Kerala Budget Highlights 2010

>> Wednesday, April 21, 2010


* Liquor to cost more

* Tax on foreign liquor raised to 10%

* Wine and beer to cost less

* 10% tan reduction for wine and beer

* Laws to b amended to get hold of Munnar town from Tata

* 20 crore for novel Munnar project to be implemented under development authority

* Employees working in the traditional sector to get rice for Rs 2

* Around thirty five lakh families would be benefited by this scheme

* Five hundred crores has been allocated for this

* National Employment Guarantee scheme would be extended to urban areas also.

* Twenty crores has been allocated for this

* Initial works related to Express railway corridor would begin this year

* Energy auditing would be executed for industries

* No special schemes are recommended to low Revenue Deficit

* Revenue deficit would remain at 19%

* Special projects would be implemented focusing women

* Waiting rooms for women at public places

* Medical and counseling facility scheme for women

* One hundred and twenty CI offices to be made women friendly

* 622 crore for Agriculture sector

* Agriculture calendar for Kuttanad

* Directions to maintain the environmental balance of Kuttanad region

* LNG terminal to be commissioned in 2012

* Company worth Rs 1000 crore asset to be formed for Kannur airport

* 125 crore for Vizhinjam project

* Global tender would be called for Vizhinjam project

* Government to execute Smartcity project

* Inforpark to give employment to 1 lakh people

* Infopark would be developed ; 150 acres of land would undertaken for this

* 412 crores for IT, tourism

* 20 crores for Ayankali employment guarantee scheme

* Welfare pension raised to Rs 300

* Stamp duty relaxed for building construction

* Pojects to protect mangroves and kavu

* 50 crore assistance for Kudumbasree units

* Mountain highway construction to begin this year

* 50 crore for works related to Kochi metro

* Seri culture at Vembanadu lake

* 500 crore to encourage paddy cultivation

* House and power for all coastal residents

* 118 crore for animal protection

* Pre paid system at all government offices to contain energy production

* 10 crore for Mullaperiyar new dam study

* 114 crore for water transport

* Surcharge removed; stamp duty relaxed

* 10 new fire and rescue service units to be set up

* 37 crore for renovating school buildings

* New civil stations to come up at Mathilakam and Aroor

* 57 crores for Handicrafts

* 5 crores for Science and Technology Mueseum

* E-filing system to be implemented at check posts

* KSRTC to purchase 1000 buses

* Luxury tax for DTH

* Tax removed for imported sugar

* Income Tax department to begin SMS alerts

* 11/2 crores for land banking system

* 139 crores for Tsunami rehabilitation

* Beverages Corporation to begin de-addiction centres

* 9 crores for Rescue Force

* 14 crores for Public Relation department

* 15 crores for new housing projects

* Drinking water projects 1058 crore

* Assistance for Kannur university and Agriculture university

* Fund for all university libraries

* 11 crores for Polytechnic

* 21/2 crores for Pollution Control Board

* 67 crores for National Games

* 20 lakh each for PT Usha and Mercy Kuttan Sports Academies

* 21 crore for Health Education Directorate

* More land would be undertaken for the development of Karipur airport

* UGC scale salary for college lecturers from March

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Kuttanad Package -Kerala

With Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal expressing his Ministry’s willingness to support projects worth over Rs.1,000 crore that came under the Flood Management Programme, the Kuttanad Package, based on the recommendations of the M.S. Swaminathan Committee, appears to have overcome the teething troubles confronting it for the past nearly two years.

Speaking at the conclusion of a two-day fact-finding mission to Kuttanand, spread over Alappuzha, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts, Mr. Bansal said a major chunk of the projects involved the strengthening of the outer bund. (Outer bund is a mud wall that separates the water in a lake and below-sea-level paddy fields.) While the expression of willingness to support the task did not mention the amount involved, the amount estimated by the Swaminathan committee for the development of the outer bund comes to Rs.831 crore.


The Kuttanad Package, Fr. Peelianickal ,executive director of the Kuttanad Development Council (KDC) says, was designed as a special package aimed at solving the multifarious issues, including environmental, technical and man-made challenges, confronted by the region. But Central officials, instead of surpassing usual norms for Central schemes since this is a special package, are trying to allocate funds for the package as if it were any other regular project, he says.


“Most unfortunate has been the allocation of funds for mechanisation. Dr. Swaminathan recommended Rs. 85 crore. The Centre allowed a mere Rs.13.65 crore! It has allowed only Rs.1.5 lakh for a combine harvester, when the actual price is Rs. 20 lakh,” Fr. Peelianickal points out.


