|
|
|
  |
| Sunday, 24 April 2005 |
 |
|
 |
News |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Paddy: Highest ever purchase by Govt by Deepal Warnakulasuriya The UPFA Government's paddy purchasing scheme so far has brought almost 72,000 metric tons of paddy to the warehouses. It is the biggest ever harvest a government has purchased directly from paddy farmers. Deputy Agriculture Minister Bimal Ratnayake speaking to the `Sunday Observer' said that Rs. 1,215 million had been released so far for the project. This was a record amount released by any regime to buy a single season's harvest. The Government has purchased 23,584 metric tons from Polonnaruwa district alone by April 10 and 14,629 metric tons from Ampara district. Anuradhapura district has also bagged over the 10,000 metric tons of paddy. while over 5,080 metric tons have been purchased from the Kurunegala district. The amount from most of other districts was around 1,000 to 1,500, metric tons. Paddy farmers in Vavuniya had sold over 2,990 metric tons before the dawn of the New Year and it was 2,200 in the Trincomalee district. Ratnayake also said that they had earlier planned to close the purchasing counters by April 10, but had to keep them open till stocks were transported to the buying centres. Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Anura Dissanayake who was also present at a media briefing held at the Ministry premises last Thursday said that the Opposition was making allegations against the government's scheme seeking petty political advantages. He said that compared to the last UNP regime, they had spent very generously to upgrade the lifestyle of paddy farmers as well as target the marketing of rice at low rates to customers. "We have already purchased paddy at a price of Rs 1215 million only from Maha season harvest. But the UNP for four seasons had spent an amount much below that," he added. He also claimed that he had the details of a number of UNP MPs who managed agricultural resources completely forgetting the country's economy as well as the farmers' lifestyle. The Minister also added that two cases of suicide reported from Polonnaruwa had no relevance to the government's paddy purchasing scheme as claimed by some UNP MPs. The purchasing scheme takes place at 1,305 centres islandwide under the supervision of a special committee comprising officials from the Agriculture and the Agriculture Marketing Ministries. All paddy buying centres receive necessary funds weekly to buy paddy from the respective government agents with funds received from the Treasury. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
