Page ThreeThe IslandHome News Thursday 18th March, 2010 3

Power and Energy MinisterW. D. J. Seneviratne said whenthe Norochcholai coal powerplant, which is expected to gen-erate 300 MW from the firstphase, commences operations,there would be a drastic reduc-tion in the electricity bills. It isexpected to be commissionedin the middle of this year.

The second phase of thepower plant would be declaredopen by President MahindaRajapaksa today.

It would generate another600 MW. The government waspositive that power generationof 900 MW from the plantwould avert a looming energycrisis, Minister Seneviratnetold The Island.

He said that the work on

the Norochcholai coal-firedplant had

com-

menced in 2006 and the firstphase had been completed. Itwas the first coal-fired plantconstructed in Sri Lanka andwould considerably relievepower consumers soon as thehigh capacity power plants,which depended on fuel, wouldbe replaced by theNorochcholai plant.

Following the constructionof the plant, there had been arapid development of theKalpitiya and Puttalam towns.

The infrastructure facilitieshad improved immensely.Highways, roads, electricityand drinking water facilities

had also been upgraded.Minister Seneviratne

added that around 85 fami-lies who lost their lands

due to construction of theplant had been provided withnew houses and their welfarefacilities had also beenensured.

The WayambaEnvironmental Authority hadimplemented anEnvironmental managementprogramme to supervise theoperation of the Wayambaplant .

According to Power andEnergy Ministry, the ChineseCMEC company has providedUS$ 1350 million for the totalproject and around 3,000 directand indirect job opportunitieshad been generated. The plantwill replace all fuel-fired plantsand electricity charges arelikely be reduced by 2012.

Norochcholai will reduceelectricity bills – John

Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Bandula Gunawardena yesterday launched his per-sonal website www.bandulagunawardena.com at the Sathosa Headquarters. The eventwas organized by the Inter University Economics Scholars Federation. (Pic by Sujatha Jayaratne)

Following the recent exposureson Page 1 of The Island on February2 and 10, that sand mining continuedunabated in the Kelani River, rightunder the Kelani Bridge, residents ofthe area say that the miners havepacked up and left the scene.

Senior officials of the GeologicalSurvey and Mines Bureau and theCoast Conservation Department hadtaken steps to immediately stop suchacts, though they had both passed theblame onto each other earlier.

Security forces in the area yes-terday said that they were pleased tosee that illegal sand mining was nottaking place anymore. (IN)

No moresand miningunder KelaniBridge

It is now possible forGerman tourists to includetourist landmarks in theEastern Province such asTrincomalee, Batticaloa,Ampara and Arugam Bay intheir travel itinerary asGermany has eased its traveladvisory further. GermanAmbassador Jens Ploetner,just back from a tour of theEast, stated that the East hasits own charm and has vasttourist potential yet to betapped.

“Following extensivetravel in the EasternProvince, we have discoveredthat no specific securitythreat exists for tourists any-

more,” he commented andadded that he witnessedlarge-scale ongoing infra-structure development work.However, the economic condi-tions of many residents espe-cially of former IDPs stillremain bleak, AmbassadorPloetner stated. “I hopedevelopment of the tourist-industry in the Province willcreate new job opportunitiessubstantially. This depends,however, if general contrac-tors just as much as govern-ment officials, make an effortfor local contractors andprovincial workforce toobtain a fair share of thecontracts.”

Making an observationof the overall increase of for-eign tourist arrival to SriLanka Ambassador Ploetnersaid “the numbers ofGerman tourists haveincreased over 50% in com-parison with last year. Thisno doubt was due to the dawnof peace. I am hopeful thatSri Lanka could once againbe a prime destination forGerman tourists. However,sooner the last remnants ofthe past conflict such as thecontinuing Emergency Ruleand the numerous check-points are abolished the bet-ter for tourism to boom withno hurdles.”

Germany eases travel advisory to East

German Ambassador in SriLanka Jens Ploetner (right)with a Hindu priest oppositethe Nallur Kovil during hisrecent tour of Jaffna

by Ifham Nizam

Under the directions ofEnvironment and NaturalResources Minister PataliChampika Ranawaka, a censuswould be conducted next year onwater bodies, pollution rates andenvironmental damages and theirimpacts on the economy.

Ranawaka told The Island yes-terday that they would conduct acensus parallel with the popula-

tion census in 2011.He believes that this census

would be of immense importancefor future development pro-grammes and policies could beimplemented according to avail-able information.

He said that they were in theprocess of estimating the servicesoffered by the national parks,nature reserves, man and bios-phere in terms of absorbing car-bon dioxides in rupee terms.

The Sinharaja NatureReserve’s service to the environ-ment per year is estimated at US$58 million, he said.

Ranawaka, an ElectricalEngineer by profession, ruled outthe possibility of setting upnuclear power plants in Sri Lanka.“We are a very small country. Withthe use of nuclear plant anythingcould happen.

Basically, nuclear power is notsuitable for a country like ours.”

Census on water bodies, pollution rates, Environmental damages

The Australian HighCommissioner, Ms Kathy Klugman,on March 16, handed over Rs. 13million in grants to 13 communitybased organisations conductingsmall scale development projects indifferent parts of the island.

