Govt. to get foreign experts to continue Uma Oya: President

President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday said the Government expects to get the assistance of foreign specialists to seek the possibility of taking forward the Uma Oya project.

“The people in the area have to face the bad effects of this project which had been operated only on the political decisions, neglecting the advice of the engineers. Though the groups who corrupted millions of rupees through those wrong political decisions, and committed financial frauds are silent in front of the people’s protests today, the Government will carry out an investigation against them,” he said. 

The President was speaking at a ceremony held in Nuwara Eliya. 

“When the current Government came to power, the possibility to stop this project was examined. But we couldn’t stop it as two-thirds of the project had been competed by that time. Furthermore, we had to consider moving the project forward as a huge loan had been taken from the Government of Iran for this project,” he added.

President Sirisena stated that he had held discussions with local and foreign specialists regarding the actions to be taken now. He said a German specialist on mining had started investigations and another group of specialists would arrive in Sri Lanka to carry out further studies.

The President, commenting on the protest carrying out by the workers of the Electricity Board, stated that they were protesting as the former Government gave salary increments only for the higher posts of the Electricity Board and did not provide any pay hike for lower rankers. Commenting on the protests against SAITM, he said that issue was also created by the previous Government.

He further said that today Facebook and social media sites were obstacles to build national unity and religious reconciliation in the country. 

“Extremist groups using this medium are attempting to create unrest in the society and all should understand this situation,” he added.   President Sirisena said that the Government was committed to bring the beauty of the estate sector to the lives of its employees and that the Government had paid special attention to eliminate child malnutrition in the estate sector and eradicate the drug menace.

The 125th anniversary of Highlands College, Nuwara Eliya was held under the patronage of President Sirisena at the D.K.W. Weeratunga Cultural Centre in Hatton. During this ceremony the President presented awards to the students who showed outstanding performance at the school and also issued a commemorative stamp to mark the 125th anniversary.

The President handed over the title deed of 10 acres of land to the Principal for the benefit of Highlands College.

Central Province Governor Niluka Ekanayake, Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake, people’s representatives in the area including State Minister P. Radhakrishnan, Arumugam Thondaman, Senthil Thondaman and others participated in this event.

Later, the President made an inspection tour of the Kotagala Tamil Maha Vidyalaya and looked into the education of the children.

Recently, during a visit by the President to the Talawakele area, the students of the Kotagala Tamil Maha Vidyalaya informed the President about the shortages in their school and consequently under the instructions of the President the relevant officials took steps to fulfill those needs of the school.

President opens new solar power unit at Abhayarama Temple

President Maithripala Sirisena opened the micro solar power unit installed at the Abhayarama Temple under the sponsorship of Takima Tech Lanka yesterday. 

This project was implemented under the  Government’s  new  community -based  power  generation  project  ’Soorya  Bala  Sangramaya’  (Battle  for  Solar  Energy), which is aimed at establishing  micro  solar  power  units  in  one  million  houses  throughout  the  country.

This program was launched according to a concept of President Sirisena to boost sustainable power generation  in  the  country.

The Chief Incumbent of the Abhayarama Viharaya Muruththettuwe Ananda Thero, Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Deputy Minister Ajith P. Perera, Japanese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Kenichi Suganuma, Takima Tech Lanka Ltd. President Kotaki Masato, directors Toshio Mizushima and Yasuo Kuriyama, Serendip Green Company Chairman Sahida Hettiarchchi and several others participated in this event.