Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University

Posted on February 11th, 2022

One of my earlier papers which is appropriate for the moment- Garvin Karunaratne

The Editorial of The Island tells it all: The challenge before us is to retrace our steps, figure out where we took wrong turns, and forge ahead in the right direction as many other nations have already done. Easier said than done, but there seems to be no other way.”

The problem is that even to retrace our footsteps there is no consensus in learned opinions. Addressing the Tenth Annual Conference of the Sri Lanka Forum of University economists on 27 th January 2022, Professor Premachandra Atukorale has said that it is impossible to heavily rely on import and exchange controls without compromising on a massive economic collapse and social upheaval.”(Ceylon Today01022022)

Perhaps some detail of how we once handled the economy of Sri Lanka, may be useful to think of how we can retrace our footsteps to the days when we did not have food queues and social upheaval, all the while handling development very  successfully..

In 1968 February I was posted as the Additional Government Agent at Kegalla District. I worked there for two years. I knew of no queues for any essential food during that period. In fact,  I was in charge of providing essential food- as the Deputy Food Controller for the District. At that time every area was covered with a cooperative society and in each division there were Cooperative Unions that were equipped with stores and lorries and on a clockwork basis all essential food was distributed through the cooperatives. This included a measure of rice per person per week, entirely free, under the Rice Ration Scheme, which was done away by President Jayawardena in 1978. Then there was a major Department at work- the Food Commissioner’s Department,  managed at the helm by a senior civil servant, a department that had very large stores full of rice and flour and also attended to imports when necessary.  At the district level there was an Assistant Food Controller who worked directly under me and it was our duty to see that food was always available without any interruption. Importing essentials like dhall, chillies etc was handled by the CWE because depending on the private sector has proved unreliable – the private sector has making a profit as its aim, service to the people comes next.

For full article

LankaWeb – The Challenge to get Sri Lanka on the right track to face  the economic problems of today.