Economy controlled by ‘criminals’
By W. Siri Ananda-2013-05-04 

The country's economy is being handled by four 'bureaucrats,' who are 'white-collar criminals', Minister of Technology and Research, Patali Champika Ranawaka, alleged yesterday.
Speaking to Ceylon Today, the minister charged, "These 'criminals' have no vision or proper knowledge to handle the country's economy. They are in their own world. The country should be rescued from these smart 'white-collar criminals.' Why should we allow them to decide on the electricity tariff? It should be done according to a systematic formula." He said the power and energy sector should be given maximum attention and be regarded as the number one priority.“Although infrastructure development such as road constructions is important, power and energy sector development is vital for the economy. Unless we take immediate actions to introduce Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) instead of fossil fuel and coal, the power sector will suffer. Also, the need of the hour is to expand and repair the oil refinery, if not, the country may face severe economic crisis in the near future,” he pointed out.

Minister Ranawaka said, “The root cause of the present electricity crisis is that we did not take any action to set up mini-hydro and coal power plants in the 1990s. After the completion of major Mahaweli projects, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) engineers suggested to build mini-hydro and coal power plants in Mawalla, Puttalam and several other suitable locations.

“They made suggestions for a long-term electricity development plan under an automated system plan in 1985. None of those projects were commissioned due to various reasons, including public protests.

“In 1990, to resolve the power crisis prevailing at that time, the government invited the private sector to set up thermal power plants, which use fuel for power generation. The electricity price hike was the negative result of the thermal power plants, which shot up the electricity unit price from Rs 8 to Rs 84.”

Therefore, he suggested, the country should go for LNG, which is cost-effective and environmentally healthy. “We need not have big LNG terminals. As I have suggested in one of my previous Cabinet Papers, a soaring terminal instead of a large-scale LNG terminal can be installed in Kerawalapitiya.

He also said, “The expansion work of the Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery, which is 40 years old, must be commenced soon and the Hydro Cracker Technology should be introduced to cut the cost of importing fuel and to produce fuel.

JHU threatens quit Govt. 2013-05-04  The government constituent party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), yesterday warned it would be compelled to quit the ruling coalition, if the government goes ahead with the Northern Provincial Council election, scheduled to take place in September. However, National Organizer of the JHU, Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe, expressed confidence the government would consider their concerns, before going ahead with the election. If the government insists on holding elections in the North, he said, the gazette notification announcing the polls should be issued after making certain changes to the Provincial Council Act. Warnasinghe said land and police powers that have been granted to the Provincial Councils should be reviewed. He also said the government is actively engaging in resettling the Sinhalese who had been forced out of the North by the Tamil Tigers. Leader of the National Freedom Front, Wimal Weerawansa, earlier wanted to quit the government, if the Northern Provincial Council elections are held under the existing Provincial Council Act.