Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody told Parliament on Tuesday (7) that no scheduled power cuts had been imposed and any future load shedding would be announced in advance — a denial immediately challenged by SJB MP Ajith P. Perera, who produced a system report documenting manual load shedding the previous evening.
Responding to questions from SJB MP Mujibur Rahman about sudden two-hour outages in Colombo and surrounding areas, Jayakody said disruptions were “outages and not scheduled power cuts” and that engineers had moved to restore supply immediately. He accused the opposition of trying to mislead the public and pledged advance notice if planned cuts became necessary.
Perera rejected the explanation, telling the chamber the minister was “not suitable to hold the position.” He cited an official system report which, he said, recorded manual load shedding of 33kV feeders between 6:31pm and 10:59pm the previous day because of inadequate generation. “This minister is lying,” Perera said, according to Newswire’s account of the exchange.
The clash sets up a politically sensitive backdrop for the no-confidence motion against Jayakody, scheduled for debate in Parliament on April 10. Opposition parties have built the case on multiple fronts, including sub-standard coal procurement at Lakvijaya, the coal fraud allegations against the minister, and now alleged concealment of unannounced load shedding.
The same parliamentary session saw President Anura Kumara Dissanayake unveil his concessional relief package, including a Rs. 15 billion electricity subsidy for low-consumption households, underscoring how directly the energy portfolio sits at the centre of the government’s political pressure points.
