The Hon. R.M. Ranjith Madduma Bandara

¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, at this Adjournment, I move the following motion:

¶ 02 “Presently, due to the crisis faced by the workers of the sugar companies and the dependent farming families in this country, their lives are not sweet as sugar.

¶ 03 Around 50,000 farming families cultivating sugarcane in the Monaragala and Ampara Districts sustain their livelihoods based on the Pelwatte, Sevanagala, Ethimale and Galloya sugar factories, and around 10,000 workers are employed in those factories.

¶ 04 At present, as the sugar and ethanol produced by those factories cannot be sold, they are unable to pay workers’ salaries, and the purchase of cane from farmers and payments therefor have been severely restricted.

¶ 05 Despite the country’s needs for sugar and ethanol being locally producible, granting permission to import them has been a principal reason for aggravating this crisis.

¶ 06 Therefore, we propose that urgent measures be taken to dispose of the accumulated stocks of sugar and ethanol of those factories, to pay workers’ salaries and farmers’ dues, and to ensure the normal functioning of those factories.”

¶ 07 Today, the sugarcane industry is collapsing. Sevanagala and Pelwatte are state-owned companies; Gal Oya and Ethimale are in the private sector. Sevanagala and Pelwatte started about 40 years ago. Never before have workers and farmers faced such conditions. Due to policy lapses and wrong decisions, farmers are now destitute.

¶ 08 These factories are in Monaragala—Pelwatte, Sevanagala, Ethimale—and one in Ampara, Gal Oya.