CEB employees from all parts of the island to join Wednesday’s protest

Employees of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) from all parts of the country will be drawn to Colombo for Wednesday’s (3) protest to demand the cancellation of the agreement to sell 40 per cent of shares of the Yugadanavi power plant in Kerawalapitiya to a US company.

The CEB engineers will be among those taking part in the protest campaign in Colombo.

Convenor of the CEB trade union alliance Ranjan Jayalal told a news conference today (1) that they will go ahead with the protest campaign,  but do not have plans to disrupt power supplies during the protest campaign.

However, CEB sources said that it was inevitable that repairs on power breakdowns would be delayed on Wednesday as most employees are planning to take part in the protest campaign. 

He said that the objective of the protest was to get the government to stop the agreement with New Fortress Energy Inc over the sale of 40 per cent of shares of the Yugadanavi liquefied natural gas (LNG) Power Plant in Kerawalapitiya.

The Wednesday's protest is due to be supported by nearly 30 unions including those in the petroleum, port and transport sector among others.

The unions are planning to hand over the petition to the government on Wednesday.

The unions have planned to have a protest thereafter, but dates have not been announced so far.

However, in fear of a blackout there were long queues of people waiting to buy kerosene oil.