The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) along with the police today (08) raided a large rice mill in Polonnaruwa and obtained stocks of rice from the CWE. According to sources, the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) visited the Nipuna, Araliya, Ratna and Lath Padura large scale paddy mills in Polonnaruwa.
The sources further said that although the Araliya Rice Mill had previously requested for 100,000 kilos of rice to be supplied to the CWE, the Araliya Rice Mill had refused to supply that amount and had agreed to supply rice to only 20 lorries from the CWE.
It has been learned that Nipuna Rice and Lath Padura have agreed to hand over the relevant stock of rice and the officials of the Consumer Affairs Authority will visit the Ratna Rice Mills in the evening.
However, Minister of trade Bandula Gunawardena instructed the Consumer Affairs Authority and the Office of the Essential Commissioner General to purchase stocks of rice from large scale mill owners in Polonnaruwa in accordance with President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s order to purchase rice at Sathosa and hand it over to consumers at the prices announced by the government.
Accordingly, the officials visited the large scale mills in Polonnaruwa today (08) to obtain the stocks of rice.
The ban on the media covering these events is also significant. The pictures show the situation near the Araliya Rice Mill.
