The Hon. Thurairasa Ravikaran
Hon. Thurairasa Ravikaran raised a supplementary question on the condition of herbal gardens in the Northern Province, noting that although nine gardens covering about 119.78 acres reportedly meet 45 per cent of provincial herbal needs, several are poorly maintained, including the Mullaitivu garden. He attributed the problem to shortages of maintenance and minor staff, also affecting hospitals, and asked whether appointments in 2026 could cover both hospital vacancies and the maintenance or co-management of herbal gardens.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Thank you, Hon. Minister. My second supplementary: As at 20.06.2025, within the Northern Province there are nine herbal gardens—four in Jaffna (5.1 acres total), one in Kilinochchi (100 acres), three in Vavuniya (7 acres total), and one in Mullaitivu (7.67 acres)—altogether about 119.78 acres. The Provincial Indigenous Medicine Department states these cover about 45% of the Province’s herbal needs. However, the Mullaitivu herbal garden is overgrown and poorly maintained, with cattle roaming; many others are also underperforming. The main reason is lack of maintenance staff. Similarly, hospitals have many minor staff vacancies. If minor staff are appointed in 2026 to hospitals and to maintain or co-manage these herbal gardens, it will improve service quality and garden upkeep. Will this be done? Hon. Minister, I appreciate your diligent work and expect you to deliver on this as well.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 21 November 2025 ·No. 22936 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Thurairasa Ravikaran. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 21 November 2025. No. 22936. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/6272