Electricity for all by mid 2014

Sandasen Marasinghe

The government provided another 980 families in the remote areas of the Kolonna electorate in the Ratnapura District with electricity, in its bid to achieve its target of 100 percent electricification of the country by the middle of the next year.

Power and Energy Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi stated that these families were provided with electricity under 20 electricity line extension projects at a total cost of Rs 107 million.

The government is providing electricity to the remoter villagers as it maintains that the country could be developed by developing the village.

The Power and Energy Ministry is left with an arduous task to provide electricity to the deprived as most of these houses are located away from access to electricity.

The Power and Energy Ministry has to spend an enormously to provide electricity to these houses.

However, the CEB is charging less than Rs 500 monthly from a single house as the electricity bill, thus putting an extra burden to the government.

The minister said that the government took this move to provide electricity to all under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa who has a close rapport with the common people of the country. She said no UNP leader ever attempted such a humane deed.

The people in Kolonna never dreamt that they would get electricity so soon. Their electricity bills will be lesser than what they spend on kerosene oil to light up their homes.

These projects were commissioned before the dawn of Sinhala and Hindu New Year.