Leaders of both the United Democratic Front and the Left Democratic Front have come down heavily on the Union government’s decision to exclude rubber growers in Kerala from its rubber subsidy scheme.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president V.M. Sudheeran and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretariat termed the Central action condemnable. While Mr. Sudheeran said the KPCC would take the initiative to launch a joint agitation with all like-minded movements if the Centre did not review its decision immediately, the CPI(M) leadership said it too would launch a strong agitation if the Centre did not include the rubber growers in the State in the rubber subsidy scheme.
Kerala, Mr. Sudheeran pointed out, accounted for 90 % of the rubber output in the country. That being the case, the Central decision to keep the State out of the rubber subsidy scheme was grossly unjust. The decision had come at a time when rubbers growers were pressing for enhancement of the existing low subsidy. The Centre’s refusal to reconstitute the Rubber Board even a year after assuming office should be seen in the context of this ‘anti-farmer’ action. The Union government should immediately increase the subsidy and include the rubber growers in the State in the scheme, Mr. Sudheeran said.
The CPI(M) secretariat said it was surprising that the Centre had chosen to keep Kerala out of the subsidy scheme when it wanted the farmers to go in for replanting on a large scale. By the Rubber Board’s reckoning, an area of roughly 2 lakh hectares under cultivation needed urgent replanting. Although the United Progressive Alliance government had sanctioned Rs.220 crore for the Rubber Board, only Rs.150 crore was released. The decision to exclude farmers in the State from the subsidy had come at a time when the farmers were reeling under a sharp fall in rubber prices. There must be urgent steps to rectify the situation, failing which the CPI(M) would launch a strong agitation, it said.
Source: The Hindu