President Maithripala Sirisena today morning ordered the Army to provide protection across all electricity installations including transformers of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) amidst increasing fears of possible sabotage since Sunday’s island-wide blackout for over 7 hours.
The Presidential Directive came after a CEB transformer at Biyagama burst which resulted in the nationwide blackout. A team has been dispatched to investigate the cause of the explosion at the transformer.
Investigations will reveal if the explosion was an act of sabotage or otherwise, a spokesman from the CEB said.
Meanwhile, certain parts of the country continued to experience more interruptions today due to a breakdown at the Norochcholai coal power plant. According to the CEB the interruptions will continue until the issue is sorted at the coal plant.
Meanwhile, Power Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya has rejected the resignation of CEB Chairman Anura Wijayapala, who announced yesterday that he would take responsibility and step down following three blackouts in the country in a span of just several months, with two occurring over the past month alone. ( By Munza Mushtaq © Colombo Telegraph )
ballah / March 14, 2016
LOL…..wonder if Army can catch power when the it goes off. Appa sira, get a life. get back to polonnaruwa [Edited out]
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Banjiappu / March 14, 2016
Ballahs would continue their job – for how long ?
Wait and see, last night having heard the way Dr. Harsha Silva explained it (but truth) the manner Rajakashe men looted this nation – the nation will have to put them jail for the rest of their lives.
As CBK being the first to name them -unethical unnmoral born rascals. Deserve only jail for all crime done for all folks not only tamils
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ballah / March 14, 2016
banjiappu, do you still believe what harsha silva tells you? bugger is very good at telling yahapalana lies. however, he recently solved most wanted issue in SL by making a mountain out of a mole in independence square.
you must be yet another yahapalana voter who may have voted to eat cheaply. now you don’t have to pay for electricity and water too…change must be good for you
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Banjiappu / March 14, 2016
today is no late for you guys.
Learn to see it right.
Then only our future generations could live better than we the ones faced it.
Had we been aware of the nature of Rajapakshes, nothing would have gone that far. Looters born looters will never be enough.
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ballah / March 14, 2016
banjiappu, so called looters won the war, built highways, ports, airports, schools, roads….etc…but now under yamapalane they claim that there are not any looters but zero development too….
i’m afraid you are another voter who were taken a drive in a volkswagan car ….sorry, you guys have taken country backwards
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sama / March 15, 2016
Ballah, would always lie with the kind of ones. No matter ticks would attack you.
That is what my granny went on saying to me in my childhood. There she was right. This even so called self Proclaimed Dayna Jayathilaka did in Nugegoda. Now the guy behaves as if a dog I must not be paid by anyone to add my own thoughts – it is my freedom man. There you are fully wrong. I am free to express my thoughts. Had MR been in his office, we would have faced it, now we dont need to have such fears anymore. Just learn to listen to your conscience -that can guide you so that your future generations could feel yes our elders did it. Just stuck on nationalistc agendas cant bring us further. While living in europe, I feel we criticise these grand nations, but they safeguard our rights as minorities multiple times than our govts do against their minorities in entire developoing countries. For your info I am neither refugee nor real migrant in europe, but stay in Europe for further years so long my work could be done. In the end, I woudl like to return to the country and serve for the aged and parentless children – even today we do a lot for them. We even offer schoolarships for poor ones whose parents cant afford them a good education.
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ballah / March 15, 2016
appreciate your charity work. but this may not be the forum to brag about it. now i’m really starting to think you’re an asylum seeker in europe or even to that matter a vanished journo surfaced in europe
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sama / March 15, 2016
Built highways ? these were projects had been planned from the previous regime.
Even today, that lotus or other towers are being continued. You the folks behave like frogs in wells cant know this basta
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ballah / March 15, 2016
no wonder you’re a yamapalana voter…sirikotha pipadi serves you very well
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sama / March 14, 2016
Ballah, in our neighbourhood in Kelaniya – there were stray dogs that go and eat the heaps of faekels left by other dogs on the road. The manner you guys behave is similar to the deeds of the mentioned dogs. Instead of making every effort to corner the culprits, but to help them further is a crime actually.
All those highly corrupted but isoland calling them selves ” joint opposition” have same nature of the dogs described above- they just eat the extrements left by other dogs. Birds of a feather flock together
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ballah / March 14, 2016
oh sama, yamapalane hurts, but you have nothing but to suffer…best is yet to come.
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sama / March 14, 2016
You the ilk are sick – would never see it right.
we need the paradigm shift if this country to raise their head.
