India Gov. Assures Assistance for Plantation Sector in Kerala

New Delhi, Dec. 2 2002 (INS News) -- Prime Minister assured sympathetic consideration to the demand of the Kerala State Government to provide immediate relief to the plantation sector in the State.

Kerala State Finance Minister K Sankaranarayanan, Revenue Minister K M Mani and Labour Minister Babu Divakaran are the Ministerial delegation,who met Mr Vajpayee and submitted a memorandum.

The delegation had also met Central Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh who reiterated the Centre's decision to send an experts team to Kerala to study the impact of natural calamities.

They said Prime Minister would inaugurate the Global Investors Meet to be held at Kochi,Kerala in January 2003.

The Kerala Ministers sought an immediate assistance to provide relief to the victims of natural calamities.

The delegation told the Prime Minister that more than 25,000 plantation workers were facing serious problems as more than 20 estates have been closed and a number of workers have already committed suicide.

The delegation demanded waiving the excise duty of tea, suspension of import of plantation crops like tea for export, implementation of the Madhukar Committee report on credit flows to the tea industry, increase in the Tea Board subsidy from 25 to 50 per cent, implementation of the Ferguson Committee report on tea marketing,clearance to the Rs 576 crore-project of Kerala for coconut cutlivation revival and enforcement of quality checks on imported tea.

They pleaded for continuing the ban on the import of natural rubber under advance licence.

-- Binu Raveendranath in Trivandrum, India
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