The government and the ministers are not there to tell the people their problems, but to find answers to the problems of the people, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna MP Vijitha Herath said yesterday (26).
MP Herath made this observation at a press briefing held at the JVP headquarters yesterday (26) morning.
Herath said the country is going through a serious energy crisis at the moment and the crisis seems to be the result of a conspiracy rather than an actual crisis.
“It has been stated that the power supply will not be disconnected until January 27. No one knows what will happen next. Despite the explanations given by the CEB, the people are in a state of uncertainty. Government ministers tell one story after another.
Earlier they said there was no oil to operate power plants. Ships are short of Dollars to unload oil. Minister Gammanpila says if he gets Dollars he will give oil. Minister Lokuge says if oil is given we will give electricity. Today there is a fuel crisis to run the Sapugaskanda power plant. There is also a coal crisis to run thermal power plants. It is said that the Kelanitissa power plant has oil only for three and a half days.”
Herath said “According to a Cabinet decision, dollars have been released to unload oil from ships. If that oil is used to run power plants, there will be no fuel for vehicles. The supply of oil to other factories is also at a crisis. The fuel in Kolonnawa is running out. An oil tanker will reach Sri Lanka on February 05 or 06. The crude oil ship will arrive on January 30th. These ships take five to six days to unload. That shows that no one knows what will happen in the coming few days.”
MP Herath also pointed out that the statements given by the CEB keeps altering day by day. “The CEB initially said that there would be a power cut for an hour to four hours. Then again they announced that there would be no power cut. On the other hand, the Public Utilities Commission said that there shall be no power cuts until the 27th. Say we find dollars to buy oil somehow, there is a serious problem of water shortage for hydropower generation.”
MP Herath also noted that there could also be planned conspiracies behind the energy crisis.
“The people of this country have that distrust and suspicion. How can we have sudden inflows of dollars? We have spent USD 374 million to import fruits and vegetables in the last 11 months of 2020. In the 11 months of 2021, USD 415 million has been spent on the same. There are dollars to import vegetables and fruits. They say there are no dollars to bring oil. It is clear that there is a big conspiracy here.”
MP Herath also pointed out that despite a report released by the Public Utilities Commission on March 31, 2016 none of the previous governments had a proper plan take precautions to meet the future electricity demand or to manage the predicted power crisis.
He noted that the said report clearly stated that the annual demand for electricity is increasing by 5.5% from that particular year.
MP Herath also noted that due to the current crisis, there is no suitable environment to run industries and carry out daily activities. “The government is now telling people to drink less water, eat less food, use less electricity, use less oil, use less gas, drink less medicine and use less dollars. Do we need a government for that?” he queried.
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