September 04, 2011
Sept 04, Colombo: Sri Lanka today stands proud as a nation that eradicated terrorism from the country and in doing so made South Asia too safer from terrorism, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said today.Addressing the Rotary South Asia Conference on 'Development and Cooperation' at the Galadhari Hotel in Colombo on Sunday, the President said Sri Lanka achieved this success with limited resources and without the economic and fire power other countries waging war against terrorism have at their disposal.
"We have achieved this with much less of the assets, and none of the deceit and duplicity of those who have been waging a War on Terror for more than a decade; those with much more economic and fire power than we had and many more allies than we ever had, but are still caught up in the killing fields made by un-manned drones and other lethal devices that attack civilians, too," he said.
President Rajapaksa who was the chief guest at the conference said it is regrettable that individuals and institutions trying to prosecute Sri Lanka for defeating terrorism are unaware of the truth about Sri Lanka's prolonged battled against terrorism and the nature of the terrorists.
He pointed out that the same countries accusing Sri Lanka of war crimes are harboring those who funded terror in Sri Lanka and providing them with a safe haven to rapidly raise funds now to destabilize the country again.
"Have they no concern for the truth about Sri Lanka's agony and the humanitarian actions that under-scored our battle against terror? Have they no interest in the truth?" he asked.
The President told the audience Sri Lanka is now trying to consolidate the hard-earned peace to bring much needed relief to the people who immensely suffered for decades under the terrorist control.
Speaking of accountability during the war, President Rajapaksa emphasized that for most of those raising voice against Sri Lanka, "accountability is only a verbal apology for civilian deaths that are dismissed as collateral damage in heavy bombings."
"Our commitment to human rights is second to none, and with such commitment we seek to transform our society to one of peace, pluralism and equality," the President said.
He appreciated the Rotary's help during the humanitarian operation and their philanthropic support to provide relief and resettle the displaced.
The President of Rotary International Kalyan Bannerjee welcomed the President presenting him with a memento.
The three-day conference is being held at Galadari and Cinnamon Grands hotels in Colombo from September 4-6 to mark the 82nd anniversary of Rotary Sri Lanka.
Former Presidents of the Rotary International Rajendra Saboo and Bill Boyd, President of the Rotary Organization Committee N. R. Gajendran and Governor of Sri Lanka's Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal also participated in the event.
20 comments:
President Rajapaksa has clearly exposed the HYPOCRISY of Western Nations in their War against Terrorism.
Their POLICIES are ONE-SIDED and SELF-SERVING.
What is Good for the Western Goose seems to be Not Good for the Sri Lankan Gander!
Thier wars are pursued by all available means against their enemies; yet that same right is denied to other brave small democratic nations in the developing world.
No nation, other than Sri Lanka, has defeated a virulent terrorist movement having a near-conventional armed force, using its own national resources without foreign troops, at great cost in blood and treasure.
No nation, other than Sri Lanka, has fed and supported the civilian population living in terrorist dominated areas for so many decades.
No nation, other than Sri Lanka, has moved as rapidly to rescue its citizens from the grasp of the terrorists, and to rehabilitate their lives.
These INDISPUTABLE FACTS drives these jealous hypocritical foreign powers, mired in their own interminable wars against terrorist groups on foreign soil, and pursuing their self-serving geopolitical agendas, to support an international drive to destabilize and undermine Sri Lanka.
Shame on them; They will not succeed!
Western Powers attempting to UNDERMINE & DESTABILIZE Sri Lanka will not SUCCEED ... Precisely because President Rajapaksa's Government enjoys the FULL CONFIDENCE of the vast majority of Sri Lankan citizens, and serves their shared aspirations.
Have the Western Powers destabilizing Sri Lanka have no other more important priorities and goals than trying to undermine a successful democracy resurrecting itself after a ruinous war?
NO HIGHER PRIORITIES? NONE?
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91 percent Sri Lankans approve their leader - Gallup poll
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Sept 04, Colombo: A Gallup poll conducted in April 2011 has concluded that 91 percent Sri Lankans have approved their leader, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's job performance, as they have done in the past two years following the end of the war.
However, the President's approval rate has slightly dipped from the post-war high of 94 percent in 2009 to 91 percent in 2010 and maintained since then. Before the end of the war in 2008, 78 percent Sri Lankans approved the President's performance in office.
According to Gallup, the results are based on 1,000 face-to-face interviews with adults, aged 15 or older, conducted in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.
Publishing the results in the Gallup Management Journal on Friday, Peter Cynkar of Gallup agency wrote that Rajapaksa's decision last week to lift the country's 28-year-old state of emergency will likely further endear him to a public that almost universally supports him.
