President Anura Kumara Dissanayake says that the issue regarding paddy prices will never arise again. He also said that the government has renovated government warehouses to purchase paddy and allocated Rs. 5 billion for it.
He said that if the price of paddy decreases, the government will buy it and if it increases, the businessmen will buy it.
“We got ready, we renovated the paddy warehouses with a capacity of 300,000 metric tons. We made a purchase plan, allocated money to renovate those collapsed warehouses. As an initial step, we gave 500 million rupees to the Paddy Marketing Board to purchase paddy, and Sathosa made a plan to purchase more paddy.
We said that if you give us less than this, it is okay if you give us more than this, but we cannot give more rice. We have set a control price for that too.
The government will buy every paddy grain brought to the warehouses in short supply. We do not want the farmers to cry that they cannot sell their harvest anymore and that the harvest has gone to waste. The government is ready to intervene to stabilize the price.
If the price of paddy falls, we will buy it. If it rises, they will buy it. There is no need for the government to buy and hoard it. We want to keep the price of paddy stable at a reasonable price for the farmer. That plan has been successful. Never again will we have to sell our agricultural products We will not allow it to be sold for two…” the President said.
He made these comments while addressing a National People’s Powers rally held in Polonnaruwa.