In the wake of fears of a possible sabotage which led to the over 7 hour long nationwide blackout on Sunday, all installations connected to the national grid of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has been given special protection by the Army, Navy and Airforce from 6.00 am today.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Defence, all installations, including power stations and substations will come under the special security plan.
On Monday, President Maithripala Sirisena ordered the Army to provide security across all CEB installations, after a CEB transformer at Biyagama burst, which resulted in the country wide power failure.
Separate investigations including one by the Criminal Investigations Department are currently underway to verify if Sunday’s explosion was an act of sabotage.
ballah / March 16, 2016
this weak, inefficient, worthless yamapalane regime should be chased away. even the lamp posts will be guarded under this yamapalane….i’ll not be surprised if that happens …
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Hamlet / March 17, 2016
[Edited out]
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anil / March 21, 2016
Ballah,
Are you the one who is behind all these explosions to put the Govt. in a spot and make it look that it is vulnerable. I am sure you have the rest of the lamp posts covered and marked your territory.
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Spark / March 16, 2016
Our politicians are famous for twisting a situation where they are to be blamed for inaction. The ethnic issue was twisted, manipulated for all the repeated failures made by the leaders of this country. Many lives lost, finally we have MaRa taking credit for winning the war after killing many thousands of his own citizens. No one questions that all this was due to the repeated failures of our leaders to make reforms recognizing the diversity of this countries citizens. Today in the same way, we see armed forces being deployed to smoke screen the failures of the Electricity Board and relevant Ministers in charge. We are informed that a HV high capacity transformer blasted, probably due to sabotage. The CEB also informs that the blast was not due to sabotage. A HV Transformer does not blast simply within hours or days, unless it is a dead short in the cabling which is highly unlikely. Transformers blast after gradually reaching high temperatures in weeks or months due to oil leaks or insulation failure or similar issues over a period. If the CEB Engineers had been performing their general maintenance to at least 50% of their time, then the fault of this transformer would have been discovered well before it blasted. The Right To Information act is being dissolved or watered down to a regulation where it will be an absolutely useless bill that will not hold our legislatures and governments servants accountable. It is similar to the preference of the government to protect the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka against the dastardly and cowardly crimes committed in the north. This is the traditional culture of Sri Lanka and we will remain the same like we did for the past 2500 years, while countries around us stride firmly towards much higher exemplary standards of life and living.
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Prabudda Rassagala / March 16, 2016
Good point”Spark”. Why and How did the transformer blast? It does not take a century to find that out? The authorities know the answer and it is not given out and our so called right to information is indeed the right to be ignorant.
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Lanka Watch / March 17, 2016
Spark – A well defined comment.The current govt. has matched the deeds
of the previous govt. in corruption and nepotism within a short period of one year in power and only political thuggery is left to be seen. They now want to continue governing on ‘sympathy’ of the people, crying
foul ,screaming that the opposition is trying to topple their “clean” Govt. by unlawful means by performing acts of sabotage, not realising that people are not gullible anymore. They have exhausted all other means of pleasing the voters, so soon.
One wonders whether the Armed forces and the Police work for the
opposition or the Govt. in power. Why can’t the govt. bring back the armed forces, who are kept as a ‘show case’ and idling in the N/E and deploy them at strategic places like electricity installations, dams, railway lines and stations , schools and stadiums and ensure protection of the govt. property and the people, all over the country
on a routine basis , if they feel the saboteurs are more powerful than the Govt.in power.
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Sunil / March 16, 2016
It is clear that MR and crooks are trying to sabotage and topple the government to prevent themselves being held accountable for their crimes.
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Sisira Weragoda / March 17, 2016
Of course MR is fully responsible for the failure at Biyagama Substation.
What has failed is MR OLTC (Maschinenfabrick Reinhaansen) Onload Tapchanger which is an integral part (Only passive part inside the T/F, a High capacity current switch)
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KA Sumanasekera / March 17, 2016
Non Yahapalana suckers among our inhabitants are the great majority of the Sinhala Buddhist village people.
It is true they have been hard hit by 16 Months of Yahapalanaya.
Bread is up , Rice is up, Parippu is up, Tinned Mackeral is up together with Red Label, Smoked Salmon, Bacon Bones and Pringles all because the Yahapalana VAT is up. .
I know there are unbelievable power cuts which never happened even during Mr Pirahaparan’s rule under Solheim.
But then our Villae folk don’t have A/Cs or Fridges to winge about the arms pits getting too sweaty after a Brazilian or the Beer getting warm and the Bacon going off in the Cooler.
