By Ifham Nizam
The Ceylon Electricity Board has earned an income of nearly Rs. 60 million within the last three months by nabbing power pirates from the once war-torn northern peninsula.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) of the CEB has raked in a total of Rs. 9.3 million in fines following recent raids in the Jaffna Peninsula. The latest raid was carried out during the last week of January.
Power and Energy Ministry officials said that during the months of November and December, the Board earned Rs. 38 million and Rs. 12 million respectively through fines.
According to Power and Energy Ministry, in January alone, 155 persons had been nabbed obtaining electricity illegally. Of this, 71 cases were those where the meters had been tampered with. 81 cases were reported where hooks had been used to illegally tap electricity.
Ministry sources said that through power piracy, the CEB incurs heavy financial losses, at a time when the establishment has just been resurrected from financial ruin.
Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka urged the public to assist in bringing to book the fraudsters who were attempting to once again put the CEB into a financial mess.
Ranawaka established and empowered the SIU with the aim of rooting out all fraud and corruption within the CEB, in a bid to make it a profitable organization.
The Ministry called on the law abiding citizens to report fraudulent activities – meter tampering and illegal tapping of electricity – to the Special Investigations Unit on telephone No. 2422259.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=45023
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