So long you idiots further support Maharaja for his loot but loot, nothing will change an inch.
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sama / March 14, 2016
Ballahs can only be controlled if they are properly vaccinated. Else the worms that they have to suffer from can change their life easily.
Ballahs will have not the least knowledge to see the values of Yahapalanaya. They just hang on with Jonsten and the like IRCers.
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ballah / March 14, 2016
sama, you will have more time to ponder how you have contributed to take country backwards by voting for yamapalane, while sitting in the darkness sipping a cup of koththamalli…you deserve nothing better for being ungrateful
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srinath.gunaratne / March 15, 2016
Sama
Go to the junction and buy a bottle of kerasine oil before they run out! You gonna need them to express your freedom! Unfortunately Internet does no run on Kerasine!
Jahapalane Kaluware! Uncle Johnson.. Johnson Uncle….
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Simon Gunasekara / March 14, 2016
Rajapakshe can learn from Prez Sirisena a lot, if only Rajapkakshe had a good brains. He is wristed with a thick bunch of thread to give him a relief but these men would never be able to get rid of the ongoing investigations.
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ballah / March 14, 2016
anyone can learn from appa sira to become a spine-less moron who will bend to tamils and muslims
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sama / March 14, 2016
You should better go for a therapy. We are all the same man.. why to hate the fellow people. Unfortunately your bring up could have occured nicely if you had good parents. Anyways, the kind of hatred against miniortiy folks are a sickness.
You should better go and lick the balls of Ghanasara who is the father of ultra srilanken nationalism: There at least you could bring him to sense – give him something so that the bugger could be stopped by good means not allowing him to cause any further human values. You will have to regret later if you woul dnot grasp it at this level.
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ballah / March 14, 2016
being anti sinhalese-buddhist is a incurable sickness for colombians who voted for yamapalane. you’ll have to live with it for the rest of your life. your parents would have tried to cure and but it has failed miserably.
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sama / March 15, 2016
Dont betray our race man. You belong neither to sinhalese nor test tube creatures. I wonder why you guys still are on this. We fought that long years – is that not enough. I must not be paid by Tamil srilankens to utter my 2 cts worth. I am what I am. I know how much we the suffered after the lanken Universities closed without further notice (this was late 80ties). There I happeend to leave the country for Europe. Not to see greener pastures but to continue my edu. My mother has taught to me well to differentiate good from the bad. You the evil makers would be stuck to those social scum of the nation run by Rajaakshes to divide this nation again: I hate to see this. For a period of maximum 100 years to go with -why to create any kind of differences between our folks. All those born to a country should have equal rights regardless of the race religion or whatever they now take to describe. I would never allow you guys to spread wrong views about us srilannkens. I am born sinhalese, but having lived on the west for the last few decades I myself feel – Rajapakshes should have been the leaders to represent us srilankens. Go to any lanken Embassies today we feel much better than had been until 8th Jan 2015. I really feel good having watched myself the manenr now one feels back in the home country last I visited in few months ago. We must not be treated by thugs. We should have every freedom to express ourselves. But the freedom current rulers restore have been abused by you guys TODAY: Rajapakshe is the front man to be abusing it. Today Rajaakshe has been familiar with Temples and Prisons for his own agendas. You the ilk seem to have no courage or wisdom to see the damage being done by MR even today. This man has no moral right to do so having grabed billions of funds from the lanken tax payers. I have now been waiting current rulers to bring contructive argument against the statements made by Jarapakshes yesterday.
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sama / March 15, 2016
Typo
“Rajapakshes should NOT have been the leaders to represent us- but your ilk did the job for him.
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ballah / March 14, 2016
sama, you must be fed well from minorities for the service you don in CT. you may have to shout louder soon because they are so demanding.
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Banjiappu / March 14, 2016
There are many that have to learn from him, but from MR we can only learn the looting and abusive tactics.
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ballah / March 15, 2016
while crushing terrorism and developing theinfrastructure
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Amarasiri / March 14, 2016
President Maithripala Sirisena ,
RE: CEB: Sirisena Brings In Army, As Sabotage Fears Increase
“President Maithripala Sirisena today morning ordered the Army to provide protection across all electricity installations including transformers of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) amidst increasing fears of possible sabotage since Sunday’s island-wide blackout for over 7 hours.”
Make it
1. A Crime, Damaging Govt.Property
2. Get the culprits to pay doe the damages
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Spring Koha / March 14, 2016
Action stations! Action Stations! To default mode.
