Sri Lanka top official rejects corruption allegations in fertiliser import from India

The Secretary to Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Saturday rejected allegations of corruption in the deal to import the first consignment of Nano Nitrogen liquid fertilizer from India.

Dr PB Jayasundera, who heads the civil service, has outrightly rejected a newspaper report, which claimed that he exerted pressure for Rs 290 million to be transferred to a personal account for the Indian fertilizer..

Terming the report as "completely false, untrue and malicious," Jayasundera has asked police to probe these allegations, even as Opposition parties in Parliament had alleged corruption in this deal.

On Wednesday, Sri Lanka received the first consignment of 3.1 million litres of high-quality non-harmful Nano Nitrogen liquid fertilizer from India to help the island nation's Eastern province in the cultivation of maize and paddy, the country's Agriculture Secretary Prof Udith Jayasinghe said.

The import of Nano Nitrogen liquid fertilizer came after President Rajapaksa's decision in May to stop chemical fertilizer imports sparked anger and widespread protests in the country's farmland districts.

The decision was primarily caused due to the dearth of foreign reserves in US dollars to pay for the imports.

Sri Lanka's annual fertilizer imports cost USD 400 million, Rajapaksa had claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)