Rubber farmers’ stage Raj Bhavan dharna

Kerala Congress leader Jose K. Mani along with other party leaders participate in a Raj Bhavan Dharna against the Central government’s policies against the rubber farmers, in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: S. MAHINSHA

The Union government is taking revenge on the State by stifling rubber cultivation here and promoting it elsewhere, Kerala Congress (M) chairman Jose K. Mani has said.

He was speaking after inaugurating a rubber farmers’ dharna organised by the KC(M) in protest against the fall in rubber prices and the alleged neglect of the farmers by the Union government in front of Raj Bhavan here on Tuesday.

Mr. Mani said the Union government was troubling States where it could not come to power in many ways. It was trying to squeeze the State financially so that development projects could go awry. If rubber cultivation in the State were to be wiped out, it would have a significant impact on the State’s finances.

In Kerala, which produced the maximum rubber in the country, 95% of the farmers were small or medium scale ones. It was the Union government policies that influenced rubber prices. The fall in rubber price experienced by farmers in the State was the lenient import policy of the Union government. As part of the discrimination against the State, it was trying to destroy rubber cultivation here. It was towards this objective that the Union government was continuing policies that were rendering the Rubber Board fully inactive. As a result, farmers could not go on cultivating rubber. The Union government that was trying to promote rubber cultivation in the northeast through CSP funds and cooperation of big industrialists was at the same time trying to destroy rubber cultivation here. Destruction of rubber cultivation here was unacceptable, Mr. Mani said.

The ₹7,399 crore received by the Union government as rubber import duty was enough to address the problems faced by the rubber farmers, he pointed out.