Task force on plantation sector submits report

New Delhi, Jan 30 (UNI) A five-member task force on the plantation sector headed by Dr N Rangachary today suggested hiking the insurance cover from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 for plantation workers facing adversity and allowing futures trading of these crops.

The report was handed over to Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh at an official function here. Assuring that the government would endeavour to implement the recommendations of the task force, the Minister said the report would be forwarded to the Cabinet for approval.

Among the recommendations made by the task force were extending the insurance cover to include permanent employees and enhancing the insurance amount to Rs 5,000 from Rs 1,000 now being given in times of adversity.

The cap for accidental cover was similarly raised from Rs 25,000 to Rs 100,000.

The report also noted that the Price Stabilisation Fund, set up for the plantation sector a couple of years ago, was not working.

The task force also favoured involving banks, panchayats, self help groups in the marketing of plantation produce and allow futures trading of these commodities.

Besides Dr Rangachary, the other members of the task force were Dr Vijay Kelkar, Dr Subhashish Ganguly, Dr Bharat Ramaswami and Professor A Damodaran of IIM, Bangalore.

The task force was set up in July 2006 to recommend long-term and short-term measures for accelerating the productivity and competitiveness of the country's plantation sector.

Due to the drop in productivity levels, India's agricultural commodities such as tea, coffee and spices have been losing out to low cost supplies from Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia.

UNI