24 January 2019 05:28 pm
He told Parliament that a circular had been issued to increase the commuted travelling allowance of government servants in line with the increase in the basic salary from August 23, 2018 and added that even though it was paid to all government servants, it was not paid to the police department.
"The allowance has been paid for nine days in August for several police divisions and for three months to the state intelligence service," he said.
Mr. Dissanayake said the increased allowance had been suspended saying that increase was not necessary for the police department as they are paid a travelling allowance for 24 days.
"When the police personnel, who were not entitled to Saturday, Sunday or public holidays, were paid travelling allowance for 24 days, all the other government servants are paid travelling allowance for 12 days and overtime for 200 hours. That overtime rate was increased in line with the salary increase. When the police personnel are paid 24-day travelling allowance, the other government servants are paid 12 days travelling allowance and overtime allowance. So the 24-day travelling allowance paid to the police department is not surpassing the allowance paid to the other government servants," he explained.
The leader of the House, Lakshman Kiriella said steps would be taken to pay the commuted travelling allowance to the police department and that a Cabinet paper has been presented in this regard on August 23, 2018. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)