Sri Lanka power chief withdraws claim about Indian PM Modi insisting on Adani for power project

By Team Newsable | First Published Jun 12, 2022, 11:43 AM IST

Ceylon Electricity Board chairman MMC Ferdinando now says that he made a false statement after allegations were levelled against him at the Committee on Public Enterprises session on Friday.

The head of Sri Lanka's electricity authority has withdrawn the sensational claim he made before a parliamentary panel that Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa told him that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had insisted upon a 500-megawatt wind power project be directly given to the Adani group.

Ceylon Electricity Board chairman MMC Ferdinando on Saturday night told local media outlet News 1st that he had withdrawn the statement which he claimed was the outcome of an emotional breakdown after allegations were levelled against him at the Committee on Public Enterprises session on Friday.

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Ferdinando had earlier claimed that Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had told him about the Indian Prime Minister's stand. He told the parliamentary panel that President Gotabaya summoned him on November 24, 2021, and told him that India's prime minister Modi was pressuring him to hand over the project to the Adani group.

On Saturday night, Ferdinando took a U-turn and said that he realised his mistake when Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara reached out to him on Saturday morning.

On Saturday evening, President Gotabaya took to Twitter to clarify his position on the Ceylon Electricity Board chairman's claim about the wind power project in Mannar. He categorically denied giving any authorisation to award the project to any specific person or entity.

Uproar in Sri Lankan Parliament

Sri Lanka's renewable energy deal with India's Adani group found mentioned in the parliamentary debate on the Electricity Amendment Bill, which was passed in Parliament on Thursday.

The Opposition alleged that the amendments to the 1989 Act were made to facilitate an unsolicited government-to-government pact to build a 500 MW wind power plant on the northern coast with the Adani Group's involvement.

The deal has met with strong resistance from power sector trade unions in the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). CEB engineers' union claimed that the government was rushing through the amendments to give large renewable energy deals to the Adani group.

The main Opposition SJB wanted projects beyond 10 MW capacity to go through a competitive bidding process, but the majority of the government MPs voted against the clause.

The amendments proposed to facilitate the new generation plants and overhead lines with an aim to fast-track renewable energy projects.

Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara said Sri Lanka was facing daily power cuts because it had no dollars to import fuel to generate power. He said low contributions are coming from renewable energy sources because many projects have been delayed due to resistance from CEB engineers.

Threatened with a power outage islandwide due to the strike, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa last night declared electricity an essential service.

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