95 pc of A'pura population to get power by 2010

Nimal Wijesinghe Anuradhapura Additional district group correspondent

Plans are underway to provide electricity to 95 per cent of the population in Anuradhapura by 2010, Indigenous Medicine Minister Tissa Karalliyedde said.

Karalliyedde was addressing a meeting in Kodiyabendawewa in Medawachchiya electorate after commissioning the Kodiyabendawewa rural electrification scheme, at a cost of Rs. 5.2 million.

Twenty four rural electrification schemes which have yet to be completed would be commissioned soon, under the patronage of the President's Gama Neguma concept, he said.

Nation Building and Estate Infrastructural Development Minister S.M. Chandrasena said the Medawachchiya electorate has been listed under the next year's Gama Neguma development plan for the implementation of a massive power supply programme.

He appealed to the villagers to use electricity for small industries, light engineering ventures, and in rice flour manufacturing and rice processing without confining it to house illumination, for empowerment of their livelihood.