- Hon. Gamini Jayawickrema Perera, the Minister of Food Security, and Hon.Ravi Karunanayake, the Minister of Finance, submitted the progress of the programme implemented by the Government to purchase paddy during the Maha Season - 2014/2015, to the Cabinet. Accordingly, 160,301.8 MT of paddy have been purchased and it is the largest stock of paddy purchased through the Government intervention within a single Season. The Cabinet granted approval to sell the stock of paddy now stored in the warehouses following the open tender procedure, to enable the paddy purchase programme to be implemented in the forthcoming Maha season as well and to have a more streamlined methodology implemented to purchase the Maha Season paddy harvest.