"Sri Lankans' approval of their president's job performance likely reflects their happiness to finally have peace in their country and a vision for the rebuilding of their nation," he wrote.
Cynkar says the President's move few weeks before the government is expected to face off against Western governments at a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting may also potentially ease some of the international pressure the country is under over its human rights record.
Western governments and human rights groups have increasingly been pressing Sri Lanka to conduct an independent probe into alleged war crimes but the government has been resisting the pressure saying that there is a mechanism already in place for such a probe.
Noting that the government's lifting of emergency laws has earned praise from the U.S. and other Western nations and suggests Sri Lanka is trying to leave its violent past behind, Cynkar wrote that "it will be imperative for the Sri Lankan government to use this political capital as it works to resolve conflicts within the country and reintegrate disenfranchised portions of the population."
Mahinda Rajapaksa hits back, questions West's standards on terror
DNAIndia.com
September 04, 2011
President Mahinda Rajapaksa Sunday launched a broadside against western nations that have often targetted Sri Lanka on rights abuses, questioning the "safe havens" provided by them to financiers of LTTE terror, while pledging his country's commitment to human rights.
In a public address, Rajapaksa said his government was committed to transforming the Sri Lankan society to one of peace, pluralism and equality.
"Our commitment to human rights is second to none," he said in comments ahead of next week's session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Rajapaksa also attacked the international community, mainly the West, that has called for accountability over the alleged rights abuses during the final phase of the war with the LTTE.
"Many of those who fault us today are harbouring those who funded terror in our country, and still raise funds for this brutal cause. They were also glad to give safe haven to the very theoreticians of terror in Sri Lanka," Rajapaksa said in a veiled reference to the UK.
The LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham was a UK citizen.
Rajapaksa claimed that by eliminating LTTE he had freed South Asia from terrorism and mocked the US-led war on terror.
"We have achieved this with much less of the assets and none of the deceit and duplicity of those who have been waging war on terror for more than a decade, those with much more economic and fire power than we had and many more allies than we ever had," Rajapaksa said targetting the US.
The US, UK, European Union have been calling Sri Lanka to stand accountable over alleged rights abuses, more so after a report by a panel appointed by UN chief Ban Ki-moon that held both Sri Lankan forces and LTTE responsible for war crimes.
The special panel report has called for independent investigation into civilian deaths caused at the end of the conflict with the LTTE in May 2009.
"There are loud voices raised against us on accountability. To most of these voices, accountability is only a verbal apology for civilian deaths that are dismissed as collateral damage in heavy bombings," Rajapaksa said in apparent reference to civilian deaths in Afghanistan.
Sri Lanka has dismissed the report as biased and motivated by the pro-LTTE diaspora in the West.
Pakistani look to Sri Lanka's example in eradicating terrorism and securing its sovereignty.
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Inspiration: If Sri Lanka can do it, so can we
Tribune.com
Colombo
September 07, 2011
It took almost 30 years for the Sri Lankan government to defeat terrorism on the island. And a man with the determination and common sense of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to do the job. Today, as the island starts to reap the dividends of peace, one asks what Pakistan can learn from this experience.
In 2005, when Rajapaksa was elected to power, he came with a single agenda – to defeat forces of the LTTE – the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam. Till then, the Tigers seemed invincible. The island was wracked with attacks – bomb blasts, suicide attacks and guerrilla tactics that left the Lankan army and the government only reacting – much like what Pakistan is going through. The LTTE was backed by India and in one instance when the Sri Lankan army actually cornered its leader, Prabhakaran, senior Lankan officials say India actually threatened to bomb the island. But all this was about to change.
Soon after coming to power, Rajapaksa – an elected president and man of the people – took a number of steps which can now be cited as leading to the success of the island nation against the terrorists. First of all, he sought a broad consensus and stamp of approval from all political parties – opposition MPs as well as minority communities like the Muslims. He got a national backing to take on the LTTE.
He then went on to start a close coordination between the government and the military high command. Weekly meetings and briefings by the army chief, General Fonsenka, meant that the civil administration knew what the overall strategy was.
Two things also helped give the Lankans the upper hand. The death of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 by LTTE sympathisers made India realize the folly of its policies. In all this time, LTTE supremo Prabhakaran became overconfident, mainly because of the support of the West and India.
Rajapaksa said “no more dialogue,” recalls one official. Till then, 21 times the two had gone into talks. “All this was done to buy the Tamils time,” added the official. “In this,” he said, “the Rajapaksa government had to adopt the pressure from world nations and international bodies.” This it continued to the very end.
The Lankan government reached out to its friends – as varied as Pakistan, Russia, China, Ukraine, Israel and also India – which helped by stopping support to the LTTE from the mainland. Even today, these countries have more of a say in Colombo.
