Urging the Central government to reduce the size of pictorial warning to 50 per cent of the cigarette pack, Agriculture Minister P. Pulla Rao on Saturday asked the Tobacco Board to stop auctions for a couple of days if needed to rein in the traders who formed a syndicate to deny fair price to the farmers.
Alarmed with the bearish market condition gripping the tobacco sector for the second year in succession, the Minister, who visited Ongole II auction platform along with senior TDP leaders Karnam Balarama Krishnamurthy and D. Janardhana Rao, said that the Centre should positively consider the report of the Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate Legislation. The panel said that pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent of the principal display area of the front and back sides of all tobacco products would be “too harsh” on the tobacco sector and cause “flooding of illicit cigarettes” into the country. The manufacturers who made cigarette sticks worth Rs. 12,500 from a kg of tobacco should offer an average price of Rs. 140 per kg as against the prevailing price of Rs.125 per kg to farmers in their own interest to avoid raw material shortage in the long run.
Delegation to Delhi
The Minister said that he would lead a delegation of farmers to New Delhi next week to impress upon Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Seetharaman to intervene and create buoyancy in the market, which remained lacklustre with exporters shying away on the pretext of lack of confirmed orders from their overseas trade partners and the manufacturers going slow on purchases after stopping production from April 1.
He promised to take up with Ms. Seetharaman the farmers’ demand for compensation of Rs. 8 lakh per barn to those volunteering to quit tobacco cultivation. The Centre should also come out with a comprehensive policy to phase out tobacco cultivation and offer a package to help the farmers switch over to other crops. From next year, the traders would be fixed month-wise targets for lifting tobacco from the farmers, he added.
