Daily Mirror report on estate worker payments brought up in Parliament

By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana

Story published by Daily Mirror (November 13, 2025 ) under the title ‘SJB MP seeks Bribery, Audit inquiry into Rs. 5 billion allocation for estate workers” came to limelight when Deputy Minister Sugath Tilakaratne quoted it.

The Deputy Minister who responded to SJB MP Rohini Kaviratne said seeking the intervention of the Bribery Commission and calling for an audit query is not done.  

“We have noticed that the Opposition has begun to attack us on this budget proposal to increase daily wages for estate workers. They question us as to how could we transfer funds to plantation companies. However, some estate workers have gone against the Opposition because of their criticism and had gone to the extent of dashing coconuts,” the Deputy Minister said.   

Meanwhile, Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) Deputy Leader MP Palani Digambaram said he is happy about the government’s decision to allocate funds for estate workers.” Those who criticize this decision could not be able to increase salaries of estate workers when they were in power,” the MP said.