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CPC unions threaten to cut off oil to CEB over dispute with Ravi K
View(s):Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) trade unions have threatened to cut off fuel supplies to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) over a dispute involving electoral politics and pipelines requiring urgent repairs.
Union leaders charged yesterday that Power and Energy Minister Ravi Karunanayake was insisting that the CPC must pay compensation to the squatters before it started any renovation work.on the pipelines.
They said they had notified the President, the Prime Minister, Petroleum Resources Development Minister Kabir Hashim, Deputy Minister Anoma Gamage, the ministry secretary and the CPC chairman.
Union leader Manu Jayawardena said the state petroleum sector unions had collectively decided to cut off fuel to the CEB from midnight today to express their displeasure at Minister Karunanayake’s stance.
He said the pipelines from the Colombo port to the Kollonawa storage tanks were more than 70 years old and urgent repairs needed to be carried out at least on four of the five pipelines to stop leakages.
The union leader said the people around the Bloemendhal area in Minister Karunanayake’s North Colombo electorate needed to be evacuated as there could be a major disaster due to an accidental fire.
Mr Jayawardena said that, in 2007, the CPC had cleared the area by removing 20 families when it carried out repairs to the pipelines. Each of these families was paid Rs. 4 million as compensation and the CPC cannot afford to pay compensation again, he said.
“However another 140 metres are remaining to be renovated, but Minister Karunanayake is asking the CPC to pay compensation to the people who have illegally settled in the area along the pipeline,” he said
The union leader said the CPC was only starting repairs and the pipeline laying project had not yet been started.