UNP engaged in false propaganda over farmer suicides - Agriculture Minister

BY UDITHA Kumarasinghe

AGRICULTURE and Lands Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake yesterday stressed that in a situation where the Government has reserved Rs. 1365 million, the highest ever allocation by any Government to purchase paddy, the UNP is engaged in a false publicity campaign particularly based on the incident of three farmers who took their own lives using insecticide to discredit the United People's Freedom Alliance Government.

At present the UNP is engaged in conspiratorial politics and they are not doing politics with the people.

The intention of the UNP is to fabricate various false stories and publish them through several media institutions which are biased towards them, the Minister told a media briefing yesterday.

"Media institutions have a key responsibility to report correct information to the public. However several media institutions have gone far beyond this objective creating a doubt the impartiality and accuracy on their news published.

People should be aware of this false propaganda campaign launched by the UNP with the help of its friendly media institutions while attempts should be made to defeat this UNP conspiracy."

Dissanayake said the UNP's recent conspiracy against the Government was to take up the incident of three farmers who took their own lives. The UNP is attempting to highlight that these farmers committed suicide because they could not sell their paddy during this Maha season.

The true reasons were not mentioned by the UNP. One farmer took his own life due to the destruction of his two and half acre paddy cultivation by elephants while the other farmer (80 years) had committed suicide on March 25.

When this farmer took his own life the harvesting of Maha paddy harvest had not even commenced. The other farmer who was a 14-year girl who had committed suicide due to a private matter, according to her father and the husband.

According to the figures, 1521 males and 421 females had committed suicide in 2001 using insecticide. In 2002, these figures were male (1956) and female (410). In addition, 2084 males and 459 females had taken their own lives using insecticide. There is an increase of suicides in year 2002 and 2003. There is a need for a systematic plan to reduce these suicides.

Due to various initiatives taken by the Government to increase the productivity of crops, there was a slight decrease in suicides in 2004. This will be further reduced next year.

Former UNF Government had allocated only Rs. 538 million to purchase both 2002 and 2003 Maha paddy harvest. But the UPFA Government has allocated Rs. 1365 million only to purchase paddy during this Maha season through 1,223 purchasing centres.

However, the UNP could not open even 500 paddy purchasing centres during their regime. The UNP vests all state owned paddy stores and rice mills to their friends by completely collapsing the State paddy purchasing mechanism.

Dissanayake said the latest conspiracy of the UNP is to mislead the public by fabricating various false information on agriculture. But the UNP never highlights what the Government has done in the agriculture sector.

The UNF granted loans to the private sector at 14 per cent interest to purchase paddy. Once the UPFA came to power, this interest rate was reduced to 10 per cent.

The Government also wrote off loans and interest of small and medium scale rice mill owners considering the hardships they encountered. In addition the Government grants Rs. 150,000 interest free loan to rice mill owners to develop their rice mills, he said.

The former UNF Government gave Rs. 13.50 certified price per Kilo of paddy by removing the fertiliser subsidy. The UPFA Government has given Rs. 16.50 certified price per Kilo of paddy.

In addition, Rs. 3000 fertiliser subsidy given per metric ton of Urea fertiliser by former UNF Government has now been increased to Rs. 23,000. The UPFA Government has increased the fertiliser subsidy by seven or eight fold. This clearly indicates that the UPFA Government is striving to develop agriculture, he said.

The Minister said the Central Bank figures also indicates the country's potato, vegetable, fruits, onion cultivations have recorded an increase by the end of year 2004. In addition there is a rapid development in dairy production and the poultry industry.

All allegations the UNP levelled against the agriculture sector are completely false. All other opinions highlighted by the UNP on UPFA Government such as the graduate employment scheme, 100 metre buffer zone, paddy purchasing exercise and Dahasak Maha Wev project are also baseless, the Minister observed.