Despite assurances by ministers no paddy purchases are made by PMB

• Private rice mill owner purchase paddy for a song in Dimbulagala Mahaweli Zone  

By Nimal Jayaratne   

Despite government ministers giving assurances that the government would thwart future rice shortages by creating buffer stocks by Paddy Marketing Board (PMB), no such purchasing has been commenced by the PMB in Dimbulagala Mahaweli Zone where the harvesting season has commenced.   

This has facilitated the private rice mill owner to take advantage and to purchase paddy for a song.   

The farmers who expressed concern of this sad state said the rice mill owners have put down the prices of dry Nadu paddy for Rs. 110 and wet Nadu for Rs. 108 a kilo. 

They said yield in more than 700 acres of paddy in Dimbulagala Mahaweli Zone has fallen prey to private traders.  

Representatives of farmer organizations said the rice mill owners who purchase paddy for a shilling are selling rice for black market prices between Rs.240 and 260 a kilo. They pointed out that the farmers in other areas would face a similar predicament for want of an effective paddy purchasing system for the guaranteed price. They accused the government of permitting the rice mill owners to import rice and sell them for exorbitant prices on one hand and on the other to exploit the paddy cultivators.   

 President of Iddapichchawewa Farmer Organization Ushan Wickremesuriya said the farmers have been left without a remunerative market for more than one million kilos of Nadu paddy which they expected to sell for the guaranteed price. He pointed out that the large-scale rice mill owners in the Polonnaruwa District were having a heyday and that it was a serious injustice to allow them to exploit the farmers.   

Meanwhile, a senior official of Polonnaruwa District Secretariat said the government has planned to purchase paddy for the guaranteed price through cooperative societies and that the paddy store complexes of the Paddy Marketing Board were now been refurbished.