Southern States - Kerala

Farm sector gets a raw deal: VS
By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 15. The Leader of the Opposition, V. S. Achuthanandan, has alleged gross neglect of the farm sector by the UDF Government causing hardships to the rubber, coconut and paddy growers.

Mr. Achuthanandan told a news conference here today that the State Government had procured only 100 tonnes of copra against 80,000 tonnes procured by Karnataka, 6,000 tonnes each by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and 5,000 tonnes by Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The prices of copra and coconut oil were falling sharply on account of the failure of the Government's market-intervention programme. During the last one week, the price of coconut oil had plummeted by Rs. 3,000 a tonne. Farmers are estimated to have sustained losses totalling Rs. 3,200 crores over the last one year, he added.

He wondered why the Agriculture Minister, K. R. Gouri, was observing silence about copra procurement agencies that had indulged in large-scale corruption in connection with the procurement operation last year. The Agriculture Minister had claimed that the relevant files were missing. However, some of her Cabinet colleagues had made it clear that the files were indeed with the Government, he said. P> The Opposition leader pointed out that the much-touted rubber procurement programme had also not produced any tangible result. Although the Centre had fixed the floor price of RSS 4 variety at Rs. 32.09 a kg and that of RSS 5 at Rs. 30.79 a kg, the UDF-controlled Kerala State Cooperative Rubber Marketing Federation and the Kerala State Warehousing Corporation procured rubber at Rs. 26 a kg by manipulating the grading process. Even the `One X' variety sheet was categorised as ISS variety and bought at a low price, he said.

Mr. Achuthanandan said the money earmarked for paddy procurement was meagre. For instance, only Rs. 1.75 crores had been set apart for paddy procurement at Kuttanad. This amount would be sufficient only for procuring about 17 per cent of the targeted quantity. Similarly, Palakkad and Thrissur had been allotted only Rs. 75 lakhs each, he added.

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