A ministerial-level meeting will be held in two weeks to discuss the long-awaited Animal Welfare Bill, the Communications Department of the Parliament says.

This was decided at a meeting of the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Agriculture in Parliament, convened on March 07, during which invited guests including Attorney-at-Law Lalani S. Perera commented on the need for this bill.

It was noted that the existing laws for animal welfare in Sri Lanka are quite old and they are not strong enough to protect the rights of the animals.

The invited guests, pointing out that the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance passed in 1907 is currently in place for animal welfare in Sri Lanka, underscored that a new animal welfare act should be implemented in line with the new international laws.

Although new laws should be made for animal welfare, some Members of Parliament stressed that these laws should not affect the use of animals for agricultural and cultural activities.

Accordingly, the committee members said the final draft should be prepared after another round of in-depth discussion on this matter. To this end, it was decided that a meeting of ministerial level be convened in two weeks with the related written requests.

During the meeting, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera revealed that he has instructed relevant officials to take necessary steps to temporarily suspend the permission to reclaim paddy cultivation lands. Accordingly, reclamation of paddy land can be done only with the special permission of the Ministry.

Further, the minister, who assured that all necessary facilities including fertilizers would be provided to make the next Yala Season a success, vowed to provide TSP fertilizer free of charge, urea for Rs. 10,000 or less, and MOP fertilizer at a rate below the current prices for the next season.