Ganesan condemns attack on estate officials, but says workers do such acts in sheer frustration

Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) Leader MP Mano Ganesan says the Tamil Progressive Alliance condemns attacks on estate officials. The Estate Managers’ Association of Sri Lanka has warned that they will have to refrain from estate administration in view of attacks on its members.

MP Ganeshan has, however, said that the reason for the attack on the estate officials was the frustration of workers. He says most of them have lost their livelihoods, and the blame should not be placed only on these frustrated workers.

MP Ganesan questioned why the government’s attention has yet not been focused on the problems of declining incomes of workers and the decline of the plantation industry.

“Why hasn’t the Ceylon Workers Congress, the government’s plantation partner, understood the gravity of the current situation? I am astonished by its silence. I don’t understand if this silence is a deceitful ploy to hide the government’s inability to rectify the situation,” MP Ganesan said.

The MP says the situation has arisen due to the worst decline in the livelihoods of plantation workers in recent history.

“All the activities we initiated, including the construction of houses on estates, have come to a standstill. They are conducting opening ceremonies for the handover of the houses we built. The living conditions on estates are appalling. The main reason for this is the collapse of the plantation industry.”

Ganeshan said that the estate workers are not receiving the promised wage hikes as the management companies claim their revenue has declined.

MP Ganesan said that the income of the people living on estates should be increased. He suggests that estate workers be given the right to engage in alternative employment. Opportunities should be provided for animal husbandry and vegetable farming. The government should provide assistance to them, he says.

The MP said that estate managers don’t allow these workers who have lived on these estates for many decades even to effect minor repairs to their houses or to grow some vegetables in their compound for their consumption. Such actions, he said, only serves to increase the frustration of the poor workers.

When outsiders were given land belonging to estates, those who have worked on them for decades get frustrated. ” Such incidents have taken place in a number of districts and have been brought to our attention. These, too, add to the frustration of workers,” he noted.