Karnataka - Hassan   

Coffee growers to stage protest today

By Our Staff Correspondent

HASSAN, FEB. 22. With the failure of talks with the Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Commerce, Abhijit Sen Gupta, the Karnataka Growers' Federation (KGF) has decided to go ahead with its protest in front of the Coffee Board office on Monday.

The general secretary of the federation, K.N. Pradeep, told The Hindu that coffee growers from Hassan, Chikmagalur, and Kodagu districts would participate in the protest. The growers would give an ultimatum to the board to solve their problems within the next 15 days. They would lay siege to the board office if their problems were not solved by then.

He said the growers had been demanding that interest on coffee loans be waived till March 31, 2004 and the loans be brought under the special coffee term loan without the interest component. The special coffee term loan should be classified properly without any precondition and six per cent interest be charged on the loan sanctioned during 2002. New crop loans should be sanctioned at six per cent interest as 80 per cent of coffee was being exported. A grower should head the board as it was not interested in safeguarding the interests of growers and plantation labourers should be brought under the Annaanthyodaya Scheme, he added.

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