The Hon. R.M. Ranjith Madduma Bandara
R.M. Ranjith Madduma Bandara argued that traditional land rights of poor farmers should be restored rather than curtailed on the basis of court cases or agency concerns. He contrasted current decisions with past good governance and UNP policies, stating that released lands had enabled farmers to prosper, while many now struggle to repay loans. He urged authorities to assess conditions on the ground, protect the environment, and support onion farmers to rebuild livelihoods and improve domestic production.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 During good governance and UNP periods, we never took such decisions. We released lands to farmers and they prospered—bought tractors and machinery. Now many cannot even service loans. Please visit and see the ground reality; court cases cannot be an excuse to end traditional rights. These are very poor farmers. We need to unite and rebuild their livelihoods; we currently produce only half our onion needs. We can protect the environment and address agency concerns while restoring traditional farmer land rights.
¶ 02 Thank you.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Wednesday, 10 September 2025 ·No. 1758017450079419 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. R.M. Ranjith Madduma Bandara. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 10 September 2025. No. 1758017450079419. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/10777