After G H Amin it is Konkodi Padmanabha’s turn. Mr Padmanabha is the President of Campco– a multi state cooperative society based in Mangalore and spread across the southern states of Karnataka and Kerala.
Talking to Indian Cooperative Mr Padmanabha declared unconditional support to Narendra Modi, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate.
Earlier, G H Amin, Vice President of National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) told Indian Cooperative that Modi attends all cooperative functions and listens to the problems plaguing this sector.
Talking in similar vein Mr Padamnabaha said “We supari and cocoa cultivators express our full support to Narendra Bhai Modi. We have lots of hope from him as he would help us solve problems plaguing our cooperatives”.
Campco was recently was in news when the cooperative notched up the biggest annual turnover ever in several decades of its existence.
Fed up with the present regime at Delhi which does not listen to cooperatives Mr Padmanabha said his hope now rests with the Modi government. “We are lakhs and lakhs of farmers and our vote would go to Modi only”, he added.
I have been making an impassioned argument that areca nut (supari) is not gutkha and thus should be treated separately but nobody including the media is ready to listen. Make no mistake, supari is not carcinogenic and it has nothing do with gutkha, cooperative leader told this correspondent.
The Supreme Court and subsequently the Centre’s decision to ban plastic sachet for gutkha packing has shaken cooperatives to their foundations. The areca nut cooperatives produce raw material for sachets .
Konkodi Padmanabha and others have been trying to mobilize political opinion to save the arecanut growers. A meeting of about 30 Members of Parliament also took place earlier to put pressure on the government. Political leaders cutting across party lines promised to support them but nothing seems to worked out till now.
Now Padmanabha and his team are pinning their hopes on Narendra Modi and only time would tell if they have done the right thing.
