Mangaluru : Karnataka Pradesh Kisan Congress president Sachin Meega on Monday said that the Kisan Congress will organise a protest of arecanut growers from the State in Kolkata, through which arecanut is being imported illegally without any restrictions, shortly. Speaking to reporters here, Mr. Meega said that arecanut price has been witnessing frequent fall during the NDA regime at the Centre as the government had drastically lowered import duty. At the same time, illegal import of arecanut is thriving in the country thereby affecting the interest of farmers, he said.

Mr. Meega alleged that the round-the-clock vigil at major ports by several Central agencies against illegal imports, which was in vogue during the UPA regime, has reportedly become slack during the present dispensation. He alleged that recently the Union government got released about 40 tonnes of arecanut illegally imported by a close aide of those in power at Kolkata. This has suddenly brought down arecanut price, he said.

In this background, the Kisan Congress will hold meetings in every village in the arecanut growing belt and decide about the protest at Kolkata. More than 5,000 arecanut growers are expected to participate in the protest, he said.

Mr. Meega wondered about the delay on the part of the Union government in filing an affidavit before the Supreme Court stating that arecanut was not injurious to health. Several BJP leaders, including Union Minister for Law and Justice D.V. Sadananda Gowda, had promised to get the affidavit filed once the BJP came to power; however, nothing has happened, he regretted.

Stating that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was prepared to waive 50 per cent of cooperative loans taken by farmers if the Union government too waived loans taken by farmers from nationalised banks.

The suicide by 1,316 farmers in the State during 2015-16 prima facie appears to be due to debt and hence, both the governments should take a proactive step to waive farm loans, Mr. Meega demanded.

The Kisan Congress will organise a workshop for farmers in the first week of July.