Government that paved the way for the power crisis emptied reservoirs and tormented farmers

The National Organizer of the All Ceylon Farmers’ Federation Namal Karunaratne, states that the government, which has no alternative to generate electricity, has deprived the farmers of the Yala season by emptying the water in the reservoirs.
He said the government did not provide any assistance to the farmers for the cultivation of the Maha season but boasted that the Yala season would be a good one. He added that it had become a vague picture for him and the farmers as to how it can be done by emptying the reservoirs.
Namal Karunaratne said that even thinking about the Yala season has become a headache for farmers as the government has allowed a power crisis to develop even though the reservoirs in the country have been completely flooded in the last few months. The government had used up water from reservoirs to rotate turbines to generate electricity.
He said, “Yala season is a time of deficient rainfall. If so, why were the reservoirs emptied due to the power crisis? How can a farmer who was helpless during the Maha season recover?
There is no fertilizer. It costs more than Rs. 25,000. There are no pesticides or herbicides. Let’s say we can get rid of the weeds manually. But how can we save our crops from insects? This government has no answer for any of these.
Government ministers are having a tug-of-war without oil and dollars. We live in a country that has eight times the size of the sea and the government cannot get enough water to generate electricity. Farmers will have to face the consequences of the government’s act of draining reservoirs that spilled over two months ago.”