Some 500 families who were long deprived of electricity in the remote villages of the Nunggaha Yaya, Gurumada Mw, Omalpe Medawathugoda, Galkandagoda, Vijeriya Udagama, Nandanagama and Ginigalgoda areas, in the Ratnapura district, benefited last week from an Iranian-funded rural electrification scheme. The project under an Iranian RE-8 loan facility was completed at a cost of forty million rupees. Power and Energy Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, addressing the gathering in Kolonne, Ratnapura, said that until President Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed duties as the President there had been no proper electrification projects to meet the growing power demand of the country. However, during the President’s official visit to India in 2005 the Sampur Coal power plant MoU had been signed, the minister said. But, the project had stalled due to numerous reasons and finally on the directions of the President and under the supervision of Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa the agreement had been finally signed recently. Many countries in the Asian region had not been able to provide even 50 per cent of their population with electricity, she said. "President Rajapaksa helped to realise the dream of providing electricity to all of you. In fact, the President, on numerous occasions, has told us that he still remembers how he and his brothers studied under the light of a petromax lamp at their Medamulana ancestral home," she told the gathering. She said hailing from a village himself, the President knew the hardships faced by the village folk and hence he had vowed to ensure that all households in the country were provided access to uninterrupted electricity by the end of 2014. Wanniarachchi also said that providing electricity to every household would no doubt improve the education of many village children, and as a mother nothing gave her greater pleasure than to see that children benefited through the provision of electricity to the rural areas. Among others present during the ceremony in the Kolonne electorate were, Ratnapura District Parliamentarian Sunny Rohana Kodithuwakku, Chairman of the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council Kanchana Jayaratne, tChairman of the Kononna Pradeshiya Sabha Daya Pathirana and Pradeshiya Sabha member Indunil Rajapaksa.