Electricity outages irk Mannar residents

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2005, 11:22 GMT]
Frequent outages of electricity supply in Mannar and its suburbs are hurting residents and economic activity in Mannar, and industrialists are complaining that frequent breakdown and fluctuation in the supply are damaging industrial machinery, Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, Wanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian said in a memorandum sent to the Minister of Power and Energy, Mr Susil Premajayantha.

In several places in the Mannar district electric posts are found to be in the state of collapse due to poor maintenance and the authorities concerned have failed to take steps to repair or replace them, Mr.Adaikalanathan said in his letter.

Mr.Adaikalanathan has brought to the notice of the Minister that a breakdown in electricity supply to Mannar district is reported almost every few hours causing immense hardship for State and private sector banks to run their service. Farmers who use electric motor pumps are in a dilemma to hire petrol driven water pumps for irrigation.

People of Mannar district are of the view that Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is showing a lethargic attitude in providing a better service to them, he added.

"I request you to send a team of CEB engineers immediately to Mannar to inspect the whole system of electricity supply to the district and take necessary steps to restore the supply to fulfill the needs of the people without any delay," said Mr.Adaikalanathan in his letter to the Minister.