Passenger Transport Minister Mahinda Amaraweera yesterday directed Sri Lanka Railways to deploy special trains to transport vegetables and fruits from remote areas to other places in the country for ensuring availability of these products during the curfew imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
He added that attention has been paid by the Ministry regarding the problems that have arisen in transporting vegetables and fruits from cultivation areas to other parts of the country. Therefore, Minister Amaraweera advised the SLR officials to deploy trains to transport vegetables, fruits, grains, rice and other essential commodities cultivated in various parts of the country to other areas.
The Minister said that farmers in remote areas have been unable obtain fair prices for their products due to the difficulties they faced when transporting their produce. On the other hand, consumers are also unable buy fresh products at reasonable prices due to unfair trade practices of errant traders. In order to ease this situation, trains will be utilised for the transportation of the rural harvest.
He said the Presidential Task Force on essential services implemented a programe to purchase the harvest from farmers in rural areas with the objective of providing relief to them as they are struggling to sell their harvest due to the ongoing islandwide curfew.
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