Wanni rice consignment released to Co-operatives

Irangika RANGE

COLOMBO: The Government yesterday released imported white rice and red nadu rice which arrived from the Wanni stipulating a ceiling price of Rs. 60 per kilo.

The rice will be distributed by Co-operatives, Sathosa branches and Co-op cities islandwide. The measure was yet another step to ease the current rice shortage.

Trade, Marketing Development, Co-operatives and Consumer Services Minister Bandula Gunawardena took steps yesterday to release 8,000 mts of white rice imported from Myanmar and Thailand and 200mt of red nadu rice which arrived from Vanni to co-operatives through the Food Commissioner Department (FCD) in Narahenpita so that consumers could purchase rice at the concessionary rate of Rs.60 a kilo.

He said that the FCD will release both white rice and red nadu rice at Rs.57 a kilo to the 11,000 of regional Co-operatives islandwide on a daily basis. “It is the responsibility of the Co-operatives to obtain sufficient stocks from the FCD on the approval of the Co-operative Commissioner,” he said.

Consumers can purchase only upto five kilos of rice from co-operatives.

The FCD will release the rice stocks after conducting proper quality test in its lab. There is no rice shortage in the outstations. It is only in Colombo and the suburbs that the problem prevails . Sufficient rice stocks will be provided at concessionary rates to this target group.

“Sufficient imported and local produced rice are being daily received at the FCD,” the Minister said. He said there is a rice surplus in Japan and President Mahinda Rajapaksa has spoken to the Japanese Ambassador on the possibility of importing 2,00,000 tonnes of rice from Japan.

“There are 2,00,000 mts of red nadu rice in the Vanni and we have planned to store sufficient red nadu rice stocks as a buffer stock at the state owned warehouses in Orugodawatta and Ratmalana to be used in an emergency situation.

“Once stocks arrive in the market, the price of rice would go down”, The Minister said this decision was taken despite the allegation made by several parties regarding the rise in rice prices. Minister Gunawardena said that certain parties wanted to create political instability in the country by increasing prices of essential items unfairly.

“This was a conspiracy to put the Government in difficulty. As a responsible Government, we are always committed to providing relief to the ordinary masses,” he said.