The Ceylon Electricity Board Trade Unions temporarily suspended their strike action following talks with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Earlier today The CEB Engineers’ Union and several trade unions linked to the energy sector engaged in an indefinite strike as of midnight over the proposed amendments to the CEB Act.
The CEB Engineers’ Union has vehemently opposed the amendments proposed by Minister of Power Kanchana Wijesekera.
The Union said efforts are underway to pass the Sri Lanka Electricity Amendment Bill, which was gazetted on the 29th of April, after the second reading debate today.
In a letter to the General Manager of the CEB, the Union demanded the withdrawal of the proposed amendments to the Sri Lanka Electricity Act with immediate effect, to stop handing over the country’s solar and wind resources to the Adani Group without following the competitive bidding process, to stop driving the CEB to privatisation in the guise of reforms, and to appoint a suitable professional with an unblemished character to the post of CEB Chairman without delay.
They claim the passage of this draft will provide an opportunity to award power generation projects outside of the competitive tender process.
They point out that this violates the principle of low-cost power generation which benefits the people.
They also claim they are preparing to purchase electricity from this project at a price higher than the purchase value of a unit of electricity in the current market.
The letter to the General Manager said that the country’s electricity supply will be severely affected by these transactions.
Meanwhile, power outages were reported in several areas across the country since 4am today.
Power disruptions were experienced in Colombo, Moratuwa, Boralesgamuwa, Gampaha, Kandy, Kegalle and certain other areas.
