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Protesting plantation workers have stopped a train n Talawakele after talks with the authorities on pay hike colapsed. The workers of Indian origin have disrupted Podimenike train running from Badulla to Colombo on Monday at Talawakele station for nearly two hours. The workers were demanding the authorities increase their daily pay to Rs. 300. Wearing black bands and hoisting black flags, they urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the government to increase the basic daily payment to at least Rs. 250. An offer by the authorities to increase the daily wages up to Rs. 260 has earleir been refused by the workers. “We cannot live with Rs. 135 per day. We appeal to the President to listen to our concerns,” a protesting leader said. The protesters have agreed to disperse after the leader of the Up Country Peoples Front (UPF), Minister P Chandrasekaran visited the scene. Leaders of the trade unions representing majority of nearly half a million plantation workers, UPF and Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), are members of President Rajapaksa’s cabinet. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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