Setting aside their umpteen differences, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan on Tuesday mounted a major attempt to get the Narendra Modi government to address key concerns of the State, particularly those relating to rubber price crash and safety of the Mullaperiyar dam.
The focus of their meeting with the Prime Minister was on the rubber crisis, and they urged Mr. Modi to stop the import of rubber and include rubber industry under the ‘Make in India’ scheme to check the drastic fall in price of natural rubber that has hit over 11 lakh small rubber farmers.
They also demanded an increase in the import duty of sheet rubber and block rubber to 25 per cent. Re-examination of the Advance Licensing Scheme for Rubber Imports and strengthening of the Rubber Board were taken up with the Prime Minister. They also proposed a cess of Rs.2 a kg for synthetic rubber as in the case of natural rubber by amending the Rubber Act and using it for the development of small and marginal rubber plantations.
Use of rubberised bitumen for road work, soft interest loans from the banks for growers, and a natural rubber price stabilisation fund to support small and marginal farmers were proposed.
Mullaperiyar dam
Mr. Chandy and Mr. Achuthanandan sought the intervention of Mr. Modi “to impress upon Tamil Nadu the apprehensions of Kerala and to get Tamil Nadu to agree for the construction of a new dam.”
Yet another key issue they flagged was the delay in grant of Presidential assent for the Plachimada Bill, 2011. They urged the Prime Minister to intervene to ensure that the State did not lose 30,048 kilolitres of kerosene quarterly to meet the basic needs of the Public Distribution System and the traditional fisherfolk.
The Chief Minister and Mr. Achuthanandan also submitted a memorandum to Union Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu on the eight pressing needs of the State, including the demand for a special railway zone. The Minister told them to expedite the work on the Coach Factory at Kanjikode and strengthen the office of the CAO in Kochi.
