The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe
Wasantha Samarasinghe rejected claims about the Government’s New Year relief goods pack, saying misinformation from social media had been repeated in Parliament. He clarified that the pack includes state-produced Suposha, not Samaposha, procured at about Rs. 135 per 200g packet, and said supplies, brown sugar from Pelawatte, and STC rice were being sourced with quality checks. He stated the objective is to provide a Rs. 5,000 pack for Rs. 2,500 to 807,000 Aswesuma registrants who did not receive benefits in the second round, and urged Members to verify concerns with the relevant authorities before raising them.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Mujibur Rahman, please allow me a brief moment.
¶ 02 A Member made misleading claims about the New Year relief goods pack. Social media falsehoods are being repeated in Parliament. On the Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Head day, when Hon. Nalin Bandara asked, I clearly listed the pack contents.
¶ 03 I specifically said the pack contains Suposha, not Samaposha. Suposha is produced by the state Thriposha factory. Social media posts claim Rs. 370 per 200g packet; that is false. We procure 200g Suposha at about Rs. 135 per packet—Rs. 270 for two. The supplier has committed 675,000 packets in the first week, with more to follow.
¶ 04 We also source brown sugar from Pelawatte (a state company). STC rice quality is checked every 21 days. STC rice is to be used for this pack because our cost per kilo is about Rs. 211.50, allowing us to offer a Rs. 5,000 pack at Rs. 2,500 to the 807,000 Aswesuma registrants lacking benefits in the second round. Please do not bring social media lies to Parliament; if you have issues, verify with us.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Friday, 21 March 2025 ·No. 1747297753031842 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 21 March 2025. No. 1747297753031842. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/15768