When the fighting started, the military pursued a policy of clear and hold. The army increased its size from 9 to 21 divisions and while the LTTE went into conventional warfare, the Lankan army went into guerilla tactics.
Inspiration: If Sri Lanka can do it, so can we
.....continued.....
As the war raged, there were casualties other than the LTTE. Kumar Nadesan of the Express Newspapers recalls that the media came under pressure. Other journalists say that the pressure was intense on the media to tow the official line.
But in the propaganda war, the Lankan government matched the radio stations of the LTTE with its own broadcasts and frequency distortions. Unlike in Swat where Mullah Radio held sway, the Lankans did not let that happen.
Also a massive campaign was launched through skits, plays and TV dramas to garner support for the war effort. The most important thing was that the private sector kept the country afloat at a time when resources were limited and military costs soared.
The lesson that one learns from Sri Lanka, say diplomats here, is that it can be done. Pakistan High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Seema Ilahi Baloch, says that Rajapaksa’s popularity has soared ever since the war ended. “He is a man of the people and one can see it in how he interacts,” she says.
While everyone talks about the fate of General Fonsenka and the fact that Rajapaksa was helped because his brother was defence secretary at the time of the war one cannot take away the credit of his leadership. One can only wonder when such leadership will rise in Pakistan to challenge problems head on instead of letting extremism and terrorism fester and raise their head repeatedly because of a government that can’t get its act together.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2011.
From Murali to Mendis, there's method in the madness
By Peter Roebuck
Canberra Times
September 08, 2011
No country has in recent times produced more original cricketers than Sri Lanka. Sanath Jayasuriya, Lasinth Malinga, Murali and Ajantha Mendis stand out as the most unorthodox players of their generation. In that time, Sri Lanka has endured a civil war, reporters have been eliminated, the defeated presidential candidate languishes in jail, and the cricket community has for 15 years been run by interim committees. Maybe chaos can be liberating, maybe organisation can stifle.
Murali's freakish style has been admired and debated but not copied. Like Thommo, he has been inimitable. In his youth, he turned the ball prodigiously but latterly he relied as much upon disguise. Jayasuriya was the first of the modern breed of blasting openers; he struck the ball with awesome power. Malinga is a round-armer, a bunch long assumed to be extinct who ruled the roost briefly between the underarmers and overarmers.
No one told these blokes they could not play like that. Instead they rose by their own lights. Instinct was their starting point, and more importantly their coaches' as well, but they did not rest on it. Murali added his doosra. Malinga practised his yorkers and slower balls. Jayasuriya kept his game intact but learnt to pick his moments.
Now comes the fourth of the originals, Mendis, a flicker of the ball to put beside Jack Iverson, John Gleeson and Sonny Ramadhin. Some of these fellows had never clapped eyes on carrom, a recreation popular in the subcontinent that requires participants to flick counters across a board, but they released the ball in that style, propelling it with a bent middle finger, pushing it out from the hand, and relying on other digits to determine degree and direction of spin.
A classic example of why people who live in glass houses should not throw stones at neighbors.
While terrorism in Sri Lanka, initiated by India, has been ENDED at great sacrifice in blood and treasure by the heroic Sri Lankan Armed Forces, terrorism in India CONTINUES.
Our sympathy goes out to our Indian cousins! WE KNOW HOW IT FEELS!
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Another Deadly Bomb Blast in New Delhi
By Jyoti Thottam
September 07, 2011
Ten people were killed and 61 injured by a bomb blast inside the Delhi High Court Complex in the capital on Wednesday morning. The militant group Harkat ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) took responsibility for the blasts in an email sent to several Indian news organizations. The attack seemed to have been calculated to maximize the loss of life and to take advantage of gaps in the security screening process for this busy public building. "It had all the makings of an improvised explosive device set up by a terror group," said India's Home Secretary, R.K. Singh. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is in Bangladesh on a state visit, called the blast a "cowardly" act. "We will never succumb to the pressure of terrorism," he said to reporters in Dhaka. "This is a long war in which all political parties, all the people of India, have to stand united so that this scourge of terrorism is crushed."
Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat confirmed the death toll to TIME, although other reports gave varying figures. Special Commissioner Dharmendra Kumar, who was at the site of the blast, told reporters there that the bomb was kept in a briefcase. Home Minister P. Chidambaram called the blasts an attempt to "destabilize" the country. "It is not possible to say who is behind the blast at this point," he said in a statement in Parliament. "The group has not been tracked."
After Chidambaram's statement, the following message was sent by email from the address, harkatuljihadi2011@gmail.com:
"We owe the responsibility of todays blasts at high court delhi..... our demand is that Afzal Guru's death sentence should be repealed immediately else we would target major high courts & THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA."
