Lanka to produce sugar requirement locally

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

COLOMBO: President Mahinda Rajapaksa has given instructions to produce sugar required for the country locally and arrangements have been made to construct five sugar factories to achieve this objective, Supplementary Plantation Crops Development Minister Dharmadasa Banda said at a media briefing at Seth Sevana, Kirulapona yesterday.

He said the JVP has spread a misleading story saying that the Government is planning to sell 60,000 acres of land from Wellassa but as a person born,brought up and living in Wellassa, he would be the first to oppose such a move.

He recollected an incident in the past when the Government tried to start a sugar manufacturing company in Pelawatta, how objections arose and the project ended up in disaster killing four people.

He pointed out that the Government spent Rs. 23,000 million in 2006 to import sugar. But Sri Lanka can produce sugar easily and utilise the money used for sugar imports for development projects.

The new factories will be set up in Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Siyambalanduwa and Moneragala districts and 12,000 acres of land belonging to people living in those areas will be used to cultivate sugar cane which would provide a large number of jobs to the poor.

Twenty one thousand people have already come forward to grow sugar cane on their lands.

He said lands belonging to the Forest and Wildlife Department or lands around Senanayake Samudraya will not be used to build the proposed factories as stated by the JVP.

The Minister expressed surprised about the objection of JVP to this massive development project which will eradicate poverty while saving foreign exchange.