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| Tuesday, 30 November 2004 |
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by Uditha Kumarasinghe The Agriculture, Lands and Irrigation Ministry has allocated Rs.300 million to implement the "Kalu Ganga" scheme. This will enable over 8,000 farmer families in Kantale to recommence sugarcane cultivation and also re-open the Kantale sugar factory closed down in 1992 by the then UNP Government, a Ministry spokesman told the Daily News yesterday. Following a request by Trincomalee District UPFA Parliamentarian Jayantha Wijesekera, the Agriculture, Lands and Irrigation Ministry has decided to implement the Kalu Ganga scheme to overcome the water problem of sugarcane farmers and the Kantale sugar factory closed down due to lack of water. "The Kantale sugar factory commenced operations in 1965. Despite loans given by the Treasury four times to rebuild the factory, a decision had been taken to privatise the factory due to the improper utilisation of these funds. Over 10,000 were employed at the factory," he said. The assets of factory were worth Rs.6,000 million. However, the then UNP Government had decided to sell the factory for Rs.45 million. Meanwhile, the provision of water from the Kantale tank to paddy farmers worsened the Kantale sugar factory crisis. But no alternative had been introduced over the last 12 years to overcome this problem, he added. Following a study conducted during the first quarter of 2004, MP Wijesekera submitted a report to the Ministry on all the factory's crises during these 12 years. Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim farmers had requested the former UNP Government to implement Kalu Ganga scheme. No action was taken by the former UNP regime to commence this project, he said. Having considered the requests by farmers and reports submitted by MP Wijesekera, the Ministry has reserved Rs.300 million to implement the Kalu Ganga scheme with immediate effect, he said. He said the Ministry obtained the final report on Kalu Ganga scheme on November 23. All future plans of the project will be formulated on this final report. Agriculture, Lands and Irrigation Deputy Minister Bimal Ratnayake had a discussion with irrigation officials to discuss providing water to sugarcane farmers of Kantale through the proposed Kalu Ganga scheme. Top irrigation officials including Deputy Irrigation Director of Trincomalee district A. Shanmugadasan and Irrigation engineer K.Gunadasa attended the discussion held last week. |
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