Extraordinary Gazette declaring railways an Essential Service issued

The Extraordinary Gazette notification declaring the railways an Essential Service was issued with effect from midnight yesterday (03).

The relevant gazette notification, signed by President Maithripala Sirisena was forwarded to the Department of Government Printing yesterday for publishing.

Accordingly, the Department of Railway is required to provide efficient and uninterrupted operation of transport services for passengers and goods by rail and railway lines, their maintenance and provision of proper security measures, signalling systems and their functioning, issuance of tickets.

The government decided to take this measure considering the ongoing railway strike, which entered its ninth consecutive day today (04) causing inconveniences for thousands of daily passengers, is unfair.