Starting in April there will be at least one thing that Sri Lanka’s government and the Tamil Tigers will be able to agree on - the time.
Sri Lanka will turn its clocks back by 30 minutes and revert to its old time zone after a nearly 10-year experiment aimed at maximising daylight failed, the government said Sunday.
The Tigers, who control a large swath of land in the north of the island, had refused to make the change when the experiment was introduced.
Starting on April 14, the country’s traditional new year, the official time will be 5 1/2 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time instead of the current six hours, government spokesman Anusha Pelpita said.
In 1996, Sri Lanka advanced its clocks by an hour and then later that year brought that back by half hour with the aim of maximising the use of daylight amid a power crisis.
Officials believed that electricity consumption would fall if sunlight lasted longer in the evening.
However, electricity use did not decline significantly, and children who had to wake up early to travel long distances to school did not get enough sleep because they went to bed later, Pelpita said.
“The public, especially parents, have complained about the hardships faced by children,” Pelpita said.
Sri Lanka will turn its clocks back by 30 minutes and revert to its old time zone after a nearly 10-year experiment aimed at maximising daylight failed, the government said Sunday.
The Tigers, who control a large swath of land in the north of the island, had refused to make the change when the experiment was introduced.
Starting on April 14, the country’s traditional new year, the official time will be 5 1/2 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time instead of the current six hours, government spokesman Anusha Pelpita said.
In 1996, Sri Lanka advanced its clocks by an hour and then later that year brought that back by half hour with the aim of maximising the use of daylight amid a power crisis.
Officials believed that electricity consumption would fall if sunlight lasted longer in the evening.
However, electricity use did not decline significantly, and children who had to wake up early to travel long distances to school did not get enough sleep because they went to bed later, Pelpita said.
“The public, especially parents, have complained about the hardships faced by children,” Pelpita said.
