Presidential Director General (Community Affairs)  Keerthi  Tennakoon said that 49 private sector filling stations, 18 cooperative filling stations and 7 other filling stations will continue to distribute kerosene to fishermen.

The Provincial Chief Secretaries and Governors were entrusted with the task of distributing fuel to the fishing community from yesterday (22). The supply of kerosene to the fishing community will be fully restored by tomorrow (24).

Around 28 bowsers of kerosene were delivered to Wattala, Hendala, Beruwala (Fishing Harbour), Hendala Wijesinghe, Galle, Ahungalla, Tangalle, Norochcholai, Puttalam, Chilaw, Chilaw Aluwaththa, Velvettithurai, Puthukudiruppu, Kayts, Gurunagar, Thalladi, Myliddi and Kalavanchikudi   yesterday (22).

In addition to this, kerosene and diesel will also be issued continuously to fishing communities in 14 ports operated by the Fisheries Department.

The Fisheries Department and the Governors of Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Kalutara, Colombo, Gampaha, Puttalam, Jaffna, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara are looking into the fuel needs of the fishing community  under the direction and supervision of the Chief Secretaries and District Secretaries of South, West, North West, North and East Provinces.

Directives have been issued to supply fuel today to all filling stations that had received approval by yesterday but had not received fuel due to not having paid for it yesterday.

The distribution of the kerosene oil will be carried out by 18 co-operative filling stations where no distribution of kerosene oil has been done so far.  Necessary financial facilities have been provided by Cooperative Rural Banks on the recommendations of Provincial Cooperative Commissioners and Secretaries.

Director General of Community Affairs Tennakoon said that the delays in the distribution of kerosene would be completely resolved within the next two days.

 If there is any difficulty in obtaining fuel for fishing activities, the President’s Community Affairs Division also requests the fishing community and businessmen to make their requests to the District Governor, Provincial Chief Secretary or the Cooperative Secretary of the concerned district.

Accordingly, the government has decided to release 50 fuel bowsers daily to meet the kerosene needs of the fishing community.

As at last week, the Petroleum Corporation had approved the release of 357 kerosene bowsers to meet the needs of the fishing community. However, the fuel stations had only obtained 206 bowsers (58%). The government has borne an additional cost of US $ 3.3 million for this purpose. However,  Mr. Tennakoon pointed out  that despite this additional expense, the supply of kerosene to the fishing community has not been done properly and the fishing community has not been able to carry out their fishing activities.

Ensuring food security is considered as a prime responsibility of the government and it is expected to meet the nutritional needs of the people through the current bountiful fish harvest. Therefore, it has been informed that the Ministry of Fisheries has delegated the responsibility to the Petroleum Corporation to determine the amount of fuel required by the fishermen and the areas where they should receive it.

It is also informed that the Secretaries of the Provincial Fisheries Ministries and Provincial Cooperative Ministries, Department of Fisheries, together with the Petroleum Corporation, have handed over the responsibility to the Navy to supply the required kerosene to the fishermen within the approved limits, through private, cooperative or other authorized fuel stations or with the assistance of the Navy.

The QR system will be continued until the full fuel requirements can be fulfilled, he adds.

State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna said that taxi operators can access www.wptaxi.lk and register for the service to obtain 10 liters of petrol, instead of the 5 liters offered.

The system, which will initially register three-wheelers in Western province, is to be eventually expanded to other provinces as well.

As the first phase, the registration of professional three-wheelers in the Western Province is scheduled to commence on November 1st.

This was revealed during the discussion held today (24) between the President’s Senior Adviser on National Security and Chief of Staff to the President Mr Sagala Ratnayake and the professional three-wheeler associations.

Accordingly, from November 6th, 10 litres of fuel per week will be issued to all three-wheeler passenger vehicles in the Western Province.

The registration of passenger transport three-wheelers will commence from November 6th to 13th, after which it is planned to issue the fuel quota to three-wheelers in other provinces of the island.
Currently, there are 1.08 million three-wheelers in Sri Lanka, out of 400,000 are passenger transport three-wheelers, according to the three-wheeler associations.

Around 300,000 three-wheelers have been registered with the Sri Lanka Police, and if it is not possible to register the three-wheelers in the entire island by November 13, it was also decided to release the fuel quota for the three-wheelers registered with the police as an initial step.

Provincial Governors and Provincial Road Transport Authority officials are also to be notified regarding this decision immediately.

Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera, Minister of State for Transport Lasantha Alagiyawanna, President Trade Union Director General Saman Ratnapriya and a group of officials participated in this discussion.