The government will take the initiative to send an all-party delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the Central government move to wind up the regional offices of the Rubber Board, Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar has said.
Replying to a submission of K.M. Mani and K.C. Joseph on the closure of the Rubber Board regional offices in the State on Wednesday, Mr. Sunil Kumar said Kerala was producing 90% of the natural rubber in the country and the move to close down regional offices on the premise of slashing expenditure was not justified. An all-party delegation would meet Mr. Modi to take up the issue.
Mr. Mani said of the 44 regional offices in the country, 26 were in Kerala. As many as 1.2 million rubber growers were in the State and they approached the offices for various needs.
While closing the offices in the State, the Centre was opening more offices in Karnataka and the north-eastern States.
An all-party delegation should meet the Prime Minister and take up the issue, he said.
Poonjar MLA P.C. George alleged that the Rubber Board was closing down its regional offices in Kerala to make way for the formation of the plantation development authority likely to be based in Karnataka.
(The merger of the five commodity boards for rubber, tea, coffee, spices, and tobacco is part of a plan by the Commerce Ministry to improve the production and export of plantation crops in the light of the fluctuations in the global market. The Ministry has already directed exporters to explore new markets and focus on value added products.)
