Govt. stands with rice mafia; not with farmers or consumers: JVP

The Government is standing with the rice mafia rather than taking steps to protect the farmers and consumers by taking concrete steps to ensure a reasonable price for rice and paddy, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) charged today.

JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake told a news conference that the control price imposed by the Government for paddy and rice has neither benefited the farmers nor the consumers, but it has only benefited the major rice mill owners.

“The Government imposed a controlled price of Rs. 50 for paddy for the first time. There was a guaranteed price for paddy so far, which means paddy can’t be purchased below that price. Farmers had to sell their paddy harvest at a low price due to the Government's controlled price. The Government has now removed the controlled price for rice after the rice millers purchased the paddy stocks at a lower price. Farmers don't get a reasonable price for their paddy and consumers also don't get rice at controlled price. It has neither benefited the farmers nor consumers. It has only benefited the major rice millers. The Government is only taking the side of the mafia,” he said.

Mr. Dissanayake said rice prices in the market cannot be controlled by issuing gazette notifications and that it could only be done by breaking the monopoly in the market.

“Government's intervention is vital for this. The Government should have a mechanism to break the monopoly in purchasing paddy and supplying rice to the market. A competition should be created in the market. Government's intervention is vital in this. These rulers do not have any vision to introduce such mechanism, he charged. (Ajith Siriwardana)