Estate workers told: Eat rice flour items, not roti

A Government Minister wants to change the food habits of the plantation worker whose daily staple diet is roti made from wheat flour.

Agriculture Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena says they should be given rice flour at a subsidised rate for this purpose.

He has proposed that a kilogram of rice flour be sold to workers in the estate sector at Rs. 60, which he says, is nearly half the price of wheat flour.

That is during the first year. In the second year, he wants the price of rice flour raised to Rs. 90 a kilogram. Thereafter, he expects the price to be maintained at that level even if there is an increase in rice flour costs.

At present it is the responsibility of the Estate Superintendent, who is de facto chairman of their respective cooperative societies, to issue wheat flour. Instead, housing cooperative societies should be paid one rupee per kilogram of rice flour to encourage them to supply it to estate workers, Minister Abeywardena has said.

The Agriculture Minister also wants the Plantation Human Development Trust, with the assistance of rice processing organisations, to launch a suitable education programme for estate labourers. However, estate superintendents fear that sufficient stocks of rice flour may not be available in view of the prevailing drought.

Moreover, the Government has decided to direct the Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) to import 5,000 metric tonnes of rice at a time to keep prices stable.