Afzal Guru, or Mohammad Afzal, was convicted by Indian authorities for his role in the December 2001 commando attack on India's Parliament building, in which several security personnel and five attackers were killed. Mobile phone records linked Afzal to the attackers, and he was sentenced to death in 2004. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, HuJI is a Pakistan-based militan group with wide links throughout the Subcontinent. Indian authorities have not, however, connected it to the 2001 Parliament attacks, which it blamed on two other Pakistan-based groups, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammed.
Another Deadly Bomb Blast in New Delhi
.....continued.....
The blast occurred at about 10:15 a.m. in a temporary structure near the main gate of the High Court, where people stand in line to get passes to enter the building, according to a lawyer in the capital. On Wednesdays, public-interest litigation cases are filed, so the number of ordinary citizens attending the High Court is particularly high. By 10:15 am, there are often as many as 100 people waiting to have their passes issued. (Lawyers and other staff enter separately.) On May 25, also a Wednesday, the same building was the target of another bomb attack. That incident, reportedly using an explosive left inside a plastic bag, occurred in the parking lot and caused no fatalities. Officials at the time dismissed it as "minor," but the High Court did tighten up its security procedures afterward. Ajay Mehrotra, a lawyer who was in the building during this morning's blast, said that after the May incident, guards began checking lawyers' identity cards and automobile tags in addition to those of the public. But a gap remained: people and packages are not searched until after they are issued passes, and today's blast occurred in that unsecured area.
Indian authorities are taking this incident much more seriously. The Home Ministry immediately assigned the National Investigation Agency to take charge of the probe. So far, they have little evidence to work with. It is not clear yet whether the explosion was set off remotely, using an improvised explosive device, or whether it may have been a suicide bomber blending into the queueing crowd. As with the coordinated triple bomb blast in Mumbai on July 13, the attack displays some level of planning but little technical sophistication. There is no physical evidence yet to link this blast, or the July 13 blast, to jihadi networks operating in the region, but these attacks do share some characteristics with other attacks linked to jihadists—the victims are ordinary Indians, and the incidents occur in highly visible public places where saturation media coverage is all but assured.
Opposition parties slammed the government for its failure to secure the High Court building despite having been a previous target. Communist Party of India leader D. Raja told CNN-IBN: "We'll have to probe how such a thing could happen again and again. The government should probe whether it was a failure of intelligence or failure of policy. I find this as a failure of the Home Ministry. The Home Ministry should come clean and explain."
Another Deadly Bomb Blast in New Delhi
.....continued 2.....
Whatever the failings of India's security apparatus, today's attack is a telling example of why India is so vulnerable to the loosely organized terror networks operating in a post-Osama bin Laden world. It has neither the law-enforcement capacity nor the intelligence-gathering capability to provide the kind of security available to people in the West. Jason Burke of the Guardian, in an excerpt from his new book, The 9/11 wars, explains: "The power of terrorism lies in its ability to create a sense of fear far in excess of the actual threat posed to an individual. Here, governments have largely protected their citizens, and few inhabitants of western democracies today pass their lives genuinely concerned about being harmed in a radical militant attack." Indian citizens do not enjoy that same freedom from fear. And yet India is just as tempting a target: it is a close strategic ally of the United States and Europe, a free-market, pluralistic society, and it is within close striking distance of jihadi networks operating throughout South Asia and the Persian Gulf.
The precise origins of this attack, like so many before it, may remain murky. As with other attacks, speculation hovers around whether it might have been the work of "homegrown" terrorists, Indians linked to handlers across the border, Pakistan-based militants, or some other group entirely. But unless it is clearly linked to al-Qaeda or its affiliates, the rest of the world is unlikely to take much notice, and India will continue to be one of the world's largest, softest targets.
—With reporting by Nilanjana Bhowmick/New Delhi
Sri Lanka President condemns bomb attack in Delhi
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Sept 07, Colombo: Sri Lanka today strongly condemned the bomb attack outside the high court in the Indian capital, Delhi, that has killed 11 people and injured over 60.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a letter to Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh condemned the attack on Delhi High Court and expressed his condolences to the families of killed and injured.
An extremist group Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (Huji) has claimed that it planted the bomb.
Investors Optimistic On Sri Lankan Growth
By Kim Iskyan
Global Finance Magazine
September 2011
It’s been a good run for Sri Lanka of late. In mid-July, all three major ratings agencies upped their views on the country, pointing to the ongoing recovery and broad economic stabilization.
Days later, Sri Lanka launched a $1 billion, 10-year bond at a price of 6.25%—down from price guidance of 6.5%. The issue, which the country’s central bank had originally intended to sell a month later but instead took advantage of positive market conditions to launch early, was more than seven times oversubscribed.
