Those who misused the name of the Ceylon Electricity Board and gained undue economic advantage out of it or attempted to defame it in the past four decades had perished, senior trade unionist and convenor of the CEB joint trade union federation Ananda Nimalaratne said yesterday (19).

Referring to comments made by Chairman Lanka Transformers Ltd. U. D. Jayawardena, at the opening of Yugadevi power station, Kerawalapitiya about the 20,000 workforce of the CEB, he said the entire staff of the CEB including the engineers were shocked at the remarks made on that occasion.

Before being critical of the CEB employees, Jayawardena should have explained to the public how and why the contract signed with the CEB for executing the Yugadevi Power Plant, Kerawalapitiya for 210 million US Dollars was increased to 350 US Dollars Nimalaratne said.

Jayawardena had boasted that the Kerawalapitiya power plant would supply electricity to the national grid at Rs.18 or 20 but it had now been increased to Rs.40, he said.

The gross annual turnover of Lanka Transformers Ltd., was 12.5 billion rupees now compared to its turnover of 7.1 billion last year. Fifty percent of it was from the sale of electricity to the national grid and nearly 15 percent of the total thermal electricity supply in the country was generated by LTL he said.