Friday 25th October, 2024

Rice is fast becoming unaffordable to the ordinary people. Fuel queues may be a thing of the past, but the day may not be far off when people have to queue up to buy rice owing to the severe shortage thereof. Nadu rice has been in short supply for weeks, and overall rice prices have gone through the roof. The government has done precious little to solve the problem. Coconuts are also in short supply and their prices have gone into the stratosphere.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has reportedly read the riot act to the large-scale rice millers; he has asked them to ensure that rice, especially the varieties consumed by the ordinary public, are freely available at reasonable prices, or the millers will face the full force of the law for hoarding paddy. More power to his elbow! It is the fervent wish of everyone that, unlike his predecessors, President Dissanayake will not baulk at making the millers’ Mafia fall in line. This will be no walk in the park by any means, given the power of the millers’ cartel, which has become a law unto itself. Successive governments have not taken on the millers’ Mafia, which has political connections and bankrolls election campaigns, and one can only hope that the new government will prove different.

Immediately after last month’s regime change, Dudley Sirisena, one of the unscrupulous millers responsible for market manipulations and exploiting farmers and consumers alike, shed copious tears for the public, pledging to make rice available at maximum retail prices.

Speaking at a press conference, he said he was confident that he would be able to enlist the support of other millers. But the prices of all rice varieties have been increasing and Dudley is nowhere to be seen! His promise has come to be seen as part of large-scale millers’ strategy to send their smaller counterparts out of circulation. They have huge stocks of paddy purchased at illicitly cheap prices, and the smaller millers will not be able to compete with them in case of a price war.

President Dissanayake, who hails from the North Central Province, cannot be unaware of the exploitative practices of the millers’ cartel based in Polonnaruwa. The powerful millers will not release rice to the market simply because the President tells them to do so. One may recall that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former frontline combat officer, took pride in having defeated the LTTE, but he tugged his forelock before the powerful millers, who determined the prices of rice, to all intents and purposes, under his presidency.

The need for new consumer protection laws with stronger teeth cannot be overstated. The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) needs to be given a radical shake-up. It rises from its slumber from time to time to issue warnings to errant millers, traders, bakers, etc., and conduct some raids half-heartedly to justify its existence. It stipulated the maximum price as well as the minimum weight for a loaf of bread, some months ago; bakers pretended to abide by its directive for some time, and resumed the illegal practice of short-weighting bread with impunity thereafter. Hapless consumers are without anyone to turn to when their rights are blatantly violated.

The CAA has become a toothless tiger. The exploitation of the public is not confined to the food sector. Complaints abound that consumers are taken for a ride by the sellers of mobile phones and other such electronic devices; they come with only shop warranties, which are seldom honoured. Disappointed consumers have to grin and bear it. Why raids are not conducted to seize smuggled electronic goods which shops in all parts of the country are awash with is the question. First of all, the government should regulate the egg prices which are manipulated by a wholesalers’ cartel.

It will not be possible to extricate rice growers and consumers from the clutches of the powerful millers’ cartel unless the paddy and rice markets are made competitive by providing state assistance to the limited-scale millers and ensuring that banks release loans expeditiously for them to buy paddy when harvesting commences.

There are some parts of the country that need to be liberated. They are the areas where about five sprawling warehouse complexes of the Millers’ cartel are located. These storage facilities with massive silos have the capacity to store enough paddy to manipulate the rice market, as the small-scale millers said at a recent press conference.

Unless the government makes a serious effort to prevent the illegal hoarding of paddy, the shortage of rice will prevail with prices remaining extremely high. The millers’ Mafia must not be allowed to run a parallel government.

Dissanayake’s tough talk won him the presidency, and he has to prove that he is equal to the task of taming the millers’ Mafia and protecting the rights of consumers and farmers. That will be the acid test of leadership for him.