Reveal clear policy without deceiving country: NPP

Claiming that the Government had reversed the decision to ban on the use of chemical fertilizer, the National People’s power (NPP) today urged the Government to reveal its clear policy without deceiving the country.

NPP MP Vijitha Herath told parliament that the Government had allowed the import of Nitrogenous chemical fertilisers and phosphatic through the gazette notification 2238/45 in July.

“These are not organic fertilizer. They are chemical fertilizer, TSP and MOP. The Finance Ministry has submitted in parliament another gazette notification today in view to obtain approval to import chemical fertilizer. This means the Government has reversed the gazette on prohibiting chemical fertilizer twice now,” he said.

He said the Government should clearly state its policy without leaving the farmers in dilemma.

“Don’t mislead the farmers. The economy cannot be revived by cheating them. If so, the economy will hit the precipice,” he said.

The MP also said the Government was planning to import urban waste from China even though it claimed to import sterilized organic fertilizer with 17% nitrogen.

He said the sample of the organic fertilizer taken from China has revealed that it contained Erwinia pathogen and added that it was harmful to most vegetable cultivations and especially potato cultivation.

“It is evident that this organic fertilizer has not been sterilized as it was approved by the cabinet to import only sterilized fertilizer. The Government has not taken any step to test another sample or stop the move to import the said fertilizer,” he said.

MP Herath said the importers had withdrawn from importing organic fertilizer claiming that they could not find the manure with 17% nitrogen and added the importer who had offered to import organic fertilizer was importing fertilizer with lesser than 10% nitrogen going against the approved criteria.(Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan perera)