Fall in Rubber Price Fuels Unrest in House .

Steep fall in prices of natural rubber figured continuously in the Assembly on Tuesday, eventually leading to a walkout of  Opposition members and Kerala Congress leader and Finance Minister K M Mani reiterating in unequivocal terms that the Centre’s rubber import policy should be corrected and his party would not hesitate to launch agitations on this score while even staying in power.

Mani said that the State Government was of  the view that rubber imports into the country should be resorted to only after discussions with Kerala, which accounts for 90 per cent of  the total production in the country, and other producer states.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that the Centre had given an assurance that the State would be consulted through the Rubber Board on two critical areas - quantity as well as timing of rubber imports in future.

Batting for the cause of rubber growers, Chandy also promised adequate measures to launch rubber procurement at the earliest.

K Suresh Kurup (CPM), who had given notice for an adjournment motion on the topic, asked why the State and Central Governments were remaining unmoved when around 12 lakh rubber growers in the state were in dire straits for quite some time, owing to the plummeting price of the produce.

“Rubber plays an important role in the economy of the state. 98 per cent of rubber growers are owning less than two hectares of land and heavily dependent on the income from it. When the fact remains that the Centre and the state had induced farmers over the years to opt for rubber cultivation by abandoning other crops, the governments has a responsibility to protect them while a crisis has gripped the sector,’’ he said.

“The Centre’s announcement of hiking the import duty of rubber to Rs 30/kilo recently was after allowing tyre companies to beef up their inventory through unrestricted imports and domestic procurement at low rates,’’ he charged.

Suresh Kurup, supported by Raju Abraham (CPM) and Mullakara Ratnakaran (CPI), also insisted that rubber procurement should be direct from small growers and should not end up in lifting stocks from traders.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the government is keen to take up rubber procurement within a couple of days.

“Rubber price is linked to international prices,’’ he said, pointing out that the price of sheet rubber on Monday in the domestic market was `142/kilo, whereas the international price stood at `135. The Opposition was not convinced and found fault with the signing of  the ASEAN Trade Pact, which according to them, had allowed flooding of various produces including Rubber into India,thereby fomenting the crisis .

“The strategy of the government would be to intervene in the market and stock the procured produce in godowns for an appropriate time, so that the price firms up,’’ he said.

Finance Minister K M Mani also promised that releasing of money over and above `10 cr earmarked for rubber procurement will not be a problem.  Unsatisfied with the explanation and  disallowing the motion, Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan led the walkout. “The government is not concerned about the lives of  the people and only keen on indulging in corruption. And Mani is shedding tears to fool the people,’’ he charged.

Source : newindianexpress.com