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STF to be removed from expressway duties: Minister
BY AJITH SIRIWARDANA AND YOHAN PERERA
Parliament, Dec. 13 (Daily Mirror)- 13 (Daily MIrror))- A decision has been taken to remove the Special Task Force (STF) personnel from expressway duties as they are underutilized there, Public Security Minister Tiran Alles said today.
He told Parliament that the STF personnel were only used in cases of fire and accidents that occur on the expressways and that they had been used only on 164 occasions during a period of 330 days.
The Minister said some Rs. 260 million of state funds are used to maintain the 175 STF personnel attached to the expressways and added that these personnel would be assigned to combat the drug menace in the country.
"We have 2,300 vacancies in the STF. We need the STF for the purpose of combating the drug menace," he said.
The Minister said this while responding to a question by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, who asked whether there were plans to remove the STF personnel tasked with expressway duties.
The Minister said STF personnel were first used temporarily for expressway duties in 2011 as the quotation called from the fire brigade for expressway duties was far too high and that they continue to do so until today.
He said police will continue their duties at expressways adding that in most countries, fire and rescue operations are done by the fire brigade.
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