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Census Department website down for two weeks 

23 Apr 2022

  • No power to run servers
By Imesh Ranasinghe  The website of the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS), which is mainly responsible for the collection and dissemination of statistical data requirements of the Government, has been down for the past two weeks as the Department is unable to find a generator to run its servers during power cuts, the Department said. Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, DCS Director-General Prasad Anura Kumara Palamullalage said since shutting down and restarting the servers during power cuts would damage them, the Department had decided to shut them down until a suitable generator was procured. “Earlier we had one generator, but operating a generator for a longer period during power cuts is very expensive and the Department does not have the funds for this,” he said. He added that they would need at least 35 litres of diesel to generate power for an hour. He said the Department had to shut down the servers for now but would restart operations again in two weeks when they are able to procure a smaller generator just to supply power to the server. DCS is one of the largest departments in the Government with over 1,300 staff employed and posted at DCS branches in the ministries, departments, districts, and DS divisions. The other important fact is that some of the most important Government websites were down during the cyberattacks conducted by hackers on Wednesday (20) targeting LK domains, with websites of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) being impacted by the attacks. Commenting on the impact of the power cuts on their work, Palamullalage said that their day to day operations had been impacted to some extent. He said the field officers who send data from various surveys and censuses have not been able to upload data online before their deadlines due to the power cuts: “We have now given them a certain time period before which they can send in the work,” he added. However, he said that while other important reports prepared by the Department had not been delayed, there would be a delay in making the reports available to the public as the website was down.     


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