowances except the afore noted service salary payment, and constituted a section of the group that had not completed 12 years in service.

After the war ended in 2009 , and until Maithripala Sirisena became president in January 2015, that is during the interim six years these officers had been making their demands ,yet the former despotic Rajapakse reign did not even grant them a copper cent.

However after Maithripala took over the reins, he ordered that this group which had not completed 12 years in service be granted the service pension salary , and a gazette notification was issued to that effect. As delays are experienced due to procedural wrangles when making the necessary financial allocations and overcoming legal barriers , it was promised this allocation will be made in this year’s budget , and payments with arrears will be granted from next February.

While this is the true situation , this group who fell prey to the bankrupt politicos , pretended yesterday that the good governance government was attacking the war heroes, in order to make a false display and paint a wrong picture.

The above reasons therefore confirm this atrocious and delusive display was to serve the vicious and venomous aims and agendas of the presently discarded , detested and drowning Rajapakses who are now without even a straw to hold on to.

Another abominable aspect of this odious incident is the short sightedness of the IGP. For the last full five days , this group which included not only some of the disabled officers of the forces but also the Ravana Balaya extremist frontline monks was conducting themselves most offensively disregarding the genuine and reasonable promises given to them already.

Hence the IGP must bear the full responsibility for this incident , because even after knowing very well the violent mischief making monks and their leaders are behind this agitation , he did not take any action whatsoever until these hooligan monks exacerbated the tension and escalated the situation so far as to forcibly enter the Presidential secretariat.

May be the IGP , better known as the Imbecile General of Police whose four mobile phones are busy with his receiving and answering calls of cuties and lads ; making poses on face book pages ; giving answers to the face book comments received ; and making four to five hours long vacuous sermons , naturally has no time to attend to his onerous official duties . Perhaps, it is why he forgot to provide security ahead to the presidential secretariat. His globetrotting is no excuse in any case. Neither does that exculpate him of the blame nor relieve him of his responsibilities.

The video footage covering the incident is hereunder