storing of timber or firewood, keeping an establishment for servicing motor vehicles, storing sheet rubber, crepe rubber or scrap rubber brought under dangerous or offensive trades. When you take into consideration that there are one or two estates within this town council area you will see the iniquity of these bylaws. Take the case of the by-law relating to the keeping of an establishment for the servicing of motor bicycles and push bicycles. I do hope that the Hon. Minister will draw the attention of the town council to this matter. I hope he will withdraw this by-law for the time being and ask the town council to modify it and not classify the trades I mentioned as offensive or dangerous.

The Hon. Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara: I shall bring to the notice of the town council the observations that have been made. But I just wish now to state that these by-laws are really general so far as most of these bodies are concerned. All these by-laws exist. As the repairing of motor cycles has been mentioned-I am not an expert in this business-I believe garages use the oxyacetylene flame for vulcanizing and they also create a lot of noise in the testing of vehicles. So this really comes under a dangerous or offensive trade.

Mr. B. H. Aluwihare (Matale): Why do you not include wireless sets?

Question put, and agreed to.
Resolved:

"That the By-law relating to Water Service made by the Town Council, Rakwana, approved by the Minister of Local Government, and published in the Government Gazette No. 10,469 of November 14, 1952, which was presented on March 27, 1953, be not disallowed."[Hon. Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara.]

Resolved:

"That the By-laws relating to conservancy made by the Town Council, Rattota, approved by the Minister of Local Government, and published in the Government Gazette No. 10,411 of June 6, 1952, which were presented on March 27, 1953, be not disallowed."[Hon. Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara.]

Vote No. 2-Cost of maintenance of roads, bridges, waterways, watercraft, aerodromes, Government and rented buildings and other public works including cost of General Charges Government Factory, preliminary investigations, transport and incidental and special services and grants-in-aid to the Municipal Council, Colombo, and for estate roads .. 10 (Token Vote)" This Supplementary Estimate is for the payment of wages and overtime to certain workers in the Government Factory. There was a mistake made in calculating the overtime of workers and this was brought to my notice last year. The calculations were made according to a Treasury circular but there appears to have been some misunderstanding about it. It took some time to calculate the amount because it went back as far as 1946.

It is a credit to our Welfare Department that it was able to detect this mistake. The amount required is over a lakh of rupees, but fresh money is not necessary because there are savings. These workers will be paid before this month is out.

Mr. D. B. R. Gunawardena (Kotte): I am not opposing this Vote, but I wish to draw the attention of the Hon. Minister to a certain category of workers who are under the P. W. D. at the moment and who are not paid correct wages according to regulations. It has only recently been brought to the notice of the Hon. Minister that overtime has not been paid to certain workers in accordance with certain regulations. Similarly, there is the instance of 417 workers at the Ratmalana Aerodrome who are treated as agricultural field workers but not paid the rates of wages normally paid to agricultural field workers. They are paid the rates of pay laid down for workers coming under the engineering category. In 1931 they were treated as relief workers under the relief scheme. They continued to be treated as such until 1942.

Mr. Speaker: The hon. Member might be brief because his observations are not relevant to the issue. The Motion deals with Government Factory workers.

Mr. D. B. R. Gunawardena: The Minister has discovered that there has been misinterpretation of regulations in regard to the payment of overtime to the Factory hands, and I am bringing to his notice the fact that there is similar misinterpretation in regard to payment of workers who were employed under relief schemes and were brought under the P. W. D. somewhere in 1942. The then Minister of Labour (Hon. Mr. G. C. S. Corea) stated that these

workers will be taken into the P. W. D. and will be classified more or less as P. W. D. workers. After they had worked for ten years, from 1942 to 1952, a circular was issued that they will not be treated as P. W. D. workers.

Many of these workers are skilled hands and they are being underpaid. Some of them have worked for the P. W. D. for 10, 12 and even 13 years but they are still denied their rightful wages. As I said earlier, they come under the category of agricultural field workers but at the moment they are paid increments in accordance with the regulations prevailing for workers under the engineering category.