The deal priced 40 basis points cheaper than the sovereign’s most recent issuance in September 2010 and was Sri Lanka’s fourth dollar offering in global bond markets since 2007. The government said the proceeds of the issue would be used to pay down higher- priced debt and would be put toward post-war rebuilding and infrastructure in the country’s war-torn north and east.
Investors have good reason to be enthusiastic. Sri Lanka’s GDP moved up 8% in 2010, and forecasts are for a repeat of that figure this year. Inflation, which the IMF says will clock in at 7.9% in 2011, is high but well under control.
Foreign investment, particularly from China, is rising. Reflecting its increasing comfort with the economy’s trajectory, the IMF—which has a $2.5 billion stand-by agreement with the government—recently decided to shift from quarterly to semiannual reviews. Since the country’s 26-year civil war between the government and the separatist Tamil minority ended in May 2009, tourists are returning in droves. Per capita income has roughly doubled over the past five years, and the government is aiming to double it again by 2015.
But Sri Lanka still has a way to go. The budget deficit was between 8% and 10% in 2009 and 2010, and the debt-to-GDP ratio is north of 80%. Despite the recent improvement, Sri Lanka is still rated well below investment grade. After years of underinvestment and war, infrastructure is poor, which undercuts efforts to promote tourism as a growth industry. Investors, though, are clearly willing to give Sri Lanka the benefit of the doubt.
Indeed! Where has all the Power Gone?
Gone to Junkyards ... everyone
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
................
Where has all the power gone?
By Ifham Nizam
Island.lk
September 07, 2011
There have been endless and adverse publicity given to the precarious situation in the power supply situation which led to unannounced power cuts in July-August this year.
Just when the people thought the power cuts were a thing of the past, they seem to have returned with a vengeance after ten years.
It will be remembered the promise made by former Minister of Power and Energy during the UNF Government, Karu Jayasuriya, to end the power cuts within 180 days of his administration. True to his promise, he did end the eight-hour power cuts he inherited from the previous administration in less than the agreed time frame.
CEB planners had long campaigned for increasing the share of country’s thermal power generation base as the only solution to power cuts which once become a way of life with the public.
Ignoring long term plans…
The long term power generation plans prepared and updated periodically by CEB were often ignored by the decision makers, opting for ad hoc plans to build power plants, mostly via the private sector.
Although it has been blamed that these privately operated power plants were the cause for CEB’s financial woes, in fact their contribution has increased over the years. A normal, private plant contributes over a third of the country’s daily electricity needs; during dry periods when CEB is forced to curtail its hydro power generation, private power plants contribute as much as half of country’s daily electricity demand. Contrary to what the public are made to believe, some of the private power plants produce the cheapest electricity today.
For example, the West Coast Combined Cycle Plant at Kerawalapitiya is cheaper than most thermal plants of CEB, and it makes perfect financial sense to operate this plant at the maximum capacity when needed.
Where has all the power gone?
.........continued 1.....
Diverting attention…
In the wake of recent power cuts which the Ministry of Power and Energy continues to deny despite many areas being disconnected during the evening peak hours (which later extended to day time), there had been attempts to divert attention again to the evil power racketeers. It was alleged that a powerful businessman whose company owned several private power plants had used his influence with Ceylon Petroleum Corporation to withhold fuel supplies to some of the cheaper plants like West Coast Plant at Kerawalapitiya, so that CEB would be forced to utilise his plants to make up the loss. This argument, on the face of it seems appealing to the masses that pay a high price for their electricity.
However, the truth is different to what they try to project. All private power plants supply power to CEB under long term contracts referred to as Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). These agreements specify, among other things, the payment terms and details of how the power purchased by CEB from the plant is priced. While this pricing mechanism (or the pricing formula) can be complicated and understood by few people, the price paid per unit purchased comprises two components: capacity charge and pass through charges. The capacity charge is a fixed component and is paid irrespective of the number of units generated. This component, in other words, is independent of the number of units purchased by CEB in a given month. This fixed charge will ideally ensure that the developer will receive sufficient income to service his debts, meet all recurrent expenses that do not depend on the production such as employee salaries, rentals, etc., as well as making loan payments to the lenders. Capacity charge should also include a reasonable return on investment (profit). The pass through cost, in contrast, is a variable charge that includes the actual cost of fuel, lubricants, etc., incurred in the production of electricity.
Private power plants…
For example, CEB is billed the capacity charge and the actual cost of fuel, lubricants, etc. at the end of each billing cycle by the plant operator. The PPAs generally include an agreed quantity of electricity in a given month. If CEB were to receive electricity in excess of this agreed amount in a given month, capacity charge is not paid for that excess amount. The pass through component should include only the actual expenditure incurred in producing a unit of electricity, and cannot incorporate any profit. As such, there cannot be any financial incentive for the private power producers to force CEB to buy more of its power.