Further, various projects for infrastructure development including flood management measures and bund strengthening, suggested by Dr. Swaminathan and worth a total of Rs.1,220 crore, have been put aside by the Centre, saying that these could not be included in any existing Central scheme.


“This is unjustifiable, because flood management in Kuttanad is different from the rest of the country because this region exists below sea level.


Canal modernisation


The Ministry would the projects for the modernisation of the Alappuzha-Changanassery Canal, the development of C and D blocks, the Chithira kayal and Rani kayal, and the modernisation of orumuttus (saltwater regulators), including the construction of 33 permanent ones. In accordance with the Swaminathan commission report, these projects together would amount to Rs.363 crore.


The task relating to the wetland reclamation connected with Onattukara and Pattanakkad and the development and deepening of canals would be finalised only after the State government finalised the agency to hold the studies connected with the project, the Minister said. The government had earlier decided to entrust the study to the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management. However, with the formation of a special circle for the implementation of the Kuttanad Package, the Water Resources Department has expressed its willingness to carry out the studies so that much of the procedural delays could be done away with.


Mr. Bansal said his Ministry would like to expedite the entire work at the quickest possible time and would complete the formalities “as and when we receive the detailed project reports.”


Meanwhile, Kerala Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran said the State government was of the view that detailed reports of projects worth Rs.200 crore could be finalised and submitted for consideration of the Central authorities during the current fiscal. Two detailed project reports amounting to Rs.74 crore had already been submitted to the Central Water Commission for approval, he said.



Bund survey


Mr. Premachandran pointed out that a survey of more than 2,500 km of the outer bund, out of the total 4,196 km, had been completed. The implementation of the project would gather momentum in the coming months and the preparation of the reports and the survey would go hand in hand.


A major impediment in the implementation of the Kuttanand Package had been the works connected with the construction and strengthening of bunds that were projected as ‘projects for promoting infrastructure for paddy cultivation.’ However, the Central government appears to have taken a proactive approach to the whole issue by including the construction and strengthening of bunds as part of the Flood Management Programme. This would enable the State government to avail itself of Central assistance at a 75:25 ratio, with the Central government chipping in 75 per cent of the expenditure.


Mr. Premachandran said the State government would submit a proposal to declare Kuttanand as a flood-prone area to the Planning Commission.


The unique ecosystem of Kuttanad was akin to the Sundarbans which has been declared flood-prone. This would help to get financial assistance at a 90:10 ratio with the Central government taking the majority burden.



The Union Minister was accompanied by S. Manoharan, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources; M.E. Haque, Commissioner (Policy Planning), Ministry of Water Resources; and T.K. Sivarajan, Director, Central Water Commission (Coimbatore centre). The Kerala side included K. Jayakumar, Additional Chief Secretary; R.C. Goyal, Agriculture Production Commissioner; M.N. Gunavardhanan, Secretary, Water Resources; Lathika, Chief Engineer, Irrigation; and others. Mr. Jayakumar made a power-point presentation to the Union Minister on the unique ecosystem of Kuttanad.

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Pepper Package Wayanad -Outlooks & Concerns

Rejuvenating the pepper production in the district, the Central Commerce Ministry will implement a five year project through the Spices Board in the district, M.I. Shanavas MP added. The project envisages the rejuvenation and planting of new saplings in the conventional pepper producing areas to increase pepper production in the district considerably, he added.

Apart from Wayanad of Kerala, the project will be implemented in the Northern States such as Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur. The project envisages to spread pepper cultivation in 22,500 hectares of land. The Central ministry will provide Rs. 53.28 crore as subsidy for the project and Wayanad will get as much as Rs. 47.68 crore as subsidy, Mr. Shanavas added. Of the 25,000 hectares planning to implement the project, 20,000 hectares are in Wayanad district.


The production of pepper has declined considerably in the country owing to climatic changes and various diseases that affected the pepper vines in recent years. The total production of pepper in the country in the 2001 -02 financial year was 80,000 tonnes against 50,000 in 2005-06. In the total production of pepper 80 to 90 per cent is contributed by the State. The pepper is mainly grown in Idukki and Wayanad districts. Owing to the drastic decline in the pepper production, the lands which were utilised for pepper cultivation also shrank considerably. Pepper cultivation had been spread in 44,908 hectares of land in the 2001-02 period in the State and annual production was 17,915 tonnes against 36,488 hectares and 9,828 respectively in 2005-06 period. According to the latest reports, the land utilised for pepper cultivation shrank to 25,000 hectares and the production came down to 5,000 tonnes per year. As per the project, as many as 216 lakh new pepper vine saplings, including the conventional pepper species and hybrid species will be planted. As many as 540 pepper vine saplings can be planted in each hectare at a cost of Rs. 30, 000 and half the cost will be availed as subsidy.


