Kanchana Wijesekera, Sagala Ratnayake among Godfathers of Electricity Mafia – Ranjan Jayalal

Kanchana Wijesekera and Sagala Ratnayake are among the godfathers of the process of breaking up and selling the Electricity Board under President Ranil Wickramasinghe, says Ranjan Jayalal, General Secretary of Ceylon Electrical Workers Union.
These matters were presented in the special revelations named “Godfathers of the Electric Mafia” conducted by the ‘Voice against Corruption (VAC) Organization on the 29th.

Speaking further, the General Secretary of the Ceylon Electrical Workers Union said, “Immediately after the revolution in Russia, Lenin announced that electricity would be provided to all of Russia. Electricity is essential for the development of a country. In the future, we have to give the opportunity, after calling for tenders, to produce more than 10 megawatts of solar power that we can get very cheaply. But there are people like Kanchana Wijesekera and Sagala Ratnayake, who are the godfathers of power generation deals of more than 700 MW. A conflict has arisen based on the energy sector. Sri Lanka’s electricity mafia has brought our country to the situation of causing international conflicts.
Three godfathers of electricity mafia drafted this bill. The oil mafia caused losses to the electricity board through coal tenders. The mafia godfathers who led it have gone beyond Sri Lankan territory. Ferdinand, the former secretary of the Ministry of Electricity at the time of Mahinda’s defeat in 2015, made a special revelation before the COPE committee on June 11, 2021. On 27 November 2020, a special discussion held at the President’s House was attended by Adani Company of India, officials of the Ministry of Power, Embassy of India and officials of the Electricity Board. At the end of the discussion, President Gotabaya Rajapakse called Ferdinando, the Electricity Board chairman at that time, and said that action should be taken regarding the transfer of solar power plants and wind power plants to the Indian Adani company. Ferdinando had then told the COPE committee that he was under a lot of stress. However, those facts were not brought to the people by the media.”