BAN ON MECHANICAL EXCAVATION IN PADDY FIELDS LIFTED

The Department of Agrarian Services has taken steps to grant permission once again for mechanical mining in paddy fields. This permission had been granted with the amendment number 24/2018 dated February 2019 to the 24/2018 Circular of the Agrarian Services Department which prohibited the mechanical mining in paddy lands.

According to the terms of the original circular clause number 09 and condition XV11 which stated that “no permission should be granted for successfully cultivable Paddy lands” had been amended to read as, if permission is to be granted for the mechanical mining in paddy lands that could be successfully cultivated, it should not hamper the cultivation activities of the abutting paddy lands and a confirmation to this affect should be obtained after a field investigation.

The representatives of farmer organizations expressed fear in allowing this machinery to be used once again as they would experience a serious setback in their effort to bring thousands of acres of barren land under cultivation

This amendment had been made by the Commissioner General of Agrarian Services W. M. M. B. Weerasekera in writing.

With this regulations representatives of farmer organizations stress that the programme in re-cultivating the abandoned government owned paddy lands would become a futile effort.

The reason for paddy lands becoming barren in Ratnapura District was mainly due to the use of Back Hoe machinery in Gem mining. This had led to 1,644 acres out of 50,052 acres of paddy lands becoming unusable for cultivation anymore.

At a time when 8,745 acres of barren land had been identified in the Ratnapura District and farmers are preparing to plough the lands with the view of cultivating paddy, allowing machinery like Back Hoe and excavating in these lands would greatly discourage the farmers.

The representatives of farmer organizations expressed fear in allowing this machinery to be used once again as they would experience a serious setback in their effort to bring thousands of acres of barren land under cultivation.

Meanwhile the Agrarian Services Department stated that after a discussion the political authorities of Ratnapura and the Gem Merchants had with President Maithripala Sirisena the prohibition on the use of machinery for mining had been lifted.