Reservoir gates opened during CEBEU strike

The Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka, Janaka Rathnayake said that a written complaint has been received from the Irrigation Department about the engineers belonging to the CEB Engineers union having taken measures to halt hydro power generation.

Accordingly, the engineers belonging to the CEBEU had taken steps to halt hydro power generation from the Ranidenigala, Rantambe and Senanayake Samudraya reservoirs at around 2 AM last night, and no action was taken until 8-9 AM to restore them.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Power and Energy too stated at the Parliament that an emergency arose due to reported sabotage of the electricity supply, after the engineers union took action to open sluice gates of the above reservoirs.

The Minister said that action is being taken with regard to this issue, as the CEBEU engineers planned to release the accumulated water at the time to bring the country to a place where only diesel power plants are used to generate electricity.

Alleging that the union members were attempting to make the country a fully-fuel dependent one, the Minister said that such terrorist action that could cripple Sri Lanka, cannot be allowed.

He pointed out that the system control received information that various people were deliberately attempting to open the sluice gates by influencing others.

"If the officials of this mafia are taking such action, all members of the Parliament should unite and raise their voices in this regard," the Minister said.

The PUCSL Chairman also added that a large amount of water required for farms of hundreds of thousands of farmers has been wasted as well.