Minister orders probe into 3 metric tons of fish stored for 8 years
Posted on August 13th, 2016

 Sarath Obeysekera

 – See more at: http://www.adaderana.lk/news/36482/minister-orders-probe-into-3-metric-tons-of-fish-stored-for-8-years#sthash.vbsCaofh.dpu

After reading above news ,I decided to write this note to explain the truth to the public. Ceylon Fishery Harbour Corporation has been a profit making venture few years back until some ministers started increasing the cadre by filling the corporation with their stooges .Chairmen and other tip officers were never interested doing anything for the organization .Corruption was rampant. Cold rooms installed under an aid program from Finland were consuming electricity as high as 3 million rupees per month . Cadre should have been limited to 500 but it was increased to 1100 .CFC was finding difficult to pay salaries .Many vehicles and cool room vans were gulping cash for maintenance. One minister few years back leased out next door land to a Russian company fro fish canning factory and asked for life time commission by way for charging few rupees per fish can, Russians bolted away !We operate a shipyard next to the cool room and offered to build a new cool room elsewhere with an admin building and offered to buy the land .

JVP union who kept quite for many years came out objecting to everything ,despite that both other unions were supportive .Unions threatened some high officers who were honest and they resigned .Government offered voluntary retirement to reduce the overheads. Union was instigating the workers to ask more money and VRS did not work to the level expected .

Then last week corporation stopped the cool room operation due to inability to pay the high electricity bill.

Many tons of fish which were in cool room started  rotting .Corporation had to find a way to get rid of the rotting fish ,and decided to bury the fish in the next door land .Corporation did not have money to even a hire  excavator to bury the fish ,As the burying operation took few days whole area was polluted with a unbearable odour .

Then some fishermen who are occupying the beach front with unauthorised structures came running to complain about the smell.

We moved in to help the corporation and offered a excavator to bury the rotten fish .Purchased an organic  odour preventing substance and sprayed in the area to provide relief .The person you see in the TV news was threatening me even though I was not an employee of the corporation .

TV news crew arrived at the scene after JVP union called them to come to report the incident .JVP wanted to spread the news to blame the government .

Unfortunately media has miserably failed as they reported completely wrong    ( rotten) news item.

Sarath Obeysekera

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