{"id":16142,"date":"2013-02-09T00:39:11","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T05:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=16142"},"modified":"2013-02-09T11:28:03","modified_gmt":"2013-02-09T16:28:03","slug":"jaffna-businesses-face-huge-financial-losses-due-to-numerous-power-cuts-in-the-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=16142","title":{"rendered":"Jaffna Businesses Face Huge Financial Losses Due to Numerous Power Cuts in the Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dinouk Colombage <\/strong><\/p>\n

J<\/strong>affna shop keepers are facing financial losses amounting to hundreds of thousands of rupees due to ongoing power cuts in the town.<\/p>\n

Over the Independence weekend alone, the town experienced power cuts totalling 22 hours, on Saturday and Sunday. According to locals, this is a common occurrence with power cuts having been enforced for the past several months, particularly during weekends.
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\n N. Imarshanan, a local shop owner, explained that due to ongoing power cuts, he has been forced to purchase and operate a generator, at a considerable cost. \u201cOn average, I am forced to spend nearly Rs 10,000 a day on the running of the generator. Weekends are my busiest days of business, which means I cannot afford to shut, and if I do not have a generator, many of my products will be ruined,\u201d he lamented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile power cuts usually occur over the weekend, we also have unscheduled interruptions during the week, which means I need to operate my generator for an hour or so on those days as well,\u201d Imarshanan explained.<\/p>\n

Lohith Mikesh, an employee of a local ice-cream parlour \u2013 who requested anonymity of the business \u2013 explained that due to the necessity of maintaining freezers and the need to keep the shop open till late hours, a generator is usually in operation from the time they open for business. \u201cIf there are power fluctuations, which happen often in Jaffna, it can damage the freezers and will be extremely costly for us to repair. To avoid this we run our generators for most of the day. Fuel prices are very high and this means the cost of operations are much higher than normal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Generator<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mikesh estimated costs incurred due to power cuts nearing Rs 20,000 for each day the generator is operated. He added, that when they have inquired from the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) about the power cuts they have been told it is simply maintenance work.<\/p>\n

While life appears to be continuing relatively unhindered due to power cuts, the story is slightly different in the rural areas, outside of the Jaffna town.<\/p>\n

Illakiyen, a farmer from the region of Kandavalai explained that they are forced to endure several hours of power cuts throughout the day. \u201cWe were not connected to the main electricity grid of the country for almost 20 years. Now the government has arrived and claims to have incorporated our villages into the grid. Yet, we still have interrupted power supply,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Illakiyen, the continued interruptions to the power supply not only affect their work, but also results in concerns over their safety. \u201cOur village is located in a thick jungle. We must have lights around to ward off wild animals. Earlier, we relied on kerosene lamps, but now with the availability of electricity, we do not. However, when the power is cut without any notice, we are forced to search in the dark for kerosene lamps. On occasions we may not even be prepared,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Concern<\/strong><\/p>\n

While safety is a concern, the farmers also complained the continuous interruptions to the power supply are having a knock on effect with their work. \u201cWe need to operate our pumps, which run off electricity, to water the crops. The interruptions to the power supplies, which can run for hours on end, mean we are forced to use generators which cost us a lot of money,\u201d Illakiyen explained.<\/p>\n

Jaffna Deputy General Manager of the CEB, J. Gunatillaka, explained that any power interruptions caused in the area were due to ongoing road work in and around the town. He denied the CEB was imposing power cuts on the town.<\/p>\n

In September of last year, the CEB announced that Jaffna Peninsula had been connected to the national grid after a period of 25 years. On 31 December, Jaffna was connected to the Kilinochchi sub-station by a 132KW transmission cable. The entire project cost the government a total of Rs 3.2 billion.COURTESY:CEYLON TODAY<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Dinouk Colombage Jaffna shop keepers are facing financial losses amounting to hundreds of thousands of rupees due to ongoing power cuts in the town. Over the Independence weekend alone, the town experienced power cuts totalling 22 hours, on Saturday and Sunday. According to locals, this is a common occurrence with power cuts having been …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Jaffna Businesses Face Huge Financial Losses Due to Numerous Power Cuts in the Town’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16142"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16181,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16142\/revisions\/16181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}