As a result, the UDA-affiliate security firm is unable to give a job guarantee to its more than 1,200 employees, leaving alone granting the salary increment due to them.

A spokesman for LRDC alleged the Water Board had taken the decision in view of a government notification with regard to an increase in the salaries of the security guards.

Subject minister Rauff Hakeem has agreed to continue with its services, but a mafia of officials is preventing the extension of the service by the security firm, and is planning to handover the task to a private security firm.

According to sources in the institution, the person behind this plan is its working director and security superintendent Sumith Samarasekara.