One cannot make a generalisation that all private power plants are corrupt or one-sided. If the price paid by CEB for private power over the years is compared with the cost of generation of CEB’s own plants, one can easily see the fallacy of this argument. However, this debate cannot be settled through emotionally charged arguments that may gain short term political mileage; instead, one has to do an objective analysis and comparison on a common base.
The million dollar question is if the private plants are not the root of all evil, then why is CEB facing a crisis in its power generation capacity? Whether or not one is inclined to give credit to Karu Jayasuriaya or his successors Susil Permajayantha and John Seneviratne, one has to agree that they did not allow the power cuts during their respective administrations. In this context, it seems puzzling as to why the menace of power cuts which had been in remission for 10 years has resurfaced soon after the engineering graduate took over as the Minister.
Where has all the power gone?
.........continued 2.....
Highest rainfall…still making losses…
Even before the ink on numerous reports proclaiming CEB has for the first time in two decades has made a profit of over Rs. 5,000 million had dried, we are not told that it is losing approximately Rs. 150 million a day. What is even more puzzling is that CEB is in this situation, with the reservoirs levels dropping below 20 per cent capacity, after 2010 which year recorded the highest yearly rainfall in the entire history of CEB.
At present all power plants at Kelanitissa are operating continuously. The Combined Cycle Plant at Kelanitissa is operating in open cycle (gas turbine only) mode since the steam generator has been under repairs for some time. The Ministry of Power and Energy reported in the media few months back quoting a report of an expert panel headed by Prof. K. K. Y. W. Perera that CEB engineers had failed to effect the repairs on time and the country had lost Rs. 1,400 million as a result. When engineers responded with facts and figures, Prof. Perera sent a personal apology to the Head of Generation at CEB confirming that their interim report (the final report had not been submitted at the time) did not contain any such allegation.
It has often been stated in the media that CEB was forced to release water from its reservoirs for irrigation and drinking water needs. This statement is a distortion of the actual facts and irrigation requirements and/or drinking water supply had nothing to do with the present situation of the low water levels. Every year, CEB together with other agencies such as the Irrigation Department and Mahaweli Authority agree on the monthly water releases from multipurpose reservoirs in the Mahweli System.
The water released is decided based on optimal use of water for power generation, while meeting the irrigation requirements. Drinking water in not a concern generally in the Mahaweli System except in rare instances when the water supply to Kandy City and surrounding areas are restricted if the water flow in the Mahaweli River has diminished. In the Laxapana Complex too, drinking water supply to Colombo can get affected if the Kelani river cannot send sufficient water downstream. However, Water Board had not raised any alarm in 2010 or 2011 which may have prompted CEB to release additional water to meet the drinking water requirements.
It is also not clear whether the Mahaweli Authority and/or Irrigation Department had requested any water releases above the agreed amounts in 2010 or 2011. In any event, all the water released from the reservoirs are released only after generating electricity. (There had been exceptional situations in the past where reservoirs released water from their "bottom outlets" if the water level was below the "Critical level" power generation is not possible at this stage. That situation did not arise in 2010/2011).
Comparing the water levels of hydro reservoirs in the Mahaweli and Laxapana systems to Nuwara Wewa, Kala Wewa and Baswakkulama Tank have little merit other than further confusing the facts. CEB has sailed through much drier periods in the recent past without power cuts with proper management of its generation mix. Considering that these reservoirs were overflowing in January 2011, one cannot think of any reason, other than mismanagement of water for the present mess CEB is in.
It was also reported in the media that CEB had to generate more electricity from hydro power as Ceylon Petroleum Corporation had failed to supply low-sulfur furnace oil to the West Coast Plant at Kerawalapitiya. Again, the facts speak otherwise. Because CEB changed its operational plant to maximize hydro generation in the first quarter of 2011 (considered to be the driest months of the year in terms of water inflow to CEB reservoirs), fuel orders had not been placed as scheduled. One can verify this fact simply by examining the pattern of fuel orderered in the past with the fuel orders in the last 12 months.
Where has all the power gone?
.........continued 3.....
The CPC…
CPC supplied fuel to private generation plants on separate agreements known as Fuel Supply Agreements. These agreements specify, among other things, the lead times required for delivery of fuel. If CPC has violated these terms after a proper order has been placed, then there are specific remedies for the plant operator, including damages.
However, such a violation has not been reported by the operator of West Coast Plant at Kerawalapitiaya, Lakdhanavi Limited, which had ordered fuel according to the dispatch plan agreed with CEB. It is clear, therefore, that CEB had not expected to operate the Kerawalapitiya plant at full capacity during the first four months of 2011 and the operator did not order fuel as a result.
