The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : APMC traders to donate Rs. 20 lakh for dasoha

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Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

APMC traders to donate Rs. 20 lakh for dasoha

Special Correspondent

The purse will be presented to the swamiji
on March 21
Traders are contributing various items to temples in the State

Bangalore: Nearly 500 grain traders and commission agents, affiliated to various organisations at the APMC Yard, Yeshwantpur in Bangalore, who have formed the Sri Siddaganga Kshetra Dasoha Nidhi Samarpana Samiti are donating Rs. 20 lakh to the Siddaganga Math’s Shivakumara Swamiji for feeding 9,000 poor children in the schools run by the math.

Speaking to presspersons here on Monday, the samiti president B.L.S. Murthy said the purse would be presented to the swamiji at a Guruvandana programme on March 21.

He said the traders and commission agents responded to the math, which required a corpus of Rs. 50 crore for feeding the children throughout the year utilising the interest accrued on it.

Mr. Guruswamy, an office-bearer of the samiti, said that the math had a deposit of Rs.12 crore, exclusively for the feeding, and the swamiji had plans to maintain a reserve of Rs. 50 crore.

Mr. Murthy said the APMC traders were contributing foodgrains, vegetables and other items to the Manjunatheshwara Temple at Dharmasthala, Annapurneshwari Temple at Horanadu and Sringeri Sharada Peetham at Sringeri for feeding devotees, every year.

They alleged that the multinational companies had started purchasing huge tracts of farm lands in the State following the clearance by the executive committee, headed by Governor Rameshwar Thakur, for constructing wholesale market yards. These private market yards were being constructed as allowed under Section 8 of the APMC Act.

Even the then Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy did little in helping the farmers and traders, they charged.

Mr. Guruswamy said that one private company had purchased 110 acres of farm land near Dobbspet in Tumkur district for constructing a yard.

Under the amended Act, the private players could purchase a minimum of 100 acres and invest Rs.100 crore for creating the facility.

Though the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had opposed the amendment, Mr. Guruswamy said the farmers and small traders would have benefited had it taken the fight to its logical end by forcing the Union Government to drop the privatisation policy itself.

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