Minister of State Shehan Semasinghe said that the government will take all necessary measures to encourage small and medium scale paddy mill owners. The Minister said that there is a process in place to protect farmers, small and medium scale mill owners as well as consumers in the government's program to purchase paddy. He was speaking at a meeting organized by small and medium scale mill owners in the Anuradhapura district. Anuradhapura Chief Government Agent, Attorney-at-Law RM Wanninayake, who was present at the occasion, said that in the early days of the spread of COVID-19 disease in the country, the government's programme to purchase paddy was carried out more actively than ever through the District Secretariats. During the 2019/20 Maha season, the government launched a program to convert paddy stocks purchased from the Anuradhapura District into rice using small and medium scale mill owners and supply them to the CWE, with the aim of alleviating the situation when there was a countrywide shortage of rice with Corona. Anuradhapura Additional District Secretary Ruwan Bandara Navaratne, an official who spearheaded the programme, stated that small and medium scale mill owners in Anuradhapura have been instrumental in this endeavour.