Conspiracy surrounds failure to irrigate rice fields in the south

COLOMBO (News 1st); Farming communities who cultivated their farmlands based on advice provided to them, disregarding weather forecasts are now facing a serious crisis. 

Why did authorities provide such advice?

Was this done deliberately with an ulterior motive?

Were the claims made about possible power outages in the Southern Province if water is released for farmlands, aimed at intimidating the public?    

Daily power outages experienced islandwide since February last year were resolved overnight, owing to the government's decision to hike the price of electricity by 66%. 

While the Ceylon Electricity Board had subsequently proposed a 3% reduction in the new electricity rates, they were reduced by 15% from the 1st of last month, following intervention from the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka. 

The PUCSL successfully managed to clear Billions of Rupees from the estimated cost for the final 6 months of the year, that the CEB had compiled using inaccurate data. 

The CEB had not forecast an emergency power purchasing requirement in the cost estimate it published. 

When analysing the CEB's decisions in the past, the case for emergency power purchasing is predicted to be supported, this time under the guise of providing an uninterrupted supply of electricity to the Southern Province. 

Apart from the Samanala Wewa Reservoir, The CEB's ability to generate power for the Southern Province, lies with two infamous private thermal power plants located in Matara and Embilitpitiya. 

This alarming fact only goes to show how the power mafia has pervaded Sri Lanka's energy sector. The subject minister himself once conceded in Parliament that this mafia has spread its influence within the Parliament. 

Minister Roshan Ranasinghe,who proclaims he represents farming communities in the country, seemed to place equal importance on the need for emergency power purchases urgently, to that of providing water to farming communities. This was evident during a media briefing today. 

There is no necessity to make emergency power purchases on the premise that the power generation capacity of the Samanala Wewa Hydro Power Plant is insufficient to provide an uninterrupted power supply to the Southern Province. 

That is because, Sri Lanka's daily power requirement has reduced by around 10 GWh. 

Should Sri Lanka continue to suffer from the destructive effects of the power mafia, while the ability to supply power from the the North to the South through a transmission system worth over 4 Billion Rupees remains concealed from the public?