<b>24 Hours Electricity - a Great Boon to Jaffna.</b>

From Guna Kajananth in Jaffna - July 25: The restoration of the 24-hour supply of electricity to Jaffna ten days ago, had quickened the pace of the return of normalcy in the northern peninsula, its inhabitants said.

For Haniffa, a grocery shop owner, who returned to Jaffna after 12 years, regular 24 hours power supply was a God send boon.

“I am expanding my shop. I am investing on a fridge (refrigerator) and a deep freezer. The demand for frozen foods, such as, ice cream, butter and chilled drinks, is growing fast,” he said.

Haniffa now keeps his shop open untill 8p.m., in the evening. Earlier, he closed his shop by 5 p.m. in the evening.

Abdul Mohammed Haniffa was one of the early Muslim returnees. Around 1000 Muslims have now returned. Earlier by 1990, they were all driven out of Jaffna, by the LTTE.

Pavement hawkers too have extended their hawking hours. “We have brisk sales till 7 or 7.30 p.m.,” Samsudeen said. Jaffna’s pavements are filled with hawkers, mostly Muslims, who sell almost everything, from safety pins to machine tools.

Marketing of local agricultural products are still controlled by local Tamil traders. Sivasambu Shankar specializes in fruits such as banana, mangoes, grapes and jak fruits. “Our sale had picked up. The prices too,” he said.

Demand for mangoes comes from the Sinhala pilgrims and Tamil expatriates. The average-size ‘Karutha Colomban’ the luscious mangoes of Jaffna, which sold at Rs. 5 a fruit last year, is selling at four times that price.

The prices of palmyrah products - dried yams and jaggery, too have shot up.

Groups of Sinhala pilgrims use to loiter the streets during night, buying and eating mangoes and pulukoddiyal.

LTTE office at Muhamalai estimated that, by the end of June, an average of about 2000 Sinhalese entered the Jaffna peninsula every day. With lit-up streets in the nights, now the number is expected to climb.

Municipal authorities grumbled that their services face added strain. Cleaning the city had become a problem.

Clogged pavements and increased traffic pose police, severe traffic management problem. Jaffna police said that they are talking to municipal authorities about demarcating specified areas for pavement hawkers.

Supply of electric power whole-day had helped people of Jaffna to resume their normal life.

Temples had pushed back the evening pooja (the ritual connected with worships) - arththajama pooja, to dusk. For the past several years they were held long before the sunset.

The families retire to bed late. Saras Vinothan said that they watch the TV till 10pm. “Earlier we sleep by 8 p.m. in the night.”

The greatest beneficiaries are the students. They can choose the time that suits them to study. Vinothans have two daughters and a son. The two daughters are sitting this December for GCE OL, study till midnight. The son, sitting next year for the AL, gets up at 3am.

‘This freedom they never had before. They studied together under a kerosene lamp. You know the amount of trouble we had in buying kerosene,” Saras sighed. She wished that such a time would never return.