Open copra procurement centres across Coimbatore district: BJP

: Bharatiya Janata Party’s Coimbatore south district president K. Vasantharajan on Monday submitted a petition to the district administration seeking government intervention in copra procurement.

In a petition submitted at the weekly grievance redress meeting , he said the price of a kg of copra that varied between ₹110 and ₹ 140 had helped coconut farmers in the last couple of years.

But of late, the copra price had seen a fall and was now selling at ₹80 a kg. The fall coincided with the increase in cost of labour and inputs. To help the farmers, the government had ordered copra procurement but that had not helped because the announcement was not implemented. The price of a kg of copra rose to ₹Rs. 90 after the announcement to only see a fall by ₹11 again because of poor procurement.

When farmers stared at a similar situation more than 10 years ago, the then government under Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi had ordered procurement of copra at large scale, Mr. Vasantharajan recalled. The present government should pass similar order to open copra procurement centres across the district.

K. Vellingiri, a resident of Singanallur, has appealed to the district administration for protection and relief from a usurious money lender. In a petition submitted at the grievance redress meeting, the 55-year-old said for the ₹50,000 he had borrowed a year and half ago from a financier to meet his wife’s treatment expenses, he had given the ATM card linked to his wife’s account, ration card and a few other documents as collateral.

After his wife’s death, the money lender had taken away all the benefits that she had got after her death and even after taking away nearly ₹6 lakh, the money lender refused to settle the accounts., he alleged

Ward 1 Member from Pannimadai Panchayat, Santhi Sivaraj, on Monday complained about the slow progress in road construction.