Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president V.M. Sudheeran has urged the Centre to stop rubber imports to help farmers affected by the declining price of rubber.
Speaking to media persons at Mananthavadi on Saturday during his ‘Janapaksha yatra’ tour, Mr. Sudheeran said that rubber farmers were in a crisis owing to the rock bottom price of the produce in the market.
Regarding the Centre’s decision to have a national policy on rubber, Mr. Sudheeran said that it would take time to implement the policy. Hence, the government should stop rubber imports as an emergency measure, he said. It should also consider increasing the domestic consumption of the produce by promoting the use of rubberized bitumen for the construction of roads, he said.
The stance of the Centre on the issue was quite unfortunate as it was yet to take any positive measures to solve the issue, even after a delegation led by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had brought the gravity of the issue to the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Sudheeran said.
Criticising the alleged laxity of the Rubber Board top brass in the matter, Mr. Sudheeran said the Board was the machinery to give guidelines to the Centre but, many key posts, including the post of the Chairman, in the Board were vacant.
“If the Centre continued the alleged negligence of the farmers, the KPCC would launch a series of agitations,” Mr. Sudheeran warned. The State government was planning to make necessary amendments in the Forest Acts in the wake of increasing man-animal conflicts, he said.
Calls for increasing the domestic consumption of the produce by promoting the use of rubberized bitumen for the construction of roads in the State.
– The Hindu
