Sri Lanka has approved Fridays to be work free day for public sector workers to help them cope with a chronic fuel shortage and encourage them to grow food.
The government made the declaration as it struggles with its worst financial crisis in decades.
Sri Lanka’s Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal for public sector workers to be given leave every Friday for the next three months.
This was partly because the fuel shortage made commuting difficult and also to encourage them to farm.
“It seems appropriate to grant government officials leave of one working day to engage in agricultural activities in their backyards or elsewhere as a solution to the food shortage that is expected. ”
This is according to a statement issued by the government information office.
The island nation, which employs about one million people in its public sector, had been hit by a severe foreign exchange shortage, which has left it struggling to pay for critical imports of fuel, food and medicine.
Many of the country’s 22 million people have to queue up at petrol stations for hours and have been enduring long power cuts for months.
The United Nations had earlier warned of a looming humanitarian crisis and it plans to provide 47 million dollars to help more than a million vulnerable people.
Currency depreciation, rising global commodity prices and a now-reversed policy to ban chemical fertilizer pushed food inflation to 57 per cent in April.
The government was in talks for a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund and a delegation was expected in Colombo on June 20.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after a phone call with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe late on Monday that the United States was also ready to help.
“During these economically and politically challenging times, the U.S. stands ready to work with Sri Lanka in close coordination with the International Monetary Fund and the international community,” Blinken said on Twitter.
Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka needed at least five billion dollars to meet essential imports for the rest of the year.
(Reuters)
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