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Wire pulling a money spinner; villages in the dark

Angry villagers are to petition both the President and the Prime Minister urging the transfer of both the Karawanella and Deraniyagala police units for alleged supporting the removal of power supplying lines acting at the behest of political stooges to keep two villages in the dark. 

Two members of the local body and the provincial council have been identified by the villagers as the 'men cutting the power supply lines' and keeping the villages in the dark.

Angry villagers told The Sunday Leader that this has become a thriving business while people suffer with no power supply.

" And this is done by men who have been elected to office by popular vote" said U.Nandasena, a villager who said it was disgusting that powerful politicians maintained stoic silence while their stooges destroyed the infrastructure facilities provided decades ago.

Villagers claim that the illegal business has received the covert blessings of the area member of parliament, and hence, for the past six months a few men have been employed simply to cut and sell the wires.

The gathered wires are of high values and at least five kilos of wires are sold monthly, allege villagers who say that the racket has been going on for about six months amidst allegations that the police too  play a role.

The area was provided with electricity under a rural electrification scheme launched by the first Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake, and it is this network that is being destroyed by gangsters who want to make quick money.

An unnamed source complained that a youth organisation in the area had caught some of those involved in the racket and produced them before the area police to no avail. " They took no notice and the culprits were not produced before courts," said a villager.

" Thanks to all this, the power supply in the villages is in poor shape. What makes matters worse is the local politicians, the gangsters, the hooch vendors who get together to sell the wires and share the profits made" villagers told The Sunday Leader.

Confirming police inaction, an officer from the Karawanella Electricity Board told The Sunday Leader that a man recently died of electrocution while cutting off live wires, but added nothing was done to curb the growing problem.

Responding to the allegations, Samurdhi Minister and MP for Deraniyagala, R. A.D. Sirisena told The Sunday Leader that the matter has been placed before the consultative committee of the Ministry of Power and Energy and brought to the notice of the Inspector general Police as well.

- Ashoka Peiris

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