Karnataka - Mangalore   

Rs. 12-crore grant for infrastructure at APMC

— Photo:R. Eswarraj

MAKING A POINT: Shivaraj S. Thangadagi, Minister for Agricultural Marketing and Sugar, addressing a press meet at the APMC yard in Mangalore on Monday. District in-charge Minister J. Krishna Palemar (right) and APMC president Krishna Raj Hegde are seen.

MANGALORE: Minister for Agricultural Marketing and Sugar Shivaraj S Thangadagi said here on Monday that the Government would sanction Rs. 12.1 crore to the Mangalore Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) this year for developing infrastructure at its Baikampady yard.

Addressing presspersons he said that the grant would be released under the Development of Marketing Infrastructure Scheme of the Union Government. The APMC could use the grant for development of roads and drains, electricity connection, and related infrastructure, he said.

The APMC at Mangalore collected Rs. 3.35-crore market fee and Rs. 3.9-crore licence and rental fee during 2008-09. The Government had sanctioned Rs. 3.35 crore for laying a concrete road in the APMC yard at Baikampady, he said.

The Minister said that the APMC here collected Rs. 1.86-crore market fee through sale of 3.35-lakh quintals of arecanut valued at Rs. 124.25 crore in 2008-09.

The Government had taken away the 136 sites at the APMC yard at Baikampady as the people they had been allotted for had not utilised them.

The Mangalore APMC Market Functionaries’ Association submitted a memorandum to the Minister. Its president G. Vishwanath Kamath and secretary Kalbavi Prakash Rao urged the Minister to withdraw the order of taking away the 136 sites. They said that those who had been allotted the sites were given a deadline of September 30, 2008 to complete the buildings. However, they could not do it because the roads to the sites were in poor shape during the last rainy season. In addition, water supply in the yard was irregular and there was power problem also, they said in the memorandum and urged the Government to allow one more year for completing the buildings by withdrawing its order.

The memorandum said that the APMC was yet to distribute 121 warehouses in the yard. The Government could reduce the rental rates for them and help the authorities in distributing them to traders. “Then, all the sites can be utilised,” they said.

Urging the Government to complete the concreting of the main road at the earliest, the two said in the memorandum that the Government should also tar the connecting roads and install electricity poles on all roads.

The Minister said that the Government was planning to post sugarcane development officers in 13 major sugarcane-growing districts of the State to deal with the issues related to the sugar sector. The Government was hitherto relying on Deputy Commissioners to deal with the issues related to sugar in various districts and to get any information related to the development of sugar industry. The sugarcane development officers would be handling the issues related to the sugar industry direcly, he said. The sugar production in the State had come down by 40 per cent in 2008-09, he added.

Mr. Thangadagi said that the Government was planning to introduce reservation system in the elections to the posts of president and vice-presidents of the managing committees of Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs). The Law Department was examining this proposal as suitable amendments had to be made to the APMC Act to incorporate it. The Government had introduced the reservation system in the elections to the posts of members to these committees, he said.

The Government had another proposal to restrict the managing committee members from bringing no-confidence motion against their presidents and vice-presidents for six months after the election. Presidents and vice-presidents could not be removed by simple majority. Two-thirds of the number of members should vote in favour of the no-confidence motion, as per the new proposal, the Minister said and added that the Law Department was working on it.

Under the present system, the presidents and vice-presidents of managing committees were facing insecurity. “We have proposed to follow the rules applicable to zilla panchayats while electing presidents and vice-presidents and their removal,” he said.

The APMCs in the State collected Rs. 202 crore as cess in 2008-09 against a target of Rs. 225 crores. The shortfall was because of a decline in the production of oil seeds in the last fiscal. The collection of cess in 2007-08 stood at Rs. 157 crore, he added.

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