The projects were awardedfunding under Australia’s DirectAid Programme (DAP), which isavailable on a not-for-profit basis toindividuals and local communitygroups.

Ms Klugman said: “The HighCommission has long taken pride inthe Direct Aid Programme as itallows us to provide direct benefitsto community groups doing greatwork at a grass roots level. DAPfunding gets to those most in need.This year, with a doubling in DAPfunding for Sri Lanka, we have beenable to reach more people in need,in more parts of the country, includ-ing areas in the North and East”.

In this round, funds were pre-sented to: Sarvodaya to implementan island-wide project to support abilingual radio programme, YMCAin Kalmunai for an income genera-tion project for 41 conflict affectedfamilies; Rural DevelopmentFoundation, which will providebicycles to some newly resettledfamilies in Mullaitivu; PeragamanaGuild in Ampara for livelihoodactivities for 300 women; Centre forWomen and Development in Jaffnafor an income generation project for162 women; Mannar Association forRelief and Rehabilitation whichwill provide bicycles for some newlyresettled families in Manthai West;Abhimana CommunityDevelopment Centre inHorowpothana to renovate theRathnakumbura irrigation dam;Sabaragamuwa CommunityDevelopment Foundation inBalangoda for the construction of35 toilets for low income families;Centre for Performing Arts inJaffna for a project promotingsocial cohesion through educationand arts; Women’s DevelopmentCentre in Anuradhapura for a cattlemanagement project for 25 lowincome families; Uva WellassaFarmers Women’s Association inButtala for a income generationproject for low income families; UvaFarmers Development Foundationin Haliela for an income generationproject for plantation workers; andNirmanee Development Foundationin Kegalle to support a waterscheme for 40 low income plantationworkers.

To date, the High Commissionhas supported 21 projects island-wide in the last nine months. Theseprojects are designed to provideimmediate benefits to the recipientswho are fully involved in the identi-

fication, designand manage-ment of theproject activi-ties. ThroughDAP, the HighCommissionhas assistedwidows, chil-dren, the dis-abled, the eld-erly and therural pooramong others.

Australia announcesRs.13 mn in grants tolocal organisations

To assist children of Persons ofIndian Origin (PIOs) and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in pursuingundergraduate courses in higherand technical fields in India, theMinistry of Overseas Indian Affairsof the Government of India intro-duced a scholarship programme forDiaspora Children (SPDC) in 2006.Under this programme, 67 PIO/NRIstudents were granted scholarshipduring the academic year 2006-07while 81 students were grantedscholarships in the next academicyear. The Ministry of OverseasIndian Affairs seeks application forthe Scholarship Programme for theacademic year 2010-11. The high-lights of the scholarship are as fol-lows:

* 100 scholarships are beingoffered for undergraduate courses indisciplines includingEngineering/Architecture/Technology, Humanities/Liberal Arts,Commerce, Management –BBA/BBM, Journalism, HotelManagement, Agriculture/AnimalHusbandry, Science, Law etc.

* The Programme is open onlyto children of PIOs/NRIs from thespecified 40 countries including SriLanka.

* The last date for receipt ofduly filled in prescribed applicationform by Educational ConsultantsIndia Limited (Ed.CIL) is 10th June,2010.

* Candidates would be selectedon the basis of their performance inthe qualifying examination (equiva-lent to plus 2 stage in India) whichdecides the eligibility to apply forthe scholarship scheme. The candi-dates would also have to fulfil theentire criteria prescribed for thepurpose.

* The amount of scholarshipadmissible would be 75% ofInstitutional Economic Cost (IEC) orUS$ 3,600 (US$ Three thousand sixhundred), whichever is less. IECincludes tuition fee, hostel fee andother institutional charges.

For further information, pleasevisit Ed.CIL websiteswww.edcil.co.in; and www.educa-tionindia4u.nic.in

Scholarshipsfrom India

by Franklin R. Satyapalan

The Executive Director of PAF-FREL, Rohana Hettiarachchi yester-day said that there was an urgent needfor leaders and secretaries of politicalparties to take remedial action to haltclashes among candidates of same

party.He said of the 74 incidents of vio-

lence that were reported, 18 of themwere home and home incidents withsix party offices being damaged.

A large number of incidents werereported from the Kandy, Badulla,Gampaha and Ratnapura districts.

Of the 74 incidents of violence, 61were confirmed with 17 incidents ofgrave assault with 22 supportersbeing hospitalized, eight cases ofdamage to property, three casesof damage of vehicles and fivecases of misuse of State proper-ty.

Remedial action needed for clashes amongsame party candidates - PAFFREL

The ‘12th InternationalConference on Sri Lanka Studies’will be held from today (March 18)to March 20 with the main theme‘Sri Lanka after the War:Prevention of recurrence, reachingfor prosperity’.

Around 300 presentations andpapers will analyse the situation inthe Northern and EasternProvinces.

The Royal Asiatic Society andthe Open University of Sri Lankaare jointly organising the event.

It is open to the public by regis-tration.

Late registration begins at 8amtoday (March 18) at the MahaweliCentre Auditorium, 96, AnandaCoomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo7. Contact: 011-2699249.

Conference Homepage:http://www.slageconr.net/12thic-slshome.html

Post-wargrowth focusof key forum