Dasun Edirisinghe
Unemployed graduates, who recently renewed their fight for jobs, were threatened with death last week by unidentified groups, according to the Combined Association of Unemployed Graduates (CAUG). CAUG media spokesman Dhammika Munasinghe told The Island that members of their Batticaloa branch had received death threats after holding a protest and a seminar in Batticaloa.
He said that they launched their countrywide protests against the government’s delay to provide them with jobs. The Batticaloa protest was held on November 13.
"We will not give up our protest till our demand is met,"
Munasinghe said adding that the government tried to stop it this time by threatening their members.
He said that there were over 19,000 vacancies in the public sector but the government did not take action to fill those vacancies with unemployed graduates.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s 2004 government that provided jobs for 40,000 graduates and the rest, 5000, were promised immediate jobs, according to him.
Munasinghe said the number of unemployed graduates had now increased to 42,000 but the Rajapaksa government continued to turn a blind eye to the issue.
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