31 March 2019 02:13 pm
All Ceylon Agrarian Congress accused the government of providing funds amounting to Rs.1,310 million to a private company to import milch cows.
National Organiser of the ACAC Namal Karunaratne told the media that foreign aid had been misused to provide funds to the company under another stage of the programme to import milch cows and that he was in possession of documents to prove the allegation.
He said the Department of Foreign Resources Department had obtained foreign funds amounting to Rs.1,310 million to a private firm on May 09, 2018, but the company had not yet imported any cows. He further said when he made inquiries in this regard under the Right of Information Act, they denied any allocation of funds to import milch cows again.
President of the National Centre to Protect the Dairy Farmers Susantha Kumara Navaratne said the government neglected the burning issues including that of the dairy farmers who purchased imported cows. He said the dairy farmers were in a predicament due to the heavy losses they had incurred. He pointed out that most of the imported milch cows had died.
A dairy farmer of Gedigaswalana in Sigiriya said he had purchased 250 imported milch cows and about 70 of them died.(Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa)