Web of Life

In Parliament on Tuesday

Moving an adjournment motion in Parliament Tuesday (19) Ratnapura District MP, Mahinda Ratnatilaka (UNP) asked the government to stop giving gemming rights to plantation companies that had taken on lease former state plantations.

He said these companies have proposed to set up mechanised gemming with foreign companies as partners and have drawn up a project report promising employment to about 10,000 youth from the plantations. But the rosy picture they have pointed was not the reality. Some of these plantation companies had cut valuable trees in the plantations and had exploited their resources. But they have neglected these plantations.

An increase in gemming and introduction of mechanized mining by foreign companies will not only deplete the mineral resources, but also put the indigenous gem industry and trade in jeopardy.

He said that the lease given for 50 years to plantation companies included a clause that the companies could exploit the mineral resources. This was an agreement approved by the Executive President but it would be a death blow to over hundred thousand gem miners, lapidarists, traders and others now living by their earnings in the gem sector.

If the government adopts a policy or draw up a natural policy on the Gem Industry, this attempt by plantation companies should be prevented and gem industry saved. The opposition will cooperate with the government to stop this move by the plantation companies, he said.

Dr. Sarath Amunugama (Minister of Finance), said the policy of the government was to protect the rights of the gemming community. We have to accept the fact that the gem industry has come down from its privileged position it held. Thailand on the other hand has taken the place of Sri Lanka which had a very high position in the world in this industry."

He said it was necessary to revive our general jewellery industry and we have become a country which gives gemstones to other countries who add value to our gems and use them for their profit. The government was prepared to accommodate the views of those in the industry to organize the gem industry once again and revive and develop it as it was one of the most valuable national assets. We have to modernize the industry so that we could become all international centre market for gems on a long term policy.

However the government did not approve of plantation companies coming into gem mining and the government was prepared to take steps to improve and develop the local gem industry.

Lakshman Kiriella — UNP — Kandy District said the plantation company were given the right to do gemming in the plantations.

During the tenure of office of the previous government the plantation companies sought permission to do gemming but the premier refused permission. He told the plantation companies that it could not be followed. His view was that plantation companies had to develop the plantations and not neglect them.

R. Chandrasekarn (UPFA — Nuwara Eliya District): "When we talk of the Ratnapura, Nuwara Eliya and Badulla District Plantations — I would like to show you what problems the Tamil People of these Plantations are faced with especially in the Bogawantalawa area. All estates have been taken over by companies. Trees are felled and are sold.

But not a single cent has been spent on the welfare of the estate workers. Estates are closed and even the machinery taken away.

The entire area in Bogawantalawa is in a deplorable state. Most of the estates are not functioning. Most of the SC Plantations are involved in gemming. Backhoe machines are used for mining purposes. He said that the people of Nuwara Eliya had voiced their protest against this state of things. People living below the poverty line were suffering.

Chandrasekara urged the minister to scrap off these agriculture which had an adverse effect on the people of Nuwara Eliya.

Athuda Seneviratne — Minister of Labour, said a state committee was appointed in 1939 to study the gem industry which was in the hands of few rich merchants outside Sabaragamuwa which was the area where gems were mined. The finding of the committee were not taken into consideration till Dr. N. M. Perera become the Finance Minister in the United Front Government.

W. D. J. Seneviratne — Minister of Justice said the gem industry in the county in a number of district are giving direct and indirect employment to more then 150,000 people. But our industry has not been modernized and still the gem mining lapidary and value addition remain backward. Today Thailand has become an international gem market but the gem stones are bought in Sri Lanka. We have to modernize the industry so that we could become an international gem centre.

Apart form the fact that over exploitation of the gem resource would deplete our gems, we cannot allow the plantation to be neglected. There is a strong demand from the gem trade that the government should not allow jemming in the plantations.

There are over 150,000 people who are direct or indirectly employed in this industry and the government will not allow the request for gemming in the plantations by the management companies.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa –`A0Minister of Plantation Industry said the privatisation of the plantation industry, in effect a lease of 23 plantation groups to a number of companies. There is however no national policy on plantation lands.

Some of the companies have asked the government to allow them to do gem mining in the plantation lands. The government does not agree to allow gem mining because these lands were leased to the plantation companies to develop the plantation and not to engage in other industries. There are thousands of families either living in or dependent on plantations. Therefore the government does not wish to allow the plantation companies to neglect the main business, the commercial crops.

He said he did not agree with the Attorney General’s opinion that plantation companies had a right to apply for licenses from the Gem and Jewellery Authority. In law all mineral resources belong to the state. Even the Bare Lands Ordinance lays down that mineral resources are the property of the state. Therefore the government will definitely not allow plantation companies to do gemming in the plantations.

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