Public sector told to cut down on electricity/fuel use

• Public Services Ministry issues circular to all State sector institutions to conserve electricity and fuel
• Use of ACs, electrical appliances, and official vehicles discouraged
• Street lights to be switched off in all areas except highs security zones
• Use of office vehicles also restricted with meetings to be held via Zoom and other technology

 

The Ministry of Public Services has instructed the public sector to cut down on both electricity and fuel usage as the country faces an energy crunch.

The guidelines on electricity and fuel usage discourage the use of elevators, air conditioners, electrical appliances and calls for cutback on vehicle use.

Ministry of Public Services, Provincial Councils and Local Government Secretary J.J. Rathnasiri has sent out detailed instruction in a circular to all Secretaries of Ministries and State Ministries, Chief Secretaries of Provinces, Heads of Departments/Government Agents, Heads of Government Corporations and Statutory Boards and Divisional Secretaries/Heads of Institutions.

This is in keeping with a Cabinet decision taken on Monday with the aim of saving and conserving electricity and energy .

The relevant public officers have been instructed to implement a special program to switch off streetlamps, which are managed by local government institutions in all areas except in high security and security zones.

Air condition should be switched off  from 2.30 p.m. up to 4.30 p.m. and electric fans used instead as far as possible while offices should be closed down after office hours and during weekends as far as possible, except when essential works are to be performed and where the work cannot be postponed.

The circular also said there are 75,000 vehicles in running  conditions in public institutions and it is possible to save one litre of fuel from each vehicle per day, a total of 75,000 litres of fuel can be saved and this would amount to approximately, 27,375,000 litres of fuel (27 million litres) annually.

As a fuel saving measure, the issue of fuel in addition to the prescribed volume for the ministers and public officers to whom vehicles are assigned has been suspended, while meetings where officials are summoned from outstation to Colombo too are to be restricted .

They are instead encouraged  to use systems such as Zoom and Teams for conducting meetings and discussions as far as possible.

The circular has also instructed the use of car-pooling systems as far as possible and encourages the use of other modes of transport to travel to offices and for office work.