Registration of rice mills suspended

COLOMBO (News 1st) : Registration of new rice mills islandwide has been suspended, Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena says. He said that the registration of rice mills was suspended from yesterday (11) following information received that middlemen were pretending to be the owners of rice mills. He further stated that new rice mills should be registered with the Divisional Secretariats, and the Secretary to the Ministry of Local Government will issue a circular in this regard. Minister Gunawardena added that raids are being carried out islandwide to find out if the middlemen had stockpiled rice.