{"id":149166,"date":"2025-04-18T21:20:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T04:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=149166"},"modified":"2025-04-18T21:20:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T04:20:45","slug":"govt-has-become-a-pawn-of-the-thermal-power-mafia-sajith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/04\/18\/govt-has-become-a-pawn-of-the-thermal-power-mafia-sajith\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt. has become a pawn of the thermal power mafia: Sajith"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy The Daily Mirror<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bmkltsly13vb.compat.objectstorage.ap-singapore-1.oraclecloud.com\/cdn.sg.dailymirror.lk\/assets\/uploads\/image_f2fbbb7d48.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Colombo, April 18 (Daily Mirror) &#8211; The government which has become a pawn of thermal energy mafia is all out to destroy the renewable energy sector, Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa charged yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Renewable energy is affordable where a country like Sri Lanka is concerned. It is a cost effective source of energy. This government pledged to safeguard renewable energy at the electoral platform. However, it has become a pawn of the thermal power mafia. This government has actually become a slave of coal power and thermal power plant owners,&#8221; Mr. Premadasa told a Janahamuwa in Minneriya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Premadasa said pressure applied by the people forced the government to reduce electricity tariff by 20 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also said the following during the janahamuwa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Electricity tariff could be increased soon because of government&#8217;s action. The Government is making falsehood reign in Sri Lanka at the time the whole world is moving towards renewable energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is also a possibility of a fertilizer price hike. Farmers have not been paid compensation for the damages caused by recent floods and by the human elephant conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Price of rice, coconut and milk food have increased. It is not possible to purchase a little quantity of salt. It is time for Sri Lankans to end deceptive politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy The Daily Mirror Colombo, April 18 (Daily Mirror) &#8211; The government which has become a pawn of thermal energy mafia is all out to destroy the renewable energy sector, Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa charged yesterday. &#8220;Renewable energy is affordable where a country like Sri Lanka is concerned. It is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}