From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Jul 26: The Karnataka Government appears to be at its wits' end over the misery gripping the sericulture farmers ever since the Centre slashed the import duty on imported silk as the State Government's market intervention scheme aimed at helping the sericulture farmers has not really succeeded.
Consequently, Karntaka's Sericulture and Labour Minister B N Bache Gowda is all set to lead a 15-member delegation to New Delhi on Wednesday to meet Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Commerce and Textiles Minister Anand Sharma to prevail upon the Centre to come to the aid of the state's sericulture farmers in distress.
It may be recalled that Bache Gowda had led a delegation to Delhi in March this year but the Centre was unable to announce any policy decision in the wake of elections to six states in April-May.
The minister said told reporters here on Tuesday that the delegation will impress upon the Centre to not only immediately roll back the concessions on import duty, but also take urgent steps to announce Minimum Support Price (MSP), establish a revolving fund of Rs 100 crore for sericulture farmers in the State and give incentives to farmers rearing bivoltine cocoons.
The delegation will include Union Minister for Corporate Affairs M Veerappa Moily, Minister of State for Railways K H Muniyappa and State's Social Welfare Minister A Narayanaswamy, besides representatives of the sericulture farmers and officials.
Gowda's announcement on leading the delegation to New Delhi once again comes in the wake of farmers' threat to observe a bandh in nine sericulture-intensive districts on July 30.
He also appealed to the MPs from Karnataka to raise the issue relating to crisis gripping the sericulture farmers in the State in view of the collapse in prices of cocoons and raw silk following the ''liberal silk import policy” of the Centre.
He claimed that the weavers' lobby concentrated in North India had successfully managed to bring pressure on the Centre to reduce the import duty.
Against the country's raw silk demand of 26,000 tonnes, India produces 19,000 tonnes with Karnataka alone accounting for 8,000 tonnes. The increased imports of raw silk, mainly from China, due to the lowering of the import duty had seriously affected the sericulturists in the State, he explained.