‘Opposition Leader trying to mislead farmers’

Priyanka Kurugala

Price fluctuation of vegetables is natural during a certain period of the year although the Opposition leader is trying to get political mileage using even the tomato prices, which is regrettable, Matale district Parliamentarian Lakshman Wasantha Perera said. “While the people are enjoying the fruits of the Divi Neguma programme, some parties are launching campaigns to hoodwink vegetable farmers by saying that tomato prices have dropped drastically,” he told the Daily News yesterday.

He said Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake had participated in an observation tour of the Dambulla Economic Center recently, where they lamented the drop of prices of tomatoes by Rs 2 per kilo.

“I inquired about this from traders at the Dambulla Economic Centre. According to them, they had to discard a few boxes of rotten tomatoes and that is why they had sold the tomatoes at a low price. Besides, the prices of vegetables come down at certain times of the year,” he said.