Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Namal Karunaratne has assured that the government has decided not to move forward with the previous administration’s proposal to lease farms and milk distribution centres owned by the National Livestock Development Board (NLDB) and Milco Ltd. to India’s Amul Milk Cooperative.
The deputy minister said this in Parliament yesterday (Dec. 18) in response to a question raised by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Hesha Withanage.
“The previous Government attempted to hand over all NLDB farms and the Milco company to Amul and another local company. This was strongly opposed by the Farmers’ Federation. As someone who was directly involved in these efforts, I can confirm our stance on this matter. The plan to award these assets to a low bidder has been halted, and none of them will be handed over to the proposed entities,” he said.
In July this year, former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and former Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera jointly submitted a Cabinet paper proposing to lease farms owned by Milco and NLDB to India’s Amul milk cooperative for a period of 99 years. An assessment valued Milco and NLDB assets at Rs. 90 billion, while the Highland brand name was valued at Rs. 2 billion.
