Firebrand Opposition Member of Parliament Dayasiri Jayasekera lashed out at the government charging it with being made up of elements of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna or JVP that were responsible for depriving the country of its staple diet rice during a campaign of terror and violence unleashed by it during an uprising in 1989-90.
Reading from a document in his phone Jayasekera claimed that rice mills in Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Moneragala, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee that stored 60 percent of the country’s rice requirement were burnt and destroyed by the JVP during its campaign of terror to topple the government at the time.
Food and Trade Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe did not deny the claims made by Jayssekera but said the figure was much less than 1000 metric tons.
“I wonder whether Jayasekera was referring to rice storage in some other country other than Sri Lanka”, said Samarasinge.
Rice was the staple diet of Sri Lankans for hundreds of years and the country was called the Granary of the East.
