The Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka
Gayantha Karunathilleka raised concerns about small tea holders in his district, stating that green leaf prices have fallen from about Rs. 250 to below Rs. 200 per kilo and that access to suitable subsidized fertilizer remains inadequate. He urged the Minister to ensure a viable price and proper fertilizer supply, and criticized assurances that the rice issue is resolved, arguing that concrete relief is needed for affected people.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 You said it would end by a date; now you say it is over.
¶ 02 Finally, in my district there are many small tea holders who contribute to the economy. They are not a burden to the country. Earlier they got around Rs. 250 per kilo of green leaf; now it is less than Rs. 200. They also cannot get proper fertilizer. Even when subsidized fertilizer is priced at Rs. 4,000, it is only available in one place, not what people need. Only if companies like Baurs supply can the plucking continue. Without Rs. 250 per kilo, they are in distress. Please address these.
¶ 03 Coming here and saying “the rice issue is done” will not end people’s hunger. Hon. Minister, please provide answers that people can feel. I thank the Hon. Deputy Chair and conclude.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 9 January 2025 ·No. 1738229262040729 ·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.
- Permalink
/lk/speeches/23800
Cite as: The Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 9 January 2025. No. 1738229262040729. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/23800