To transport vegetables :

Purchase 400,000 plastic containers - President

Suraj A Bandara

President Mahinda Rajapaksa directed Government officials to buy 400,000 plastic containers to transport vegetables and issue them to the market immediately.

He was addressing the Cost of Living and Food Preservation Committee at Temple Trees yesterday.

He further pointed out the necessity of a methodology to buy vegetables at a concessionary price giving redress to consumers. No party should incur loses due to vegetable prices. The producer, vendor and consumer should be benefited with a sufficient profit through this mechanism.

The President said traders from the city should be able to go to those areas and buy their products. It was revealed that the Government has bought over 182,513 metric tonnes of paddy and only 15,283 metric tonnes has been released to the market. The balance paddy stock has been stored in Government stores for future use.

Ministers Basil Rajapaksa, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, C B Rathnayake, Jagath Pushpakumara, Mahinda Samarasinghe, P Dayarathna, S B Nawinna, Johnston Fernando, Geethanjana Gunawardena, Secretary to the President Lalith Weerathunga, Secretary to the Treasury P B Jayasundara and Media Ministry Secretary W B Ganegala also attended the meeting.