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JVP opposes Govt move to import rice
By Nalaka Nonis
The JVP is opposing moves by the Government to import paddy to check the rising rice prices and urged that paddy should be bought from local farmers at a reasonable price.

JVP Parliamentarian and farmer unionist S. K. Subasinghe said his party's position was that preference should be given to the purchase from the local farmer who is capable of meeting the country's demand.

Mr. Subasinghe, who heads the Samastha Lanka Govijana Sammelanaya, a farmer union that was in the forefront of protest fasts last year demanding lower fertilizer prices, said farmers in areas like Polonnaruwa, Tissamaharama and Ampara had ample stocks which they were holding back, hoping a reasonable price from the government.

"We don't see an immediate need to import rice to arrest the rice in prices. The Government should encourage the farmers to release their stocks by offering them a better price," Mr. Subasinghe said adding that the decision to import would only benefit traders who are manipulating the market.

Polonnaruwa Rice Mill Owners' Association spokesman L. Mithrapala said they would be severely affected and unable to sell their stocks if the government went ahead with its move to import rice.

Denying charges that millers were deliberately holding back the stocks to shoot up the prices, Mr. Mithrapala said they wanted to sell their stocks at a reasonable price to pay back their bank loans.

He said local farmers and millers were capable of bringing down the price of a kilo of nadu Rs. 29 and Samba Rs. 33 in Colombo. At present, the retail price of a kilo of nadu at the Pettah rice market is Rs. 35 and Sambha Rs. 38.

Pettah taders warned that prices could go even higher in the coming months if the Government did nto take swift action. Trade Minister Mr. Jeyaraj Fernandopulle said he and Agriculture Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake would undertake a study tour of Polonnaruwa next week before a decision on the import of rice was taken by a cabinet sub committee headed by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse.

The minister blamed the millers for deliberately holding back stocks to precipitate a price increase. Urban Development and Water Supplies Deputy Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, who represents a farmer constituency in the Hambantotal district, said any move to import rice had to be done before the next harvesting seasons so that it would not affect the farmer.

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