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    Silk price a poll issue in Ramanagara, parties weave promises

    Synopsis

    In this Vokkaliga-dominated region where caste politics dominates everything else, every political party is making sericulture a poll issue.

    amit shah silk bccl
    Amit Shah in a brief meeting with sericulture growers of Ramanagara last month
    RAMANAGARA: In 2015, when the Central government reduced the import duty on silk from 15% to 10%, it left the silk farmers of Karnataka in distress. With Karnataka accounting for 60% of India’s silk production, the decision was a direct blow to the sericulture belt scattered in districts neighbouring Bengaluru.

    In Ramanagara, known as the silk city and located 40 kilometres from the IT capital, the largest government cocoon market was in turmoil. Silk price had dropped from Rs 400 to Rs 120 per kg. There are around 25,500 sericulture farmers and 1,500 reelers in this newly-formed district alone where sericulture accounts for 17,500 hectares.

    Three years since, although prices have picked up -- thanks to a import duty hike that has prevented cheap Chinese silk from entering the market -- problems of sericulture farmers and reelers are far from over. In this Vokkaliga-dominated region where caste politics dominates everything else, every political party is making sericulture a poll issue.

    BJP national president Amit Shah in his brief meeting with sericulture growers last month, had promised increasing silk subsidy if his party comes to power. He made it a point to inform farmers about the steps taken by the Centre to create silk clusters and blamed the State government for slow work.

    BJP candidates in the district are talking on the same lines. At a party workers’ meet in Channapatna on Friday, BJP candidate C P Yogishwar said he would develop a reelers’ hub in his constituency if elected. “We need to upgrade the existing technology to help reelers. I have some plans for them,” he said.

    JD(S) State President H D Kumaraswamy who is contesting from both Ramanagara and Channapatna constituencies too has been emphasising on expanding the scope of sericulture in his campaigns. “We have made a thorough study of how silk is used in Thailand to manufacture 30 other products besides in the cloth industry. The plan is to push youngsters to take up sericulture and explore new possibilities. I have been talking about creating a sericulture corridor in Karnataka,” Kumaraswamy told ET.

    Having a strong presence in the district, it comes as no surprise that the Congress wants to include sericulture in its manifesto. It is not an “election issue” but a “regular commitment”, said Bengaluru Rural Member of Parliament D K Suresh, who is supervising the Congress campaign in the district. “The State government had constituted a committee to prepare a report on fixing a support price for silk. The recommendation is Rs 240 per kg, which is pending implementation,” he said.

    His party, D K Suresh said, would develop a reelers’ park in Ramanagara and cottage industries in every village, to support the sector. “No election can be fought in Ramanagara by ignoring sericulture growers,” he said.

    Though the sericulture farmers are not quite sure if these assurances will ever become reality, in the Government First Grade College in Ramanagara, a political science professor said her students – a majority of whom are children of sericulture growers -- see sericulture and water as the main election issues. “Students tell me that their family’s prosperity depends on silk price. They are all happy as long as their parents earn well. And they say they will vote for someone who comes up with practical solutions to these issues,” said she.

    Little wonder that all political parties are making silk the subject of their campaign in this district.


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