Market intervention sought for red chilly in K'taka

Bangalore, Jan 9 (UNI) Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Council H K Patil today demanded that the State Government announce a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 8,000 per quintal for red chilly following price crash, pushing the growers into distress.

Addressing newspersons here, he said the price of the three major varieties of red chilly in the State had fallen sharply by over 50 per cent since four months, forcing the growers in Haveri, Dharwad, Bagalkot, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Koppal and Gadag to the streets. The market forces responsible for the price fall were exploiting the farming community, but the State Government had done nothing to help them.

Mr Patil said a substantial part of the chilly grown in the State also served as a source for the manufacture of natural colours, but the State had not even a single industrial unit to utilise it. The Government could also help the farmers by setting up a chain of cold storage units, apart from announcing MSP and going in for immediate direct procurement of chilly from the farmers.

Taking exception to the recent jaunt of JD(S) Legislators to Amby Valley in Pune, he alleged that the trip was arranged and executed by vested interests. Neither party matters nor developmental works were discussed at the resort, he claimed.

''Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, by taking the JD(S) and BJP Legislators to the resort, has eroded the image of the highly cultured State politics in the eyes of the people,'' he said.

UNI