Agriculture Minister and his deputy skip the government's first farmers rally

Neither Agriculture Minister K.D. Lalkantha nor his deputy, Namal Karunaratne, attended the government’s first farmers rally in Polonnaruwa — an absence the Daily Mirror reports has “sparked concerns in political circles.”

The rally is part of a series of district-level rallies the NPP has launched as it approaches the end of its first two years in office.

Why the venue matters

Polonnaruwa is the country’s largest rice-growing district, and the Daily Mirror notes that farmers there have been protesting in recent months over the government’s failure to secure proper market facilities for their produce. A farmers rally in Polonnaruwa without the agriculture minister is therefore not a routine scheduling gap.

The explanations

Asked about his own absence, Karunaratne was brief.

“There is no need for everyone of us to go. We extended our fullest support to that rally,” he said.

Deputy Minister of Housing T.B. Sarath — who organised the event in his own electorate in his capacity as Secretary of the All Ceylon Peasants’ Association — told the paper that little attention had been paid to whether the agriculture minister and his deputy took part. He said further rallies are being organised.

Neither explanation addresses why the two ministers responsible for the sector were absent from the government’s first event aimed at farmers.

Context

The government has been moving on paddy in recent weeks. It released an additional Rs. 2.5 billion for paddy purchases and has run a loan scheme for millers. Lalkantha set out the Yala season’s production cost figures in July.

Polonnaruwa’s farmers are also under drought pressure: irrigation releases were halted in the district under the current El Niño dry spell.

Not reported

The Daily Mirror does not say where either minister was instead, whether their absence was planned, or whether the President’s office or the Agriculture Ministry was asked to comment. It does not say how many farmers attended, who addressed the rally in the ministers’ place, or what was announced there. No other verified newsroom had filed on the absence at the time of writing — neither the Hiru News nor NewsFirst listings carried it — so this account rests on the Daily Mirror alone.