By Anuradha Hiripitiyage

Secretary of Electricity Consumers association Sanjeeva Dhammika says that electricity had been discontinued for 505,949 houses during the first half of this year due to their failure to settle bills on time.

Addressing the media yesterday Dhammika said that the government should provide relief to consumers as the vast majority of people were struggling to make ends meet.

Quoting official CEB records, Dhammika said that in addition to households deprived of electricity during the first half of this year, electricity had been discontinued to 8,579 factories, 2090 religious places pf worship, 353 state owned places and over 1.1 mn other places.