Divineguma to uplift 700,000 families

The Economic Development Ministry’s objective is to make Sri Lanka free of poverty by 2016 by boosting the economic levels of 700,000 families selected from all over the country under the Divineguma programme, Minister Basil Rajapaksa said.

He said 50 poor families from each of the 14,008 grama seva divisions will be selected for this. The minister addressing a workshop attended by Agrarian Services Department officers at the National Youth Service Council auditorium, Maharagama, said he and the President had the experience of being land owners as well as tenant farmers and said their father entered politics as a farmer. Nearly 1,000 senior officers attended this workshop on agricultural development.

Minister Rajapaksa said the Paddy Lands Act which then Minister Philip Gunawardene introduced was first implemented in Hambantota under the leadership of his father D A Rajapaksa. Minister Rajapaksa said this step is being taken in accordance with the government’s plan to develop the agricultural sector by completely modernising the 577 agro-service centres islandwide. Each of these would be a model service centre, he said.

Agro-service centres which were begun on the direction of Hector Kobbekaduwa have expanded having undergone many changes, the minister said.

“What is required is to develop these centres so that they would be of service not only to farmers but everyone,” he said.

Minister Rajapaksa said among the first steps the President had taken was to develop Northern and Eastern Provinces devastated by terrorism. The minister said it had become necessary to enforce the law parallel to developing the agricultural sector.

“Implementing the Paddy Lands Act is one of the main responsibilities of the Agrarian Services Department which needs to undertake the task of solving problems relating to the implementation of the Act. However the department should not limit itself to legal matters but focus more on meeting the overall development requirements of the farming community,” the minister said.

The tasks of the Agrarian Services Department, which was established on October 1, 1957, include among others enforcing the Paddy Lands Act introduced in 1958, maintenance of small irrigation channels and advising on agricultural issues.

The minister stressed the need for the department to undertake the responsibility of developing and maintaining 45 percent of small irrigation channels - below 200 acres - with the cooperation of other state organisations linked to the agricultural sector.

It is necessary, he said to identify irrigation channels that need to be developed and the work to be completed within a specific time frame.