When bad planning and incompetence comes home to roost, just fall back on the daddy of all excuses – Resurgent LTTE/Foreign conspiracy/Leftist troublemakers….and, fellow-reader, you can add a few more of your own. Give our underworked, overpaid soldiers something to do. Something they should have been doing anyway, given that they are not exactly fighting.
Here is a country that is inviting the world to come invest here big time, and we cannot get the lights to work or the lifts to go up and down. They must be laughing all the way to Davos.
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words / March 14, 2016
Perfectly said.. it just only serves yahapalanaya supporters with egg on their face to shout ” sabotage” . Look at our unkempt roads , street lights not working , expressways being inundated with weeds.. these are just proof that nothing is being maintained. And when you fail to properly maintain stuff.. the results are breakdowns. Simple!!. Before we go to dramatic sensational conclusions.. please just look out of your bloody car windows and see the neglect!!!
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Sintax / March 14, 2016
Spring Koha – ” When bad planning and incompetence comes home to roost, ….”
This seems to be “business as usual’ for the Yahapalanayas! And what more could we expect when many of their appointments reek of ‘special interests’ instead of the desired ‘competence’ we expected from the promised replacements of the corrupt former regime, who were no better when it came to appointments.
It would have been far more proper if the Minister in charge resigned, instead of the more principled CEB Chairman who offered to step down.
Just imagine the quandary future investors in the highly questionable Port City will face if this sort of incompetence continues!
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ELDORADO / March 14, 2016
If it is sabotage then it may be necessary to check this out with the Army as we can’t have the whole Country held to ransom and plunged into blackouts. But please Mr PRESIDENT don’t over react, tread cautiously as you must not “stomp on others toes” as it might boomerang on you, ie the country.
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Prince David / March 14, 2016
“President Maithripala Sirisena today morning ordered the Army to provide protection across all electricity installations including transformers”
Good idea – this should be extended to all electricity posts in the North.
“a CEB transformer at Biyagama burst which resulted in the nationwide blackout”
Hope we haven’t connected to the Indian grid with an underground cable – we don’t want to trip TN, India and the rest of the world.
BTW – where’s our Electrical engineering ‘professore’ these days? His students are having some difficulty with their tutorials – is he on to yet another regime change?
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Pygmalion / March 14, 2016
Important Files relating to Yoshita are missing says the Media.
Power failures come in handy for the theft?
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words / March 14, 2016
?????????
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len / March 14, 2016
Politics golden rule use every any opportunity to distract the masses.
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Hamlet / March 14, 2016
It would be a good idea to find out who bought Portable Power Generators recently.
It would be those People who were expecting a Power Failure.
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SJ / March 14, 2016
Will it not be a simple solution for troop withdrawal from the North without reducing manpower?
Or, have I touched the wrong switch?
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Rohan / March 14, 2016
Okay… Prevention of Terrorism Act should be on them like a ton of bricks!!!
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Sunil / March 14, 2016
Is this a part of an attempt to try and keep Mahinda and thieves from the Death Penalty!?
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shankar / March 14, 2016
more than bringing in the army.siri should travel to matara and break some coconuts.some might ask why go to matara when he can do it from pollonnnaruwa or colombo.The authentic cuisine is only in matara,the majic megapolis.
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Sword of Justice / March 14, 2016
Well done Your Excellency ,good start, enough you have been too soft, you can be the sincere Virtuous Buddhist you have always been and still be a tough leader.
next step Kick all the betrayers out of CEB and replace them with Foreign Engineers temporarily.
Do not fear the wicked ,the wicked are bound to perish and they will ,for they have upon them the curse of Millions , while you have the blessing of all those hearts that lived in anguish ,sorrow, fear and torture,whom you have come as Mythree (mercy) and saved.
The ones who fabricated false rumors to incite racial hatred and murdered innocent people , did mud slinging , will pay .. Karma is really a bitch she will make them all pay.
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Rajash / March 14, 2016
cant point the fingers at LTTE any more!
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Brown Boy / March 14, 2016
Who is namesake “mad dog” running around barking stark raving mad all over the comments section. Didn’t GR at one time round up all the stray dogs in Colombo. Clearly he missed a few. The again royal Family tends to entertain dogs that are loyal to them.
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srinath.gunaratne / March 14, 2016
There is big plan for India to sell energy to us, and make us dependent on them,
Also big private energy producers, may want to make a case to privatize the energy sector!
Any country must have their energy production independent of any other external forces!
The intervention of India in all directions is a major threat to us, I hope our intelligence services are doing their job!
