THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A politically beleaguered Kerala Congress (M) has begun attempts to regain lost ground by turning more assertive with the cause of rubber growers.
Towards this end, the nine-member legislature group headed by Finance Minister K M Mani and Water Resources Minister P J Joseph met Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday and elicited an assurance that earnest efforts will be made for laying of rubberised roads across the state and facilitate an annual production of a minimum 50,000 tonnes of rubberised bitumen a year and mount pressure upon the Centre for releasing an assistance of Rs 1,000 crore from the Commodities Price Stabilisation Fund for rubber procurement in the state.
A delegation comprising Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon and apprise the grave crisis which has gripped the natural rubber production sector and lakhs of growers in the state. Along with augmenting the annual production capacity of rubberised bitumen from 8,000 tonnes to 50,000 tonnes in the Kochi Refineries, the MLAs also stressed that the state delegation should prevail upon the Prime Minister for steps to popularise rubberised roads across the country by highlighting its durability and long life. “That the Union Government’s hesitation to accept natural rubber as an agricultural produce till date is highly objectionable. The State Government will put pressure again,’’ Mani said. ‘’Rubber prices have crashed to Rs 109 per kg and growers have stopped tapping. If the situation continued, both rubber-based industries and the agricultural economy of the state will be in peril,’’ he pointed out.
The KC(M) legislators also reiterated the other demands in the charter like enhancement of per hectare rubber re-plantation subsidy from the existing Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000. The other demands include hiking of import cess from 20 per cent to 25 per cent to curb imports, an open market for rubber wood trade as well as a restructured tax slab. In view of the grave crisis, the Union Government should take the lead and urge Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries to hold its next meeting in India.
The KC(M) delegation stressed that natural rubber imports into the country should be banned till the domestic price stabilised to a remunerative level. They pointed out that with Rubber Board statistics itself proving that there is a huge stock of rubber in the country, there is no justification for imports projected against the coming months. Incidentally, the demands raised by KC(M) team comprised those aired at the 50th year fete of party held in Kottayam.