The Public Health Inspectors’ Union of Sri Lanka has said the 2027 Budget fails to address long-standing grievances affecting around 2,400 Public Health Inspectors, and has asked the authorities to correct the omission within the budget itself.
PHIs serving under the Department of Health and provincial administrations continue to work islandwide despite several operational difficulties, the union said in a statement reported by the Daily Mirror.
The comparison the union is making
The union’s central complaint is a comparison of workload against allowance.
Office allowances for other field officers were increased in this year’s budget — but those officers cover a single Grama Niladhari division. Public Health Inspectors are responsible for areas covering between 10 and 20 GN divisions, and are required to maintain field offices. No increase was proposed for them.
Their office allowances remain at Rs 1,500 a month for urban areas and Rs 750 for rural areas.
On the union’s own figures, a PHI covering the lower end of that range maintains an office across ten times the territory of an officer who has just received an increase, on an allowance of Rs 1,500 — or Rs 750 outside the towns.
Travel and motorcycles
The union also said travel allowances have not been revised, noting that Public Health Inspectors travel around 100 kilometres a day carrying out duties across their areas.
It further said the budget failed to introduce a programme to provide motorcycles to officers who are eligible to receive them but have not yet been given a vehicle.
Expressing what it described as deep dissatisfaction at the neglect of their services, the union urged the authorities to take immediate steps to address the issues within the 2027 Budget.
The statement was issued by C.S. Muthukuda, General Secretary of the Public Health Inspectors’ Union of Sri Lanka.
Context
Public Health Inspectors are the field arm of Sri Lanka’s preventive health system. They carry out dengue inspections and premises notices, food safety and sanitation enforcement, communicable disease surveillance and contact tracing, and water quality checks — work that has repeatedly featured in this archive during dengue control drives and food safety raids.
Not reported
The filing does not say which other field officers received the increase, or what their allowances were raised to — the comparison on which the union’s case rests is not quantified on the other side. It does not give the current travel allowance rate, the number of PHIs awaiting motorcycles, or the cost of the union’s requests.
It carries no response from the Ministry of Health, the Treasury or the Ministry of Finance, and does not say whether the union has sought talks or is contemplating any form of trade union action. It does not say when the statement was issued.
Single source. The Daily Mirror filed at 4.55 p.m. Colombo time on Saturday and was the only verified newsroom carrying this statement at the time of writing. NewsFirst’s rail carried no item on it. Ada Derana could not be checked — adaderana.lk has returned an HTTP 403 block to this desk for some 63 consecutive days.