KOCHI: The High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre and State governments on a petition filed by Kerala Congress chairman P C Thomas seeking a directive to quash the revised statistics of Natural Rubber Production in India from 2009-10 to 2013-14.
The petitioner submitted that the Rubber Board had no authority under the Rubber Act to revise the already settled statistics of the production of natural rubber for the last six years. There was no material to substantiate that the procedure followed till now to prepare the statistics of production of natural rubber was wrong.
The petition stated that the rubber growers were facing grave distress and financial crisis mainly due to the irresponsible attitude of the governments. The unbridled import of natural rubber disproportionate to the shortage of the domestic production was one of the reasons.He also pointed out that the Rubber Board has not even constituted the board of members for the last one-and-a-half years. The provisions of the Rubber Act has been totally violated.The petitioner sought a directive to appoint a full-time chairman for the Rubber Board.