The Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam

¶ 01 Mr. Chairman, I welcome the chance to speak under this Ministry’s votes. I used to follow the present Cabinet Minister’s fiery opposition statements with interest; if what he said then can be done now, it would be good. Perhaps he now sees what is not practical to deliver.

¶ 02 He spoke on developing coconut. Taking Batticaloa District as an example, I will raise points you could not or did not address. You said Rs. 500 million is allocated for the Northern Coconut Triangle—initially I thought Rs. 5,500 million, but you clarified it is Rs. 500 million—for 16,000 acres, and producing millions of seedlings.

¶ 03 In my district there are 800,000 coconut palms; of them, about 400,000 are affected by whitefly disease, first identified in 2021. By 2024 it has severely affected Batticaloa. You propose millions of new seedlings, but coconuts take 5–8 years to bear. We do not know if your government will still be here then. Right now, of the existing 800,000 palms, about 400,000 will die in the coming months unless treated—yet only 50 litres of neem oil have been sent to Batticaloa to address this. Allocations and media statements about a Coconut Triangle are fine, but you have no actionable plan to protect existing trees.

¶ 04 The Budget says fertilizer will be given to coconut landowners with less than five acres. In Batticaloa, only 5,000 kg of fertilizer has been sent so far. On inquiry, there is no schedule for further consignments. If you give in 3 kg packs, that serves only about 1,250 trees. How do you distribute in a district with 800,000 palms and 400,000 diseased?