Crisis for vacancy of the Ceylon Electricity Board

A crisis situation has arisen as the vacancy for the post of General Manager of the Ceylon Electricity Board cannot be filled. The reason for this is the controversy that has arisen between the political authorities and the engineers of the Ceylon Electricity Board.

Sources say that the selection of suitable candidates for the vacancy has become a matter of controversy on the basis of their support for and opposition to the Yugadanav agreement. Mr. MR Ranatunga, who was the General Manager of the Ceylon Electricity Board, recently retired. Although the appointment of Engineer DCR Abeysekera was approved by the Minister of Power and Energy Gamini Lokuge, it was not implemented due to the protest of the Senior Electrical Engineers Association.

Later a proposal was made to the Ceylon Electricity Board to appoint the former General Manager himself but the Engineers' Union has also objected to it. Accordingly, the name of Dr. Prasanna Perera has been proposed for the vacancy and there was no unanimous agreement of the Electrical Engineers Association for that proposal.

Due to this, a situation has arisen where no one can be appointed to the post of CEB General Manager even yesterday (14).

Sources say that in such a crisis situation where there is not enough money to buy oil and coal, the Ceylon Electricity Board too pushed into a crisis can be caused to arise a number of problems