Rs. 90-cr. package for coconut growers

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, OCT. 17. Without meeting the demand of some farmers' organisations to allow tapping of neera to combat the menace of mite affecting coconut palms, the Cabinet today came out with a Rs. 90-crore package to assist the growers.

Under the programme, the Government will spray and inject the affected palms with pesticides free of cost. Rs. 40 crores has been earmarked for the purpose. The other component of the programme is to launch a Rs. 50-crore market intervention programme to stem the fall in prices of coconut and copra. The Government will be buying coconuts each at a cost of Rs. 3 to stem the fall in prices.

Briefing presspersons on the decisions taken by the Cabinet, the Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. D. B. Chandre Gowda, said it discussed the agitation demanding permission to tap neera for about two-and-a-half hours. Apart from the mite disease and the menace of black-headed caterpillar, coconut growers had been affected by the fall in prices. One reason for the crash in prices was the Centre's action in importing edible oils including palmolein.

The Cabinet took note of the view of scientists that it was difficult to preserve neera and prevent its fermentation, and the fact that its tapping from coconut palms was against the Excise Act.

It also considered the report of the Mr. Justice R. J. Desai Commission of Inquiry which in 1982 (the panel had gone into the hooch tragedy of July 1981 which claimed 300 lives in Bangalore and 36 in Mysore) said that methanol and chloral hydrate were being used for adulteration of arrack and toddy respectively. On the basis of the commission's report, the Government banned tapping of toddy in 1991. ``We want to guard against the sale of adulterated liquor in the name of neera,'' Mr. Chandre Gowda said.

The minister said that under the existing programme of chemical treatment of affected coconut palms, the Government was providing 75 per cent subsidy. The farmers had to bear the rest of the cost. But the farmers were sceptical about the treatment, and the money sanctioned for the programme had remained unutilised. The Government would go in for a massive programme of treatment of affected palms with assistance from the zilla panchayats.

Mr. Chandre Gowda said it had now been established that the number of mite-affected coconut palms was less than 50 lakhs and not one crore as estimated earlier. There were about seven crore coconut palms in the State.

The Cabinet wanted the National Federation of Cooperatives (NAFED) to intervene in the Karnataka market as it had done in Kerala to buy coconut and copra. In Kerala, the NAFED was paying Rs. 3,500 for a quintal of copra. The Centre should assist the State in its market intervention programme. The Agricultural Prices Commission should fix a minimum price for coconuts.

A delegation headed by the Agriculture Minister, Mr. T. B. Jayachandra, would meet those concerned in the Union Government in this regard.

Questioned about the sale of neera around the Karnataka High Court building by the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha on Tuesday, the Mr. Chandre Gowda said the court could not take cognisance of all the ``unlawful activities around its premises.'' The sangha claimed to have demonstrated a technology to preserve neera on Tuesday near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi.

The Chief Minister, Mr. S.M.Krishna, did not respond to the invitation sent to him in this regard by the its president, Prof. M. D. Nanjundaswamy. The Agriculture Minister, Mr. T. B. Jayachandra, had also spoken of seizure of spurious neera in his native Tumkur District.

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Section  : Southern States
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