Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-01-30

Granting of further relief to the farmers affected by the drought

- It has been identified that 291,945 farmer families have been affected by the drought caused by the dry climatic condition which prevailed in the country recently. An Officials' Committee comprising of the Secretaries to the Ministries of Finance and Mass Media; Disaster Management; Home Affairs; and Agriculture has been appointed by the Cabinet to submit proposals for providing further relief in addition to the relief already provided for by the Government to those farmer families.

As such, the joint proposal made by Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, the Minister of Finance and Mass Media, Hon. Anura Priyadharshana Yapa, the Minister of Disaster Management, Hon. Vajira Abeywardena, the Minister of Home Affairs, and Hon. Duminda Dissanayake, the Minister of Agriculture, to extend the monthly dry ration provided to the farmer families who have not cultivated continuously during 03 seasons namely Maha Season of 2016/17, Yala Season of 2017 and Maha Season of 2017/18 due to the drought situation, further for the period from January 2018 to April 2018 as well, as recommended by the Committee, was approved by the Cabinet.