The Hindu : Karnataka News : Terminal markets under National Horticulture Mission planned

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Friday, Jul 27, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Terminal markets under National Horticulture Mission planned

Staff Correspondent

They will be on the lines of the one sanctioned for Hassan district

— PHOTO: M.A.SRIRAM

Important occasion: Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar inaugurating the valedictory function of the centenary celebrations of the cooperative movement at Exhibition Grounds in Mysore on Thursday. Chief Minister, H.D.Kumaraswamy, Minister for Cooperation G.T. Deve Gowda, Minister for Public Works H.D. Revanna, and Congress leaders N. Dharam Singh and H.K. Patil are seen.

MYSORE: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said here on Thursday that he would appoint a high-level committee to work out modalities for setting up terminal markets in the State under the National Horticulture Mission, on the lines of the one sanctioned by the Union Government to Hassan district recently.

“We will make efforts to set up terminal markets in Hubli-Dharwad, Bagalkot and Bijapur on a priority basis,” he said.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said the Government was keen on setting up terminal markets in areas where there was a potential for horticulture, to find a permanent solution to the problems faced by farmers.

Aim

The terminal market for horticultural produce aimed at meeting the needs of important cities in the State. It also aimed at holistic growth of the horticultural sector through an area-based regionally differentiated strategy.

The concept was on the lines of the National Dairy Development Board’s (NDDB) terminal market for Bangalore city, currently under implementation. This facility was a key component in an integrated State-level plan for marketing horticultural produce and had a central auction facility where a large number of buyers could participate. The primary source of supply of produce to the terminal market would be collection centres owned and professionally managed by farmers’ associations.

Conferring the “Sahakara Ratna” awards to cooperatives at a function organised in connection with the valedictory of the centenary celebrations of the cooperative movement, at Exhibition Grounds, Mr. Kumaraswamy said the Government was committed to implementing the recommendations of the Vaidyanathan Committee to improve the status of rural credit cooperatives.

The Government had finalised a revival package based on the recommendations of the Vaidyanathan Committee, which envisaged assistance of Rs. 13,596 crore for wiping out the accumulated losses of the cooperative credit institutions and for increasing the capital to a specified minimum level. The assistance under the package was linked to the State governments agreeing to carry out certain legal reforms.

Release of funds

Replying to appeals by Congress leaders H.K. Patil and N. Dharam Singh on release of funds to apex banks, to make good the loss due to the loan waiver, to help farmers to take up agricultural operations, Mr. Kumaraswamy said the Government had released Rs. 750 crore of the Rs. 2,500 crore and it would release the rest of the amount in the second week of next month.

Referring to a letter by the Union Ministry of Water Resources asking the State Government to seek the permission of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal to take up 17 major and minor irrigation projects in the Cauvery basin, Mr. Kumaraswamy noted that this had created a obstacle in implementing the Rs. 2,680-crore programme taken up under the Vidarbha Package. He appealed to the Union Government to remove the “technical obstacle” that was in the way of implementing the package, which would help in checking suicide by farmers.

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