The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Congress to lead harvesting

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Congress to lead harvesting

Special Correspondent

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress has decided to launch a campaign in Kuttanad where farmers have been facing difficulty in harvesting their paddy crop.

The party will give leadership to the induction of harvesters (machines for harvesting) in the area.

It has put forward a three-point charter of demands, including higher compensation to the farmers who sustained losses in the heavy rain.

The political affairs committee of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), which met here on Tuesday, while welcoming the announcement of the farm loan waiver by Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, decided to conduct a campaign to highlight its benefits. The campaign will be launched from Manjeshwaram in Kasaragod on April 14 and will conclude on April 19 here, after holding meetings in all 140 Assembly constituencies.

Panel formed

The KPCC appointed a core committee comprising United Democratic Front convener P.P. Thankachan as convener and Vakkom Purushothaman, Cyriac John and E.M. Augusthy as members to formulate a massive campaign to reap political mileage from the loan waiver.

At a press conference here after the meeting, KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala said the government should intervene immediately to solve the problems of the Kuttanad farmers.

He wanted the government to consider higher amounts of compensation to the farmers.

He alleged that the refusal of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) to allow the use of harvesters had complicated the situation as there was an acute shortage of agricultural workers. He alleged that the use of harvesters was being prevented by middlemen.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala