50% OF STREET LAMPS TO BE SWITCHED OFF
Measures will be taken to switch off 50 per cent of all street lamps across the country starting from August 01, the Ministry of Power and Energy said today.
The decision was taken following a special discussion held today (31) between Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka, Secretary to Local Government Ministry and representatives of LG bodies.
Over 800,000 street lamps have been placed across the island while less than half of them have been authorized by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) or the Lanka Electricity Company (LECO), says the Minister.
The cost for keeping one street lamp lit in the night has drastically increased to over Rs. 150 as of recently due to the limited hydro-power generation, the Power and Energy Ministry said.
At the end of the year the amount that should be charged for the electricity used to power street lamps is between Rs. 1,200 -1,400 million, it said.
Taking these facts into consideration Minister Ranawaka requested the representatives of LG bodies to switch off every other street lamp in their respective areas starting from tomorrow (August 01), thereby switching off 50 percent of the street lamps in the island.
Courtesy: Ada Derana
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We do not have street lamps in every nook and corner in the country. This is only a small island and our cities are not adequately illuminated in comparison with many South East Asian countries. When you arrive in Sri Lanka from Bangkok at night you see how gloomy our airport area, Colombo capital and the suburbs. You really feel the difference. With half the street lamps be swithched off the streets, it will add only to the gloomy outlook but good for the criminals.
The bottom line is the government is trying many ways to recover the losses made by many ministries, coorporations due to mis-management by levying all the burdens on the public. So much has been discussed, so much has been talked but nothing has been done, yet. Oh! miracle of Asia.
The burdens put on the public span across all sectors of society. Electricity happens to be just one area. if one examines the income and expenditure sheet of Sri Lanka, one would see the huge imbalance in spending on establishing and maintaining frameworks that benefit a few privileged
(ie A large cabinet of ministers, their massive entourages, housing for these ministers, transport arrangements, security arrangements, next of kin maintenance, provincial councils and their ministerial entourages with similar cost structures and facilities like private luxury hospitals that cost twenty or thirty thousand rupees to stay in overnight, so-called luxury shopping malls, luxury vehicles etc where the list goes on seemingly endlessly)
The result of this kind of extravagance is that the 99.99% of the population have to suffer deteriorating health care systems, polluting and unsafe three-wheeled transport, overcrowded buses and trains, understaffed schools etc.
Again the list is seemingly endless.Incompetent ministers and secretaries, officials etc are maintained despite glaring deficiencies in their management abilities. All these and more result in the public having to suffer the consequences, where those responsible almost always live free and unaccountable.
It is hard to imagine that Sri Lanka will be able to come on par with many other Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea,or any of the “Asian Tigers” in any aspect of social life.