As a part of the project, pest control management units and vermin compost units will also be set up. As much as Rs.1 crore will be spent on the training of farmers for pest management. An expert team consisting of 35 members of the Spices Board will supervise the project .The project aimed to increase the pepper production from 565 gram to 1,380 gram per vine.


Outlook:-

Over 500 years ago, Vasco da Gama, so goes the story, asked the King here if he could take home some Malabar pepper, the best in the world. The monarch consented. Were they around today, neither Vasco da Gama nor the King could certify that the pepper found here is from the Malabar.

"This place is drowning in third-rate imported pepper," says E.M. Samad. He is a young trader shuttling between Wayanad and Delhi. "Cheap, low grade imports are killing our pepper. This stuff is from Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other places." This massive inflow has savaged the growers here and knocked the bottom out of the district's economy. "Wayanad farmers have lost Rs. 1,500 crores on pepper alone since 2001," says P.A. Muhammed, convenor of the South Indian Farmers Coordination Committee. "Disease and drought have sharpened the crisis."


Cheap imports


The cheap imports have proved costly. "The import lobby brings in these large amounts of bad pepper," says Mr. Samad. "It mixes this with Wayanad pepper (which is premium grade) and exports it to Europe and elsewhere for huge profits. This triggered the price crash and killed the farmers of Wayanad." The district saw 150 farmers or more take their lives in 2004. Most of them pepper and coffee growers, all of them deep in debt. The spice of life now carries a whiff of death.


"As it is, production costs quadrupled in the past few years," says K.M. Thomas. His five-member family works a four-acre plot in the worst-hit region of Pulpally. "This was our mainstay. Now we earn less from each acre than we invest in it." Pepper prices - Rs. 27,000 a quintal a few years ago - fell to just over Rs. 5,000 a quintal by 2004. Or Rs. 50 a kilo. Debts rose as prices sank. And credit dried up. In Pulpally, thriving farmers once owned hundreds of motor vehicles. Now many of these are off the roads, sold or lost in debt repayment.


"Import duties needed"


V. Baby was famous as the district's "model farmer." Indeed, he had won the "Best Farmer Award" from banks here happy with his prompt loan repayment. Then came the price crash.

"Pulpally pepper is the best in the world," says Mr. Baby with pride. "But this inferior Sri Lankan product is hurting us like anything." As prices slipped, the model farmer found himself over half a million rupees in debt. Deeply hurting for a man proud of his fine record. And without credit, it is hard to come out of it. "The Government should impose duties on these imports," he says. "And there should be a five-year moratorium on loan repayment."


However, much of what passes as "Sri Lankan pepper" is really from many nations. It just comes via Sri Lanka. That country's output at the time the price slide began in 2001 was just around 7,800 tonnes. About half of this was locally consumed. Yet, Indian "imports from Sri Lanka" in the same period were almost higher than that nation's production!


"There is zero duty levied on such imports from SAARC countries," points out M.P. Veerendrakumar. He is the Lok Sabha member from here and a former Union Labour Minister. "So all this third rate pepper is routed through Sri Lanka. How can they export more than they produce? Multinationals and cartels are rigging both the flow and the price of pepper."


Drop in output


With prices smashed by the imports, output sank. Adding to the crisis was the onset of Quick Wilt disease and other problems. "Four years ago, I harvested 70 quintals of pepper," says farmer K.I. Matthew in Mullankolly. "In 2004, that fell to seven quintals."

Locals believe much damage might have been caused by inferior imported species entering the production chain. And by the reckless use of dubious seed varieties that crowd the market.

There is no relief. "Because ours are cash crops, there are no concessions," says K.N. Subramanian. He is a district leader of the Karshaka Sangham (a unit of the All-Indian Kisan Sabha) and himself a small farmer. "The compensation levels are crazy. A dead banana tree gets Rs. 50. A destroyed pepper vine fetches Rs. 40, though pepper is a long-term crop. One you can earn from for half a century."