When one of these workers has to give up his job or when he retires the gratuity that he gets is something like Rs. 365 although he may have worked for 20 years while a man in another category who works 5 years and retires gets a gratuity of Rs. 150.

I would ask the Hon. Minister to

go into this particular matter in regard to the aerodrome workmen because they are doing very useful service, especially the workers at Ratmalana. When more aerodromes are being established and more runways are being constructed, should pay more attention to these workers.

we

Mr. Speaker: The hon. Member is now out of Order.

Mr. D. B. R. Gunawardena : I would ask the Minister to specially look into that aspect of the matter regarding wages, pension rights and the payment of enhanced gratuities to these workers.

3.14 P.M.

Dr. Perera There is another aspect to which I want to draw the attention of the Hon. Minister. There appears to be a new practice adopted by the Treasury apparently due to the existing financial stringency. They are now raking up old regulations and surcharging workers saying that they had been paid excess wages

in the past. In this way they are deducting fairly substantial sums of money from the workers.

The Hon. Sir J. Kotelawala: I want to pay the workers more and not to deduct.

Dr. Perera: Quite right. I am glad he is paying the workers who have been underpaid. However I wish to place this other aspect also before the House and ask him to consider that aspect too. Due to faults in calculations by officers or due to Treasury officers laying down rules and regulations which had been wrongly interpreted workers should not be mulcted. They are now suddenly asked to pay back Rs. 35 and Rs. 40 in certain cases because they are supposed to have received excess wages a few years back. Deductions are regularly made on this account, and I do not think that is fair. If some officer has made a mistake or some Government department has laid down a wrong rule, then the officer responsible should be punished. Please do not punish the workers for no fault of theirs.

3.16 P.M.

Mr. Suntharalingam: The Hon. Minister spoke of misinterpretation. I am afraid this misinterpretation is going a bit too far. They interpret things in one way one day and in another way the next day. Can the Minister see that whatever regulation is formulated or whatever circular is sent out, it is not open to misinterpretation? In other words, will the Minister take responsibility to ensure that circulars sent out and regulations framed are in suitable language to avoid any possibility of misunderstanding or misinterpretation?

3.17 P.M.

The Hon. Sir J. Kotelawala: The type of officer who does this sort of thing is a Staff Officer belonging to the same class in which the hon. Member for Vavuniya was when he I was in the Civil Service.

Mr. Suntharalingam: He never misinterpreted.

The Hon. Sir J. Kotelawala: We cannot interpret his language here sometimes.

Mr. Suntharalingam: That is the fault of the head.

Mr. Speaker: Order!

The Hon. Sir J. Kotelawala: So you can just imagine how things happen.

The argument of the hon. Member for Ruwanwella (Dr. Perera) is that when we have to pay we must pay, but when we have made a mistake and overpaid we should not make recovery.

Dr. Perera: It is not the fault of the worker.

The Hon. Sir J. Kotelawala: Whatever it is we are concerned with Government money, Ceylon money, workers' money. If a mistake has been made and we have overpaid we should recover that money, or if we have underpaid we should make good that under-payment. It is not a question of "heads I win, tails you lose". This is our money.

As regards the question asked by the hon. Member for Kotte (Mr. D. B. R. Gunawardena) I might say that the story he related about the Ratmalana workers is somewhat correct but the facts are not really as stated by him. However, the matter is being looked into and he can help the workers by keeping away from them so that they may get their just dues in the correct manner.

Question put, and agreed to.

SUPPLEMENTARY SUPPLY:
KELANIYA BRIDGE

3.19 P.M.

The Hon. Sir J. Kotelawala: I move,

"That a supplementary sum not exceeding Rupees Ten (Rs. 10) (Token Vote) be payable by way of advance out of the Consolidated Fund for the service

This is for the construction of the new bridge across the Kelani river. The facts are these. World-wide tenders were called for in May, 1952, for the construction of a new bridge 60 feet wide and 900 feet long, with two carriage ways and a 10 foot wide footpath. Tenders closed in May, 1952. Fourteen firms tendered.

