Agreement cannot be revealed without India’s consent – CEB

A Right to Information (RTI) request revealed that a copy of an agreement, between India and Sri Lanka, on a solar power plant project in Sampur, could not be made public without India’s consent.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), owned by Ministry of Power in India, signed the said agreement on 11 March, to build a solar power plant in Sampur, Trincomalee.

But, the CEB refused to share a copy of the agreement on the plant and said that NTPC has not given its consent to share the complete document.

“However, NTPC has not objected to releasing the agreement with the relevant information pertaining to a specific query with their consent,” CEB added.

This reply was given by CEB’s Deputy General Manager for Coordination Engineer S.H. Midigaspe, who is one of the Information Officers at CEB for the RTI Application.

NTPC signed the agreement with the Sri Lanka Government on 2012 to set up the coal power plant in Sampur. It was cancelled after objections from area residents.