Inauguration of Hingurana Sugar
L A W Liyana ARACHCHI
The Galoya Development Board was a concept of the First Prime
Minister of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Don Stephen Senanayake, Father of the
Nation in his capacity as the Agriculture Minister. It was the first
largest, in Ceylon and in Asia as well, then. The Board was constituted
by an Act of Parliament with the advice and consent of the House of
Representatives on November 24, 1949.
I was one of the pioneers of the Galoya Sugar Industries, the triplet
born last to the three largest industries of the multi-purpose Gal Oya
Scheme. The other two were the rice mill at Chavalakade situated between
Kalmunai and Sammanthurai and the tile factory at Irakkamam situated on
the route to the Deegawapi temple. These industries were the largest in
Asia as well.
The now defunct Davasa Sinhala daily news paper carried the following
all inclusive advertisement, a stimulant short and sweet in mid May
1962.
A rupee was great money in 1962. Eight rupees per eight hour day was
a great wage and multiplied by 30 made 240, the equivalent of the salary
of a monthly paid officer on grade eight of the board who enjoyed two
sets of second class railway warrants also per annum.
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Harvesting
of SugarCane |
Attracted by this advertisement, in addition to the skilled men in
large numbers were school leavers after the Senior School and Higher
School Certificates who streamed into the valley in thousands to join.
I was one amongst the thousands who lined up in front of the Sugar
Secretariat. Lieut Bastianpillai who commanded the Ceylon Army Pioneer
Corps stationed at Muhangala between the villages two and six and had
his office in the ground floor of the secretariat had to deploy his
personnel to control the massive crowd. I was hired on June 2, 1962.
As jungles were felled and wilderness turned habitable, the influx of
people increased, Hingurana becoming populous and known to the open
world. As settlements flourished and settlers got down to business,
politics also became indispensable in daily life inter alia. By then,
Trade unions in respect of various trades had sprouted in mushroom
numbers. The SLFP Trade Union was led by Mahindaratna, the MEP by MS and
Kulasiri Bakmeewewa brothers, the LSSP by Ranbanda and Lawrence and last
came the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya of the UNP led by Kalanasiri
Sudasinghe, Chief Clerk of the Board Secretariat and party nominee for
the candidature. M S Bakmeewewa was Mineral Sands Corporation Chairman
under a UNP regime. Some of the other Unions also had connections with
political parties whilst the rest remained independent. But, they were
not prominent and not in the forefront like the latter.
There were several plantation divisions viz Moravil Aru beginning
from near the Saw Mills at Amparai, Galmaduwa, Varipathanchena,
Illukchena, Muhangala, Keenawatte, Ekgal Aru, Padagoda, Pallanoya and
Koknahara. The housing schemes were in nine villages comprised 2,000
quarters with a Superintendent's bungalow in each division. Padagoda,
Pallanoya, and Koknahara plantations were continuously destroyed by wild
elephants and the boar hence before long those divisions had to be
abandoned. Today, these areas are a colonization scheme.
The majority of recruits returned quickly. They came to the valley
because of the scarcity of provisions and as they could not bear the
scorching heat. However, even under these wide ranging climatic
conditions they were determined to stay. Most had the opportunity to
gain admission to the factory when a decision was arrived at by the
Board to fire (discharge) the participants of a strike launched by the
left wing trade unions to subvert its progress. When this Act was
presented to parliament, Communist Party leader the late Dr S A
Wickremasinghe had gone on record naming the Sugar Factory as a white
elephant because a plantation had not been ready to feed it to its
capacity and also, about the presence of "crow" size mosquitoes in the
valley when the settlement schemes were discussed.
But, these utterances had failed to hinder the progress of work or
prevent the people from participating in.
The sugar factory had a capacity of crushing 1,500 tones of sugarcane
per day.
It was a gift of the Czechoslovakian Government of President Marshall
Tito who was an intimate friend of the Prime Ministers, S W R d
Bandaranaike and Sirimavo Dias Bandaranaike.
The factory was ceremonially inaugurated on July 4, 1962 to the
chanting of seth pirith.
I was present on the site, on that day at that time when the first
piece of sugar cane entered the gantry.
Harvested sugar cane was transported to the factory in small trailers
weighing one tone eight cwt, one qt and 14 lbs. Each trailer carried
more than five tons of cane. The large trailers weighing two tons 12 cwt
o2 qt and 14 lbs carried above 12 tons.
People enjoyed a picturesque view of the trains of trailers hauled to
the factory alone the main roads. In doing so, the services rendered by
a fleet of Massey Ferguson 65 tractors should never be forgotten.
Every tractor hauled a minimum of 30 tons in six small trailers at
one time and about 72 tons in six large trailers at one time. Amongst
the other agricultural machinery donated by countries under the Colombo
Plan were of the makes Farmall, John Deere, Massey Harris, International
Harvesters, Euclid Hose, Cane Landers and Super 90s.
Harvesting of sugarcane has to be stopped before the on set of
monsoon rains in October. In keeping with this necessity when
harvesting, crushing and production came to a halt in the first week of
October 1962. The industry had produced 290 tons of white sugar to begin
its history.
On October 1, 1967, the Galoya Sugar Industries was handed over to
the newly established Sri Lanka Sugar Corporation amalgamating the
Kantalai Sugar Industries belonged to the Department of Agriculture and
bringing salary scales on par with Hingurana which were the highest.
This move was intended to continue it as a commercial venture. When this
decision was carried into effect almost all the officers and employees
opted to revert to the Board excluding a handful of them including me.
So they bid adieu to an industry they brought up and an industry that
brought them up and left for various stations they were deployed to work
for, leaving it all alone from whence it had to stand on its own
footing.
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