These tenders have now been examined and the Director of Public Works has recommended the acceptance of the tender for Rs. 5,500,000 which is the lowest one. There were altogether 14 tenders, and, as I explained, the lowest was accepted. The total cost of building this bridge will be in the neighbourhood of Rs. 10,000,000. The new bridge also provides for a 60 feet carriage way and two footways. These will have to be built before the bridge is usable.

It is anticipated that the bridge will be completed in about three and a half years. Money is not required this year except for a sum of Rs. 600,000, and the permission of the House is essential for this money so that we may enter into a contract. The highest tender received was for Rs. 12,000,000 and the lowest was for Rs. 5,500,000. The bridge will be of reinforced concrete. I believe one of the newspapers had a picture of the proposed bridge. So, hon. Members would have seen what it would look like. It would not only be strong and cheap but also pretty. I move that the Token Vote be accepted.

Question proposed.

Mr. Wilmot A. Perera: May I ask the Hon. Minister whether he could give us an indication of the savings?

What are the savings he hopes to make from the other sub-heads from which he proposes utilizing this money?

The Hon. Sir J. Kotelawala: This is not a question of savings. The year ends in September, so, to the end of September there will be no money at all spent except for preliminaries such as payment of consulting engineers' fees and things like that. The amount that will be involved is Rs. 600,000. There is no question of saving from items; there is no under-expenditure. Hon. Members know that in any Budgetfrom the Budgets I have known for the past 22 years—

Dr. Perera: Wrong Budgets!

a sum of Rs. 4,607,950 has been spent. This special Vote is to make a further grant of Rs. 2,500,000. The Rules under which these loans are granted are in the main subject to the following rates of interest:

On the first Rs. 10,000 3 per cent.
On the second Rs. 10,000 4 per cent.
On the third Rs. 10,000 5 per cent.
On the fourth Rs. 10,000 6 per cent.

It works out like this. If you have on the first Rs. 10,000 3 per cent. and on the second Rs. 10,000 4 per cent., that works out at an average of 31 per cent. Then, taking in the third instalment of Rs. 10,000, the average works out at 4 per cent. And, if you take it up to the next Rs. 10,000 it works out to 4 also per cent. It has been decided that, until the financial position improves, no loan exceeding Rs. 40,000 per housing unit should be granted by the Board. The idea is not to encourage people to put up palatial buildings out of those funds. It is in the main intended for the building of moderately sized houses. If there is any other information which hon. Members require I shall supply that information. But, perhaps, it might be of advantage to hon. Members to know what has been

spent already. Up to the end of March this year, the Board had sanctioned loans for 43 schemes covering 162 houses and 33 single houses. The total loans sanctioned for these 195 houses amount to Rs. 4,607,950.

of money will be required for this purpose, but the Cabinet considered the whole matter and allowed the sum of Rs. 2,500,000 to enable us to carry on until the end of the financial year after which the Cabinet will reconsider the situation and arrive at a decision. So, there is no reason to oppose this application. There are numerous applications awaiting consideration by the Board and they will do their utmost to dispose of as many of them as possible by the end of the year.

Question proposed.

3.29 P.M.

Mr. Aluwihare: Sir, the Hon. Minister has told us that for the purpose of housing loans he was restricted to this allowance by the Cabinet.

The Hon. Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara: Only up to the end of the financial year.

Mr. Aluwihare: For this year. In these circumstances, I submit that in granting loans the Hon. Minister should consider the urgency of the loans. On his own statement the loans so far granted had been for houses to cost Rs. 24,000 each. As most of us know, if we want to improve the living conditions of people, the most urgent matter in hand is not to help people to build Rs. 24,000 houses but to help poorer people to improve their housing conditions. In the village areas it is a curious thing that, whilst in the colonies you build houses covered with tiles, the normal village house is yet built of wattle. and daub and the roof with cadjan. or straw, and particularly houses roofed with straw depend so much on the harvests that every time there is a drought and the crop fails they cannot be re-thatched; and it means that with the first monsoon all the inmates are liable to get influenza or pneumonia or some disease of that kind. Therefore, my submission is that loans be restricted-if the amount at your disposal is restricted -to loans for the improvement of village housing conditions and the less efficient type of houses in the towns. Now that is a purpose which this Loan Fund has never served