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Mallaiyuran / March 14, 2016
Well he was in the Lankan Che Guevara. He knows what would be the pal of these Terrorist called Sinhala Intellectual Engineers. Srimavo had taught to him how to fight back. He will follow the footstep of his Guru.
When Lankawe’s Che Guevara struck, it was the Tamils saved Srimavo. Now this guy has killed the 145,000 in Mullivaikkal, so he cannot believe even Tamils.
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Lanka Watch / March 15, 2016
This is a very serious matter and the investors will think twice to invest in our country, if energy sector is going to be affected by vandalism by anti govt.forces and the tourists will shun away from
Sri Lanka if they cannot sleep peacefully in air conditioned rooms
after a day in the hot sun. Our economy depends on these two major category of people. Strongly suggest ,pull out the excess army kept
in the N/E provinces as a show piece and deploy them to guard all
installations,like electricity & transformers, water dams, railway lines & stations, schools & sports stadiums. Spread out plain clothed police intelligence officials all over the country and gather infor-
mation on saboteurs.
The slow and lethargic handling of corruption & political murder
cases have given courage to saboteurs to embark on ISIS style of destructions and if this incident is proved positive , the govt. should take serious note of it and embark on a fast track process
of tracking the culprits. They will get the support of the people
in tracking such culprits if they put the culprits behind bars who
are already indicted for corruption & murder.
CEB Chairman Anura Wijayapala should stay on at least, until the
investigations are over, instead of washing his hands and run away, unless he too is threatened. It is sad that the current Govt.,after
one year in power ,has not done enough to get round the people to their side and the joint opposition finds it easy to rouse them up.
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Wera / March 15, 2016
This is part of a plan to keep the medamusala family from going to jail while at the same time forcing the government to its knees. This is not leg pulling but a battering over the head with the intention of killing. That is the SUPREME RAJAPAKSHE characteristic. Look at the ballige puthas posting comments against this article. They seem to have sent out a full force of these dogs which is a dead give away of their plans. MS is a stupid moron to entertain any mercy for these fellows. There are many high ranking officials who know what has been happening behind the scene with regards to stalling cases against the very scoundrels.
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kokuvilan / March 15, 2016
NOW THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH LANKA CAN REALISE HOW PEOPLE FROM NORTH LANKA SUFERED WITHOUT POWER MORE THAN 15 TO 20 YEARS.LET MY3-MR BEAN-AND KING RAJAH FIGHT FOR POWER IN POLITICS AND LEAVE NORTH TAMILS WITH SELF RULE OF ELCTRICITY POWER IF NOT POLITICAL POWER.-JAYWEWA TO SOUTH LIONS.
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wimpy kid / March 15, 2016
Thanks to the japanese, this transformer was 30 yrs. old. When a critical link fails ,others follow. There was no sabotage. but the outage was long enough for some smart guys to plan anything.
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Prabuddha Rassagala / March 15, 2016
The failure now is attributed to a burst or blast of a transformer. Why must an entire supply of electricity go off just because a transformer went off? Does that happen in other countries? Let us get into the basics, instead of blaming defeated politicians at every turn there is an ill and making the mockery of elevating them to heroes instead of throwing them to the dustbin. The peculiarity in Sri Lanka is that the electricity generated is almost what is demanded and the network of power supply has to be balanced finely. If there is an imbalance, say due to a malfunctioning of a major electrical component of the network, then all the generators will start to trip and switch off. Usually generators and big transformers must be duplicated if not triplicated. Are we to understand that all of them at Biyagama went bust at once?
Let us get into the worst scenario that it is man made bust through an explosion. Are we to understand then that terrorism is in the rise in the country? Before I run my thoughts in that direction, I am inclined to believe that certain basics were not done. I am made to understand that there are shortcomings arising out of neglect of professionals say doctors and engineers and enhancing the status of administrators. This exactly is what the President of the Institution of Engineers wanted to tell the highest in the land and got snubbed. Obviosuly the politicians don’t trust the doctors and the not so well equipped hospitals here and that is why they fly to Singapore for treatment of major ailments.
Forget the political bickering. My vote too contributed to the ouster of the previous regime. Let us unite to put things right. It is those administrators who cause ill feeling and dissapointment among the professionals have to be watched carefully because their tribe enjoyed quite a lot during the Jarapassa regime. Don’t forget that one batch of civil servants got double promotion from class 3 to class 1 during the Jarapassa times and presto! they got assigned vehicles and a plethora of other perks.
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words / March 15, 2016
UPDATE!!!
CEB officials have admitted the power outage was caused due to poor maintenance of equipment!!
How pathetic is that??? BUT NOT SURPRISING!!
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