Cabinet proposal submitted to acquire underutilised land owned by RPCs

The Minister of Plantation Industries Ramesh Pathirana revealed that a proposal has been submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers to acquire underutilised land owned by Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs).

The Minister made this remark during a meeting of the Ministerial Consultative Committee on plantation industries held recently.

He alleged that RPCs have almost completely halted fresh planting and instead have moved on to either to maintain the existing cultivation or to cut and sell the existing trees on these lands as timber.

Pathirana also highlighted that RPCs are against handing over even a small portion of their lands for development purposes.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa announced his support to draft new legislation in terms of acquiring such underutilised lands to the government.

He proposed that large-scale underutilised lands should be taken over by the government and then should be handed over to small-scale tea planters to uplift the country’s tea industry.

Earlier, former Labour Minister and current Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva claimed that there were 39,000 hectares of uncultivated and abandoned lands under RPC management. However, the RPCs blame the government’s adhoc policies including the ban on chemical fertilisers, weedicides and policy reversal on oil palm cultivation for the current state of plantations. They said attempts are underway to diversify into other crops such as coffee, strawberries and blueberries.