Power Crisis: MP Aluthgamage says public at risk of spending New Year in the dark

If there is no rain by early April, there is every chance that Sri Lankans will be spending their Sinhala and Tamil New Year holidays in the dark, United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage warned in Parliament today.

By Sandun Jayawardana

Opening the Committee Stage debate on the Expenditure Head of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Business Development, Mr Aluthgamage revealed that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) had already embarked on a promotional campaign to celebrate its 50^th anniversary which will fall in November, this year. Hoardings to celebrate the anniversary are already being put up at all CEB offices country-wide, he remarked.

“The money spent on this promotional campaign is enough to build another power plant,” he quipped, stating that it was shameful that the Government was spending so much public funds to celebrate the CEB’s 50^th anniversary at a time when the country was experiencing four-hour daily power cuts.

Government inefficiency, along with rampant corruption carried out by certain officials of the CEB and Power and Energy Ministry have contributed to the current power crisis, he further alleged.

The MP charged that only two out of 50 generators of 1MW each that had been brought down as an emergency power purchase in December, last year, were currently working. “Forty-eight of the generators are not in working order. I state this with responsibility and have the documents to prove it,” he insisted.