Promise, promise and promise that has been the fate of arecanut growers in the Karnataka. Their leader K Padmanbhan organizes a group of MPs from the area and rushes to Delhi to impress upon the govt the need to do away with the ban.
He comes back and holds the press conference telling the the govt has heard their petition sympathetically. It has happened so many times with little result.
Again in the new dispensation of NDA govt, the same routine was followed. A group of parliamentarians from the arecanut farming areas in Karnataka met Union Health Minister in New Delhi. Again the Campco president Padmanabhan told the media that the central govt has promised not to impose a ban on arecanut.
The parliamentarians worried about the arecanut farmers have also urged Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Director General of Foreign Trade to effect a spike in the minimum price for the import of arecanut, informed the president of Campco.
Earlier talking to Indian Cooperative Padmanbhan said that a huge number of arecanut farmers supported Narendra Modi in the last Lok Sabha elections in order to secure their future.
UPA govt had earlier filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court arguing arecanut consumption posed health risks. The said affidavit had caused widespread fear among the arecanut cultivators, said Padmanabha.
Despite all the claims of Padmanabhan, there is not a word from the government side so far. Though govt might have assured the delegates but the matter would be resolved to farmers’ satisfaction only when it is backed by the action. Till then farmers have to believe what their leader Padmanabhan has to claim.