Pepper from here has long been a big foreign exchange earner. Kerala accounts for 90 per cent of India's production. During 2003, Indian exports fell to 17,200 tonnes, a fall of 31 per cent from 2002. But black pepper remained the most favoured spice in the globe. The world consumes more of it than perhaps all other spices combined. Yet India's share of the trade has dived. And its imports have soared. Vietnam has emerged the globe's unlikely top producer.


Kerala's response has been to bureaucratise everything. "The idea was that the government would buy pepper at Rs. 75 a kg from distressed farmers," says Kozhikode-based journalist K.A. Shaji. "For this, farmers wishing to sell pepper must now have the local village officer certify that it was grown on their own land. This could take weeks. And sometimes the officers demand bribes. Then the government procurement agency has to verify it too. Next, the agency appoints an `expert' to conduct a `pepper vine census' on the farmer's land.


"Only farmers with two hectares or less will get help. And only those who have got no government aid in four years. Which rules out the families of those who committed suicide in despair! It would be far simpler to check the imports at the port of entry than to try and police thousands of farms. But this is the system now in place."


"It's a mess," says Mr. Veerendrakumar. "The government's approach has failed totally." He points to the need for "geographical indicators," which would specify where the pepper is from. And "the regulation of imports. This re-mixing of Wayanad pepper with low quality stuff is ruining our export markets."

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Postal Address of Officer Incharge of Village Resource Centers

1.Noolpuzha
Noolpuzha Grama Panchayat,Wayanad.
Shri.Joseph Peter Patroz ,U.D.Clerk ;
04936 - 270635 ; 9349876885

2.Sulthan Bathery
Sulthan Bathery Block Panchayat, S.B.Post,Wayanad-673593.
Shri.K.S.Shaji,U.D.Clerk ;
04936 - 220202/221377 ; 9447326917

3.Kalpetta
PWD Building,North Wayanad-673122.
Vasu.P ,Assistant Engineer ;
04936 - 202640 ;9448083078

4.Mananthavady
Mananthavady Block panchayat,
Mananthavady.P.O,
Wayanad District-670645.
Shri.Gopalakrishnan ,Overseer ;
04936 - 240298/242622 ;9447317565

5.Meppady
Meppady Grama Panchayat,
Meppady.P.O,Kalpetta,
Wayanad District-673577.
Shri.Ashraf ,Secretary ;04936 - 282422

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Postal Address of Officer Incharge of Village Resource Expert Centers

1.Kerala State Planning Board (KSPB)
Opposite Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom,
Trivandrum-695004. Shri.Dr.P.Rajasekharan,
CHIEF
(Agricultural Division)
0471 - 2540609/2453554 ;9895009402; Fax:0471 - 2531395
Shri.N.Sundaresan, Joint Director ;
0471-2542714/2542488;99447103600
Shri.P.Pramod,Officer in Charge-VRC;
Mob - 9446705151

2.Kerala Agricultural University (KAU)
Agricultural Technology Information Centre, Mannuthy,Thrissur-680651.
Dr.Sreevalsan,Asst.Professor ;
0487 - 2371340/2307711
Dr.Sheela(DE) ;0487 - 2370086/2337785;
Fax :0487 - 2370150

3.Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK)
Krishi Vigyan kendra,Ambalavayal.P.O-673593,Wayanad.
Dr.A.Radhamma Pillai,Associate Prof: & Head ;04936 - 260411/260432;
Fax: 04936 - 260411

4.District Hospital,Mananthavady (DHM)
Govt.District Hospital, Mananthavady.P.O-670645,Wayanad.
Dr.T.P.Suresh Kumar, Ortho ;
04935 - 246776 ;9447275220

5.Regional Coffee Research Station (RCRS)
Regional Coffee Research Station,Coffee Board,Chundale.P.O-673123,Wayanad;
Dr.M.Selvakumar,Deputy Director ;
04936 - 202256 ;Fax: 04936 - 202256

6.Indian Institute of Spices Research(IISR)
Indian Institute of Spices Research,Marikkunnu.P.O-673012,Calicut.
Dr.P.Rajeev,Senior Scientist ;0495 - 273294/2373162;Fax: 0495 - 2731187

7.Medical College,Calicut (MCC)
Govt. Medical College Hospital,
Calicut-673008.
Dr.Varghese Thomas,Nodal Officer ;
0495 - 2351152;Fax: 0495 - 2355331

8.Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST),
Thiruvananthapuram.
Dr.Jawahar ,Administrative Medical Officer;
0471 - 2524640 ,2440790

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