News

Threat of power crisis looming large – engineer

Published

2 years ago

2021/12/25

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Senior officials in the CEB and Ministry of Power were trying to sabotage investigations into the countrywide power outage earlier this month, Senior Engineers Association Spokesman, Eng. Nandika Pathirage said.

Eng. Pathirage, himself a former President of the powerful CEB Engineers’ Union claimed those officials had even been attempting to discourage investigators from proceeding with the probe.

He said that Sri Lanka was on the verge of a power crisis. “We don’t build power plants. In a few months, we will have to purchase emergency power,” Pathirage said.

During the past few months, hydro power plants had been operating at full capacity due to heavy rains. The rains had now stopped, he said.

“The coming months will be dry. It is a good time to generate solar power. However, we have done nothing to expand our solar power infrastructure. In fact, the CEB has thwarted attempts by various governments to boost solar infrastructure,” he said.

Eng. Pathirage said there were enough experts in Sri Lanka who could build renewable energy infrastructure. If wind and solar power infrastructure was built up Sri Lanka could save a lot of foreign currency too, he said.

“There is no need to attract large foreign investors. We can manage with local expertise and we can save a lot of foreign exchange” he said.

The Secretary to the Ministry of Power was not immediately available for comment.

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Foreign News

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger dies aged 100

Published

2 hours ago

2023/11/30

Priyan

Henry Kissinger at the State Department's 230th anniversary celebrations in 2019

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died at the age 100.

He served as America’s top diplomat and national security adviser during the Nixon and Ford administrations.

In a statement, Kissinger Associates, a political consulting firm he founded, said the German-born former diplomat died at his home in Connecticut but did not give a cause of death.

During his decades long career, Mr Kissinger played a key, and sometimes controversial, role in US foreign and security policy.

Born in Germany in 1973, Kissinger first came to the US in 1938 when his family fled Nazi Germany. He became a US citizen in 1943 and went on to serve three years in the US Army and later in the Counter Intelligence Corps. After earning bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees, he taught international relations at Harvard.

In 1969, then-President Richard Nixon appointed him National Security Adviser, a position which gave him enormous influence over US foreign policy in two administrations.

(BBC)

News

Rupees 1,500 million allocated for ‘Greater Kandy Urban Development Program’ – State Minister for Provincial Councils and Local Government

Published

2 hours ago

2023/11/30

Priyan

State Minister for Provincial Council and Local Government Janaka Wakkambura participating in a Press Briefing held at the Presidential Media Centre (PMC) on Wednesday (29) under the theme ‘Collective Path to a Stable Country’, announced that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has allocated Rs. 1,500 million for the “Greater Kandy Urban Development Program” in this year’s budget and that part of the allocation would to be utilized to develop the approach roads to Kandy City.

He also announced that the President had allocated Rs. 1,000 million to develop tourism by enhancing facilities through the involvement of local government bodies.

News

DMT unable to print nearly one million driving licences for want of blank cards

Published

4 hours ago

2023/11/30

Sahan Weerasooriya

Racketeers thrive on illegal printing of DLs

By Shiran Ranasinghe

The Department of Motor Traffic was unable to print about 900,000 driving licences due for want of blank plastic cards, Commissioner General of the Department of Motor Traffic Nishantha Weerasinghe told The Island.

He said his Department was doing its best to solve the problem, which could be sorted out in six months or so.

A senior official on condition of anonymity said the Department now printed about 200 driving licences for those who were going abroad or engaged in essential services.

However, some racketeers were printing about 700 licences illegally, he said.

Rs 5,000 each was charged for issuing illegally printed licences, the official said.

Commenting on the allegations, the Commissioner General of the Department of Motor Traffic said he will investigate the matter if he receives a complaint officially.