The Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka (on behalf of the Hon. (Dr.) Pathmanathan Sathiyalingam)
Asked whether the Government is aware that people in the Vanni, whose livelihoods depend on agriculture and animal husbandry, are shifting toward livestock due to difficulties in farming, while facing increased livestock thefts and inadequate police remedies. He sought details from the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation on proposed solutions and the timeframe for addressing these economic challenges, including thefts highlighted at the Vavuniya-North Regional Development Committee.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Asked the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation:
¶ 02 (a) Is he aware that— (i) the main livelihood of the people in the Vanni is agriculture and animal husbandry; (ii) people are losing interest in agriculture due to lack of markets, climate change, wild animal damage and epidemics; (iii) more farmers are engaging in animal husbandry as it is comparatively profitable; (iv) livestock thefts have recently increased, with more than 35 cattle stolen in a single day as revealed at the Vavuniya-North Regional Development Committee; (v) despite police complaints, no solutions have been found; and (vi) as a result, people in the Vanni face significant economic challenges?
¶ 03 (b) If so, what solutions will be provided, and within what time frame?
¶ 04 (c) If not, why?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Wednesday, 21 January 2026 ·No. 23242 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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Cite as: The Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka (on behalf of the Hon. (Dr.) Pathmanathan Sathiyalingam). 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 21 January 2026. No. 23242. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/2129