When CEB realized that rains were not coming as anticipated, its System Control boys went into a panic situation and an urgent request was sent to operate the Kerawalapitiya Plant at full capacity. The plant ordered additional fuel at this point and ran on the fuel already in its storage tanks. When these tanks ran out and CPC shipment did not arrive in time, the plant had to either shut down or switch to more expensive auto diesel (additional cost on CEB account).
Therefore, with all its faults, CPC cannot be blamed in this instance for the miscalculation of CEB operations personnel. CPC, which was embroiled in much bigger controversies such as the Hedging Deal and Substandard Petrol, did not even bother to clarify its position.
To put the present situation in correct perspective, one has to compare 2009 with 2011, received exceptional rainfall allowing CEB to generate the highest amount of hydro electricity in its history). In January 2009, reservoirs had around 700 GWh (crudely put, that is water sufficient to generate 700 million units of electricity). The daily demand for electricity in 2009 was on average around 30 million units.
If one compares water inflow levels, first quarter of 2009 is not better than first four months of 2011. However, 2011 had at least two significant advantages compared to 2009. First, the water level of reservoirs in 2011 was, according to Ministry’s press releases, over 1,000 GWh. In other words, CEB started 2011 in a much stronger footing in terms of hydro power capacity. Second, CEB system did not have either the Kerawalapitiya plant or the Norochcholai coal plant in 2009.
Both these plants were available at full capacity in 2011. Each of these plants are capable of generating 5-6 million units a day when operated at full capacity. It is clear, therefore, that in 2009 CEB has managed its water resources (while meeting irrigation and drinking water requirements) without power cuts although it started the year with much less water in its reservoirs compared to 2011. One can easily seen how CEB has used its water simply by comparing the hydro generation statistics for the first four months of 2009 and 2011.
Where has all the power gone?
.........continued 4.....
Total mismanagement…
Irrespective of what one hears in the media in the official view, the picture that emerges is one of total mismanagement and excessive use of water from the reservoirs deviating from the normal optimal operation planning process which CEB has been successfully following for over two decades. It may not be a bad idea to ask the high powered Ministry Committee headed by Prof. K. K. Y. W. Perera to investigate and report on whose instructions the CEB System Control Centre had deviated from optimal dispatch plan and ordered cheap thermal plants like Kerawalapitiya to shut down.
While the reliability of Chinese built Lakvijaya Plant at Norochcholai has often been questioned both within and outside the CEB, this plant has been operating at full capacity since early August, producing close to six million units a day. The West Coast Plant at Kerwalapitiya (Yugadhanavi) too has been running until it was shut down for required maintenance work (not because of any plant breakdown). This maintenance has been earlier scheduled for first week of August but on CEB’s request was postponed several times. This scheduled maintenance had been taken into consideration at the beginning of the year when CEB prepared its power dispatch schedule (which determines the optimum order each plant in the system is dispatched on daily basis, so as to minimize the operation costs). There is little truth in the statement that Kerawalapitya Plant had faced unexpected technical problems. Indeed, this plant has maintained to date an exceptionally high level of availability and technical reliability.
With regard to payment disputes with CPC, the dispute arose mainly from two sources. First, CEB had consistently failed to make payments to CPC for its own fuel purchases, as well as to private power operators, for the energy purchased. While the PPAs clearly specify interest payments for payments received beyond due date, the Ministry took a decision not to pay any interest on delayed payments to private power operators. One operator, it is reliably understood, has resorted to arbitration as per the PPA. Delay in bill payment also places the private power developers in a difficulty because they too cannot make timely payments to CPC for their fuel purchases.
This problem was seriously affecting larger plants like Kerawalapitiya Plant which had a substantial working capital requirement. Secondly, in October last year, Ministry of Petroleum revised the prices of fuel. Furnace oil which was subsidized at Rs. 26 per liter was increased to Rs. 40 per liter from October 1, 2010.
Given the market price of around Rs. 82 per liter, CEB is still receiving a subsidy of over Rs. 40 per liter on the purchase of furnace oil mainly by the private power operators. To get an idea about this subsidy, consider the 180 million liters of furnace oil purchased by CEB in 2010. Even at Rs. 40 subsidy per liter (which was higher in the first 8 months of the year), the total subsidy received would amount to Rs. 7,200 million. This subsidy had not been taken into account in the Rs. 5,200 million "profit" CEB was reported to have made in 2010.
Another adverse outcome was of the price revision of Naphtha which was used in CEB’s Kelanitissa Combined Cycle Plant. When CPC was forced to reduce Naphtha price in October 2010, CPC stopped supplying this fuel to CEB and sold its entire output of Naphtha from Sapugaskanda Refinery in the open market at a higher price. As a result, CEB now uses auto diesel which is a significantly more expensive fuel than Naphtha in its Combined Cycle Plant at Kelanitissa.