So who are the enemies of this Yahaplana state, to guard the Grid with the three Forces not just one.
Our Army has the largest number of Dalits or Dalit kids.Fair enough..
But Dalits don’t have attack subs and Airforce unlike Mr Pirahaparan.
Has Batalanada PM got on to something which is more muscles than Mr Pirahaparan’s Tiger Liberation Forces?..
But then all our Military Intelligence Dudes who knew about Pira and his mates, are now in Yahapalana lock up … Right.
So where did Batalnda get his Intelligence?.
Who do you reckon will attempt to blow up Noroncholi, Kotmale or Lashapana?…
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takethat / March 17, 2016
Who do you reckon will attempt to blow up Noroncholi, Kotmale or Lashapana?… “”
John Kerry like Syria….business as usual for establishment.
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Native Vedda / March 17, 2016
KASmaalam KA Sumanasekera
Come on.
Please give us a break from Beer, Red Label, Smoked Salmon, Bacon Bones, Pringles, Batalanada, ……….
What have Dalits got to do with Beer, Red Label, Smoked Salmon, Bacon Bones, Pringles, Batalanada, ……….?
Are you a mad hypocrite?
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KA Sumanasekera / March 17, 2016
Dear Native,
Our Dalits would love to have Smoked salmon on Sour Dough Bread , with Avacado and Cream cheese with a dollop of hot Chilli sauce on top..
Like your Elite mates do with their Red Label while working out the Yahapalan CGT for 2016 / 2017..
Your new buddy SB says no one can dislodge them (him & his new buddies Batalanda Ranil and Bodhi Sira I guess ) for the next five years.
But our Dalits can’t now afford even Parippu, or Sambar , or even Red Onions, grown by Naduans with 100 % natural organic manure..
Because your mate Batalanda Ranil has slapped his Yahapalana boosted VAT on everything.
Wonder whether he has exempted Punnakku to please the Yahapalana suckers..
..
I am not talking about the Elite , Anglicans , Vellalas or the Wahabis here.
Because i don’t like to be called a racist all the time.
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CHANAKYAN / March 17, 2016
In recent times PM, Ranil stated quite imperiously and very correctly that only 2 more coal fired plants already finalized will be implemented. The tone sent the message unequivocally that policy is the prerogative of the government. What is under the province of “CEB ENGINEERS” should be clearly understood. No crossing of lanes was explicitly stated.
Subsequent to the statement are some of the outages. Are they really a consequence? is what the people wonder. If it be so established let the din of the boots sound louder to reach the sabotage minded.
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Barathan / March 17, 2016
PM Warns CEB Saboteurs. Latest News Item.
No more hushed suggestions, but open accusation. What next? Stringent action from a strong minded government is people’s expectation.
Radio Ceylon workers embarked on sabotage in 1962 and hundreds were arrested. No attempt ever again. Yet within weeks a coup attempt followed. Uncompromising arrests ended the conspiracy. Weak governance brought about an insurgency in 1971. The power of the state was asserted when instinct of self preservation demanded it.
Today’s governance is displaying its utmost weakness. CEB hordes and GMOA have challenged the government with the state never showing its authority. Failing to act is not magnanimity but sheer misgovernance.
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Ambedkar from heaven / March 17, 2016
The best solution for almost all the problems SL has been facing since 2010,
is to make MaRa become a Statesman MONK and to teach Dharma to the younger generation. For that make him gracefully retire from politics as he is already 70 years old.
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Amen / March 17, 2016
Time to exterminate stray dogs who keep barking at the moon bahu bahuuuuuuuu. Some one please call the CMC dog catcher and get rid of this parasite.
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Maestro / March 17, 2016
Even after any type of water tight security is in position, there is no such guarantee that future power failures will not happen again. Any such that do occur in similar types of HV Transformer meltdowns is a telling botch on the part of the CEB Maintenance crew in not carrying out regular maintenance and load balancing. The big question that still remains, can this situation be avoided without a major upgrade to monitor the sub-station performances remotely and taking timely preventive measures? Actually we need major overhaul to our entire system, to be in line with the world’s best in supply of nuclear energy. Hydro and coal has had its day.
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scrolls / March 17, 2016
Poor nations want everything and that too with the begging bowl- like
rice from the moon.
Nationalist want the village back to live on black magic.
Where is this tug O war heading?
another Hindian state economically purchased with dollar swaps?
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Adrian / March 19, 2016
What is the root cause for the problem? Political appointments…
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