Sri Lanka expert panel reviews RPC land lease; Minister demands action

Sri Lanka
By Editor_1

COLOMBO – An expert panel appointed by the Sri Lankan government is reviewing lease agreements with Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs), Minister of Estate Infrastructure Development Jeevan Thondaman said.

Thondaman, who has been critical of RPCs over their resistance to paying the latest daily wage of 1,700 rupees per tea plucker, said he wants action against the companies for destroying government assets.

“We are reviewing the agreement as we speak. There is a committee that is going through it,” he told reporters at a media briefing in Colombo on Monday (13).

“My personal opinion is we can’t just look at it as just tea. Tea is an asset of the government of Sri Lanka. So when it is a Sri Lankan government asset, say if we have given 10,000 hectares of tea estates to a company, with 8,500 hectares of tea and 1,500 hectares abandoned, then today we need to conduct an audit to see how much of the 8,500 ha of tea lands exist.”

“If the tea (lands) have been reduced, then action should be taken against the companies because they have destroyed the assets of the government of Sri Lanka, taxpayers’ assets,” Thondaman said, adding that they were looking at all options, opportunities and exploring all possibilities of action.

The lease review comes as the RPCs strongly rejected President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s May 1 announcement of raising the daily wage of estate workers by 70% to 1,700 rupees.

Industry experts say tea producers face a daunting task in paying the increased daily wage, mainly due to the appreciation of the rupee since early last year.

Sri Lankan estate workers live in poor conditions with higher levels of poverty, analysts say.

Workers have been living sometimes in crowded shacks, without sanitation, running water, medical facilities or schools for their children.

Thondaman said he has called for strong action against RPCs for failing to properly maintain the tea estates.

“Now a lease review is going on and post that we will definitely go for action,” he said.

Many plantation workers have already moved away from the estate sector due to poor wages.

Activists say tea pluckers have to work under very difficult conditions because most RPCs do not replant tea as per the agreement.

“They should replant 2.5%of the land. They have been replanting 0.08%,” Thondaman said, noting that though it is a breach of agreement, there have been 400 agreements signed and now the legality had come into question.

“Anyway, right now that’s why the president has gazetted the RPCs under the Finance Ministry,” he explained.

-economynext.com

 

Editor_1
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