Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said instructions have been given to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) management to suspend and take appropriate disciplinary action against any employee that disrupts the services or acts in violation of the guidelines issued by the CEB management.
Minister Wijesekera in a letter to the CEB Chairman has instructed to take disciplinary action under the existing legal provisions including steps to consider suspending the services of the employees who participated in the agitation activities and obstructed the CEB services to the public.
It is also stated in the letter that due to the strike of some employees on January 3,4,5, this year, public complaints have been received to the Ministry regarding closing the windows and disrupting the work of offices providing public services of the CEB.
It is further stated in the letter that all the services related to electricity supply had been declared as essential services through a special Gazette and the authority of the CEB canceled the leave of all the employees from January 2 onwards and informed them in writing that those services were essential services.
The Minister also said the proposed reforms of CEB will be presented to Parliament with amendments for approval. The CEB will also submit the electricity tariff reduction proposal to Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) next week.
“The members and officials of the CEB reforms committee and reforms secretariat met at the Power and Energy Ministry. Amendments and proposals received from stakeholders and political parties for the new Electricity Bill was discussed. It was decided to incorporate some of the amendments with the assistance of the legal draftsman’s office, correct the Sinhala version inconsistencies and present to the Parliament for approval. The time frame for presenting the Bill in Parliament and implementing the reforms was also discussed and finalised,” the Minister tweeted.
