Meeting with the Special Presidential Task Force appointed for the possible drought situation, the President on Friday said that the private sector merchants and the rice mill owners could not put the ordinary people in trouble and there should not be any shortage on essential food. “It is the responsibility of the officials to take each and every possible effort to facilitate people without being limited to the circulars.”

 He also gave instructions to the relevant institutions to import rice, which is suitable for the human consumption and informed the Paddy Marketing Board to submit a report to him regarding whether the rice mill owners who received paddy from the state warehouses have released them to the market as rice.

 According to him, the Government of Indonesia has expressed their willingness to grant 10,000 metric tons of rice for Sri Lanka within the next few weeks.

During the meeting, the President instructed the Ministries of Finance, Water Supply, Disaster Management, Health, Mass Media, Power, Agriculture, Industries and Commerce, all Chief Ministers, and the Ministry Secretaries to take steps as necessary.