The Hindu : Sericulture: CM to lead team to Centre

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 25, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Sericulture: CM to lead team to Centre

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore July 24. The Minister for Sericulture, H.M. Revanna, has said that the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, will lead a delegation of leaders of all political parties to represent to the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, and the Union ministers concerned the problems faced by sericulturists, and the ways in which the Centre can help ameliorate their suffering.

In reply to a discussion in the Legislative Council on Wednesday, he said the market intervention scheme could not be applied in the real sense since silkworm cocoons purchased by the Government could not be stored for more than a week. Under the circumstances, it would be ideal if the Government granted subsidy. However, under the market intervention scheme, the State Government was ready to participate with the Centre in sharing the financial burden.

The former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, who raised the issue in the Lok Sabha last week, called upon the Centre to announce a support price for silkworm cocoons. The Centre clarified that it would fix the price at Rs. 120 per kg., provided the State Government participated in the scheme.

Mr. Revanna said the sericulture sector was in a bad shape owing to various factors. The large-scale import of Chinese silk yarn had led to a fall in the prices of the local silk yarn from about Rs. 1,400 per kg. to Rs. 800. It was not that the State Government was against the import of silk yarn, but it should be commensurate with the requirements of export units. Apart from imports under open general licence, there was large-scale smuggling of Chinese yarn through Nepal and Bangladesh, he added.

He said there was an enforcement cell in the Sericulture Department to check the flow of smuggled yarn, and nearly 50 cases had been registered. The Chief Minister, who was seized of the problems of the silk industry, held discussions with the Finance and Development secretaries on Tuesday, he added.

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