President of the People for Justice Dilshan Gamage in a letter to the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday requested to initiate legal actions against teacher and principals trade unions who conducted an unlawful protest in Colombo on July 22 by completely violating the health guidelines by the health authorities and also to initiate action against the Public Health Inspectors who failed to control that protest.
The People for Justice in its letter has said that a serious health risk has been posed on to the lives of him and the rest of the citizens due to the protest in front of the Fort Railway Station on July 22 that finally marched up to the Presidential Secretariat.
The letter stated that the protest was conducted by several trade unions including the Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union, Ceylon Teachers Union and Principal Services Union with the participation of a large number of people by completely violating the health guidelines issued by the Director General of Health Services. In a situation where the entire world has faced a severe threat due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this protest conducted by the teachers and principals trade unions paved the way to sabotage all the initiatives taken by the health authorities to control the spread of the pandemic.
Therefore, a serious risk of spreading Covid-19 in the country has arisen due to the unlawful activity committed by these trade unions.
Especially, when the country is facing a great risk of the spreading Delta variant which has caused many deaths in India, all those who came to Colombo on that day, many using public transport faced a great health risk owing to the illegal protest.
The letter added that the people from all parts of the country had been brought for this protest by completely violating the provincial health restrictions. However, it was evident Public Health Inspectors or responsible health officers had failed to control that protest completely violating all health guidelines.
Therefore, indirectly health officers and PHIs have also shirked their official duties by putting the lives of the people at a great health risk.