10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. Namal Karunaratne

Jathika Jana balawegaya· Kurunegala· 7 February 2025 ·Oral question: Oral Answers to Questions and Second Round Questions

Cost of LivingAgriculture
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Namal Karunaratne stated that the Government would purchase paddy from farmers at the stipulated fair price and avoid practices he alleged occurred under the previous Government, such as selling state-held paddy as animal feed. He said all purchased paddy would be milled and released as Government-branded rice to consumers at prices below prevailing market rates.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Member, I state this responsibly. We have ensured a very fair price to the farmer. Unlike during your Government’s time, we will not condemn the paddy taken into state warehouses and sell it under an animal feed label.

¶ 02 All of that paddy will be milled and rice will be provided to consumers at prices lower than the prevailing market price. Certainly, we will purchase paddy from farmers at the stipulated price, and we will release Government-branded rice to the market at a price below the prevailing market price. I announce this to the people of the country.

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Friday, 7 February 2025 ·No. 1739786070060795 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Namal Karunaratne. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 7 February 2025. No. 1739786070060795. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/22992