Instead of providing a solution to unemployment, government ministers are preparing to ban three-wheeler driving jobs for those under forty years of age without paying attention to any survey or statistical data, said Lahiru Weerasekara, Secretary of the Youth for Change Organization. He also emphasized that imposing an age limit to join as three-wheeler drivers is a violation of fundamental rights.
He also stated that the government, which believes that the solution to everything is to increase the age, is preparing to increase the age to become a three-wheeler driver to forty years, just as it is preparing to extend the retirement age of judges by bringing the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.
He also said that there are fourteen thousand hospital assistant vacancies but the government is not taking steps to fill them, and is trying to impose restrictions on three-wheeler drivers. He also said that the government believes that everything will be solved when three-wheelers are eliminated.
Lahiru Weerasekara said that although the government's policy statement says that a job bank will be established to eliminate unemployment, such a bank has not been established. Having said this, he questioned what the government's plan is to provide jobs to three-wheeler drivers by imposing an age limit on three-wheeler drivers.
Lahiru Weerasekara further commented as follows.
“The government’s attitude towards the youth is clear from the stories that Deputy Minister Nalin Hewage has told about three-wheelers. The Deputy Minister thinks that the youth will take a three-wheeler and hit the road as soon as they come out of school. The Deputy Minister says that there are 1.1 million three-wheelers. The 1.1 million three-wheelers are three-wheelers registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles. There are no statistics that show that there are so many young people in this age group who are three-wheeler drivers. People who are doing jobs that are considered good in society install an app on their way home and earn some money by hiring someone from their vehicle, bicycle or three-wheeler. They earn money by transporting food in the middle of the night.
A large number of young people who are engaged in three-wheeler jobs and provide services through the app are demanding that this app be regulated. The three-wheeler associations have been demanding for some time They are asking for it. But the government has not implemented any program for them.
The things the Deputy Minister says cannot be made a reality on the ground. Without creating a productive economy, these people are saying that we should abandon the three-wheeler and choose another one. What program does the government have to create jobs? Without implementing them, the Deputy Minister is trying to impose an age limit for three-wheelers.
The government, which does not talk about the loss of professional rights of working youth, talks about those who ride three-wheelers. The government, which allows employers to loot the money in the Employees' Trust Fund and Employees' Provident Fund of the working people, wants the youth to get off the three-wheeler. These things will only increase the number of unemployed youth.”