Where has all the power gone?
.........continued 5.....
The Rs. 5,200 million profit posted by CEB was also helped in no small measure by the exceptionally high rainfall in 2010 which enabled CEB to double its hydro generation compared to the previous year. It was also this motivation to show profit in 2011 that forced CEB to abandon its time tested water management practices and virtually open the floodgates at its reservoirs, hoping a repeat performance by rain gods. However, if over 40 years of rainfall data and vast experience gathered by CEB operations community is anything to go by, they should have known the enormous risk they were taking, perhaps to have one more feather on their minister’s cap. They and their Minister seem to have lost the gamble, plunging the country into darkness again.
If this is not mismanagement, one has to find a better word for it.
Sources: Power and Energy Ministry, Ceylon Electricity Board, Energy Experts and Water Board)
As MORE BOMBS go off in New Delhi, and MORE INNOCENTS die, Rajiv Gandhi killers have been granted an 8-week reprive from the hangman.
Why?
How can India hope to DETER future terrorism by interminably delaying richly deserved and appropriate PUNISHMENT like this?
CRIMES in India lack TIMELY PUNISHMENT!
Indian citizens will SUFFER more as a result.
..............
Nalini shifted back to Vellore jail
September 07, 2011
CHENNAI: Nalini Sriharan, serving life sentence for the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Wednesday broke down as she was shifted back to Vellore jail where her husband, one of the three men on death row for the same crime, is lodged.
Nalini was moved under heavy escort to Vellore, around 120 km from here.
Nalini made a request to be moved back to Vellore jail after President Prathiba Patil rejected the mercy petitions of her husband Sriharan alias Murugan, T. Suthendraraja alias Santhan and A.G. Perarivalan alias Arivu, set to hang for the 1991 assassination.
The three condemned men were linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). They were supposed to be hanged Sep 9 but got a reprieve as the Madras High Court stayed their hanging for eight weeks.
Police and jail officials in Vellore told the media that Nalini broke down while entering the special prison meant for women convicts.
She was shifted last year in June to the high security Puzhal prison here from Vellore after she alleged that prison authorities were trying to poison her food.
She also complained that jail authorities were preventing other inmates from interacting with her.
Soon after her complaint, Vellore prison officials raided Nalini's cell and seized a mobile phone and SIM cards.
Rajiv Gandhi, prime minister in 1984-89, was killed by a suicide bomber at an election rally near Chennai May 21, 1991. Fourteen other people also lost their lives in the blast.
Nalini was earlier given the death sentence. On the intervention of Rajiv Gandhi's widow and now Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
PRECISELY! For political advantage, Racist Tamil Nadu politicians want to "spare" the lives of those who killed Rajiv Gandhi, and many of their fellow Tamil citizens WITHOUT PITY.
These three killers were found guilty and convicted by the Supreme Court of India.
Yet, these demagogues want to undermine the Law of the Land to score political points! If such deeds go unpunished ... India will surely descend to ungovernable anarchy.
It is about time patriotic Indians recognized these politicians for who they REALLY are: UNPATRIOTIC Racist Demagogues unworthy of serving the nation as legislators!
............
Youth Congress wants trio to be hanged
ExpressBuzz.com
September 07, 2011
CHENNAI: The Youth Congress on Tuesday held a demonstration in front of the DGP office here urging the authorities to hang Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Led by State Youth Congress president M Yuvaraja, the demonstrators raised slogans demanding the execution death sentence for the trio. The agitators also demanded the “arrest” of those supporting the convicts, including Nam Tamizhar Iyakkam leader Seeman.
Speaking to Express, Yuvaraja said justice should be done on the issue in which over a dozen Tamils were killed, besides Rajiv Gandhi, in 1991. “We need justice. The case went up to the level of the Supreme Court and it was proven that the three men abetted in the spine-chilling crime. Now, to seek to overturn the judicial decision is not acceptable.” Strongly condemning the resolution adopted in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly seeking pardon for the death convict trio, he said the resolution must be “taken back and annulled”.
Stating that the resolution was “brought suddenly succumbing to pressure and to score brownie political points”, Yuvaraja said the Assembly declaration went against the sentiments of the Tamil people. Traffic movement was disrupted in parts of Kamaraj Salai and Dr Radhakrishnan Salai in the city due to the agitation.
Bloggers,
I have posted a SUPERB new article on the HYPOCRISY of Western Crtics of Sri Lanka.
My thanks to Thusita D. malli for drawing my attention to it.
Please shift over to it. Thx.
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