The Hindu : Karnataka / Shimoga News : Areca growers welcome Supreme Court ruling

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Shimoga

Areca growers welcome Supreme Court ruling

By Our Special Correspondent

SHIMOGA, AUG. 3. The Supreme Court ruling that State Governments had no power to ban gutka and paan masala has been welcomed by growers and traders in Shimoga, a major areca growing and trading centre in the State.

In its ruling on the writ petition filed against the notifications issued by the Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh Governments banning gutka under the provisions of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, the court termed the action of the State Governments unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court observed that the power to ban any food or consumable item rested entirely with the Centre.

The ruling has made the areca growers and traders jubilant as they have been facing hardship for the last three years as areca prices tumbled on account of the ban.

While the areca growers expect the price to shoot up in the light of the court's ruling, traders hope that about 50,000 quintals of the areca stocked in the markets of Shimoga, Sirsi, Mangalore, Sagar, and Chitradurga will fetch a better price from the gutka manufacturers.

Reacting to the court's ruling, the president of the Sagar Prantya Adike Belegarara Sangh and former MLA, L.T. Thimmappa Hegde, said that it had only brought limited success to growers who were particular that only the harmful ingredients in gutka be banned and not areca nut.

Major areca growers' bodies such as MAMCOS and CAMPSOS have welcomed the court's ruling.

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