As the mercury soars, Koduri Brahmananda Reddy, a salt farmer, is fully engrossed in producing salt from the salt pan at a remote Motumala village in Kothapatnam mandal of coastal Prakasam district. He was helped by his wife Padma in taking the salt to his godown a few hundred meters away.
It is a hand-to-mouth living for not just this couple, but several others involved in back-breaking work of producing salt unmindful of the scorching sun as the sector has been hit hard due to dwindling demand for crystal salt after the leather industry is pushed into the doldrums, thanks to rising cow vigilantism during the Narendra Modi regime which had adversely affected the fortunes of leather goods exports. The common salt is widely used to preserve raw hides and skins.
“We will not be able to continue in the profession unless the market price of salt is over ₹125 per quintal,” Mr. Brahmananda Reddy explains taking a little break from the tedious work. The summer is the time when the market price dips to about ₹60 per quintal.
‘Unfriendly policies’
The ‘unfriendly’ policies of the Union and State governments are pushing the small players into oblivion as the big corporates rule the roost.
The salt sector went into deep trouble after the introduction of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MG-NREGS). Labourers shy away from the strenuous salt collection and transport work as they find the work offered by the government under the wage employment scheme more easy to do, explains another salt pan owner P. Harinarayana.
“Even if we offer 300 for one session of three hours work, the workers are content with getting about about ₹100 by doing the NREGS works,” he adds.
They require at least ₹50,000 for setting up a salt-processing unit. Banks are hesitating to advance loans to them as the accounts of some big salt farmers had turned non-performing assets in the past, laments another salt farmer P. Rami Reddy.
The increase in power tariff from ₹1.13 earlier to ₹4.5 per unit by the State government is also adding to their woes, complains yet another salt producer Koduri Konda Rddy.
Electricity bill goes up to ₹8,000 per month during April and May when salt production peaks when power consumption crosses 500 units slab. Unless the power tariff is brought back to the old rate, they cannot break even, they opine.
