Mangalore : A massive BJP Rally of party workers, arecanut farmers and admirers was taken out from Jyoti circle to DCO grounds on Jan2, 2014 Thursday afternoon, at which senior leaders like former CM DV Sadananda Gowda, MLC Araga Jnanendra, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and several other took part, while BJP’s DK District president Pratapa Simha Nayak presided over the meeting and also welcomed the gathering and the 3 keynote speakers.

MP Nalin Kumar Kateel speaking on the occasion stated that, Arecnut had been given a bad name when it was supporting thousands of farmers and giving jobs to 25 lakhs of workers traders and women all together . He added that Arecanut did not contain any poison as made out by Union Health Ministry Advice wrongly given to the central govt., which is facing the arguments in a case that is coming up before supreme court on Jan.6th this year. He added that Arecanut was not an enemy of society but was actually a friend of it in 14 states out of 30 in India where it is grown for centuries without any complaint. The crop is so sensitive that any wrong remark in any report by WHO or WTO or Union health ministry published in papers could upset its stock markets and sale values.

Araga Jnanendra an Arecanut farmer and chief of farmers society in Shimoga district described his struggles with the congress govt. in State and at the center for nearly 30 years to save the arecanut farming and its growers among plantation agriculturists, since 1996 and 2003 when the bad days for areca farming began under suspicion that it was a poisonous crop or bad for health. He fought many a battle in the last 10 years for areca and the fight is now in Mangalore on the streets. He added that areca was grown in 12 district out of 30 in Karnataka and helped 60% of market trade in and out of Indian bringing Rs. 6000 crores of wealth to the govt. he quoted figers from ITC and the tobacco lobby which had done a lot harm to the Indian society in the name of huge wealth it had brought in international markets.

While tobacco was poisonous as a chemical crops and brought cancer to users to chew it or smoke cigarettes made out of it, poor 

Arecanut had only medicinal juice in it that cleaned not only the mouth from bad orders but kept watch over any stomach deices and health of the body from time to time. There was no sense in banning arecanut, when tobacco has not been banned but it still used in Gutkha of Pan Masala and such other eatable product sold in the market as yet.

Former CM DV Sadananda Gowda, MLC and leader of opposition in Upper House, warned the state govt. of dire consequences to come, if CM Siddramaih did not produced valid documents in the Supreme Court on Jan. 6th in the case in support of Arecanut, a non- poisonous crop, backed by a new penal of advocates like soli Sorbajee, KN Bhat and many other senior lawyers who will present the case against the central govt., which is proposing a ban on Arecanut as product but not on tobacco or its products. The BJP, Gowda said, was the only party in and out of power at the center so far from 1996 to support Arecanut as a useful crop having a large market all over India and abroad bringing in several cores of Rupees in tax revenue to treasury of Union Govt. So far. He told the protest rally that more people will join the agitation against ban on Arecanut all over India and the State BJP will be in the forefront of the struggle to save areca as a valuable crop and wealthp-creating product from a palm tree that could suffer deices of pests to the extent of 75 to 80% as during 2013. BJP will go all out DVS assured to health Campco and Manco, all arecanut farmers in the State and India by going to the courts of law and to the people if any other rulling party did not help to survive the campaign of congress party all these years, against Arecanut.

Large crowds from a numbers of Areca Growing district and farmers attended the protest rally to save the Arecanut from a ban.

Jayarama Shetty Ex MLA, B.Nagaraja Shetty, Ganesha KarniK MLC,K. Monappa Bhandary MLC, Rukmaya Poojary Ex MLA, Sureshchandra Shetty, Sucharitaha Shetty, Srikar Prabhu, Raj Gopal Rai. Ex Minister Krishna J Palemar, N. Yogish Bhat Ex MLA and many other dignitaries were present in the forceful rally.

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