State Backs Tobacco Farmers, Urges Centre to Rethink Decision

Source from:  NewIndPress  08/06/2004

HYDERABAD: The State government on Thursday, urged the Union Commerce Ministry to rescind its decision to increase the size of tobacco crop from 53 million kg to 74 million kg. It also wanted the Centre to drop the proposal of regularising 29,374 unauthorised barns of Karnataka. The Centre's decision on crop size was a sequel to the request of the traders preferring Karnataka Light Soil (KLS) tobacco though the Northern Light Soil (NLS) tobacco grown in Andhra Pradesh is of better quality. In a letter to Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said that both the decisions of Centre would adversely affect the interests of the tobacco growers of Andhra Pradesh who have invested heavily in tobacco cultivation. Admitting that such requests from the trade would result in creating an artificial demand for the KLS tobacco, Rajasekhara Reddy pointed out that if the Centre concedes those demands, the Andhra farmers would stand to lose, according to an official release. Enditem