Millers tickled pink

Wednesday 30th June, 2021

The government seems to think that the masses are poonac eaters. Minister of Agriculture Mahindananda Althugamage has gone on record as saying the fine for selling rice above the stipulated prices will be increased from Rs. 2,500 to Rs. 100,000. So, this is how the government is trying to make rice available at reasonable prices!

Aluthgamage has also claimed that there is no fertiliser shortage in the country. He insists that the Opposition is spreading false rumours to discredit the government! Is it that the farmers who are up in arms across the country, demanding fertiliser are out of their senses? There is hardly anything devoid of politics in this country, and the Opposition is obviously making political capital out of the woes of the public, but the fact remains that the people are experiencing shortages of rice and fertiliser due to hoarding and, above all, the impotence of the government to take on hoarders.

The government is tickling the big-time mill owners by coming out with various remedies, knowing well that they will not work. The rice Mafia must be tickled pink to see the Agriculture Minister barking up the wrong tree.

Unscrupulous rice millers may be heartless, but they are blessed with enough gray matter; they are far too smart to get fined for overpriced rice. There is no way the government can prove charges against them, for the prices printed on bags of rice are lower than the ones at which they are sold to traders. Unless traders pay the millers extra under the table, they will not get any rice to sell. It is the traders who get caught for selling rice above the maximum retail prices. This is the name of the game. The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) cannot be unaware of this racket. One, however, should not be so naïve as to expect the CAA to take any legal action against the influential millers who have powerful politicians eating out of their dirty hands. Therefore, only the traders are hauled up before courts while the real culprits are hobnobbing with the powers that be.

The Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) has called for deploying the army to raid the warehouses of the rice Mafia, and seize the hoarded paddy stocks, according to a news item we published yesterday. There is absolutely no need for taking the army out to deal with the rice Mafia. The military is fighting the country’s war against Covid-19 and rendering a commendable service. On the other hand, the army will never receive an order from the political authority to carry out operations against the wealthy millers, who bankroll election campaigns. The CAA can conduct raids on paddy warehouses if it is given a free hand. What is needed is not the deployment of the military but a campaign to force the government to take action against the powerful millers who are exploiting farmers and consumers.

Most of the Opposition politicians who are shedding copious tears for the public being exploited by the rice Mafia are themselves responsible for the debilitation of the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB), which used to help governments regulate the prices of paddy and rice through market interventions. It may be recalled that the current FSP leaders were in the JVP, which destroyed the PMB storage facilities in the late 1980s in the name of a revolution. They and their erstwhile comrades burnt down 240 Agrarian Service Centres and warehouses full of paddy.

There is an easy way for Minister Aluthgamage and his political bosses to bring down the rice prices. They can ask State Minister Siripala Gamlath, the owner of Nipuna mills, blamed for hoarding paddy, to release enough paddy stocks to the market. They can also seek SLPP MP and former President Maithripala Sirisena’s assistance to persuade his brother Dudley Sirisena, who owns Araliya Mills, also accused of hoarding and price manipulations, to help sort out the rice shortage. Elementary, my dear Watson!

If the government cannot take on the rice Mafia and safeguard the interests of consumers, it must at least stop insulting the intelligence of the people. Whenever the likes of the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Trade open their mouths, the people who voted for them should go before the mirror and ask themselves: ‘Dan Sepada?’