Collector warns sago units
Epresentatives of farmers’ associations criticised the sago units here for refusing to pay reasonable price fixed for tapioca and urged the district administration to take stringent action against the erring factories.
Speaking at the farmers’ grievances day meeting held here on Friday, farmers said that the tripartite meeting, convened by the District Collector V. Dakshinamoorthy last month, fixed a price of Rs. 260, Rs. 270 and Rs. 280 per one point for the three varieties of ‘mulluvadi’, ‘white rose’ and ‘kunguma rose’ respectively. The sago factory owners, who participated in the meeting, accepted the price, they said.
The farmers complained that the sago factories were offering a very low price.
The poor price has badly hit the farmers, who were already suffering due to the hike in the prices of various commodities.
The farmers’ representatives also urged the State Government to take steps for setting up small scale units for the production of value-added products from tapioca.
M. G. Rajedran, a farmer, called for the intervention of the Collector to ensure that the tapioca farmers got the reasonable price fixed at the meeting.
Mr. Dakshinamoorthy, who presided over the meeting, said that Namakkal was the first district to fix reasonable price for tapioca through negotiations. No where such step was taken to protect the interest of farmers. A separate meeting was held for this in Kolli Hills too.
The price fixed for tapioca at the tripartite meeting was very reasonable and the sago factories were bound to pay the same. The Collector said that he has got information that the sago units were not offering the price as agreed upon.
The Collector said that he has directed the officials of the Agriculture and Horticulture Departments to take necessary action against the erring units.
He assured that stringent action would be taken against the sago unit owners if the farmers preferred complaint with him.
Some farmers demanded the government to extend subsidy for cultivating oil seeds. They complained that the tractors attached to the Agricultural Engineering Department have been sent to the other districts.
These tractors should be brought back to the district, they demanded.
The farmers said that groundnut crop raised in about 2,000 acres had withered due to drought conditions and demanded adequate compensation from the insurance companies.
Mr. Dakshinamoorthy said that the crop insurance firms have informed that there was no crop loss in the district due to drought conditions last year. However, he assured to take up the matter with the insurance companies.
The price fixed for tapioca is reasonable and the sago factories is bound to pay the same
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/collector-warns-sago-units/article7573637.ece
