Distressed tobacco growers urged Union Commerce Joint Secretary Santosh Kumar Sarangi to bail them out of the present crisis in view of slackening demand from traders and manufacturers. The official, who inspected the ongoing trading in the Ongole I and II auction platforms and also visited some of the barns to understand ground realities, gave a patient hearing to the ryots who poured out their woes.
“The Centre, which earned precious foreign exchange to the tune of Rs. 6,500 crore through tobacco exports, should intervene in the market now. Otherwise we will incur losses this year,” lamented a group of farmers.
“We are perplexed as to why the Centre is not allowing foreign direct investment into the sector when it favoured FDI even in highly sensitive defence sector,” a farmer leader S. Gurava Reddy said. “The State Government, which has collected about Rs. 3000 crore towards VAT, should come to the farmers’ rescue,” said V. Prasad, another farmer leader.
We are perplexed as to why the Centre is not allowing foreign direct investment into the sector when it favoured FDI even in highly sensitive defence sector.
S. Gurava Reddy,
Farmer leader
