Mangalore, Dec. 13: “Arecanut is not injurious for health, so the government must not take any decision to ban Arecanut” said B. Janardhan Poojary, former union minister.
Addressing the media on Friday, December 13, he said, “Farmers in Malenad and other areas of Karnataka including the coastal regions cultivate arecanut. It is one of the primary occupations in Karnataka. Banning tobacco is nothing but destroying the lives of those farmers.”
Poojary also said that Arecanut contains just about 0.15 per cent of alkaline which do not harm people’s health but it benefits a lot. When government did not take any intuitive to ban harmful things like alcohol and cigarette, then what is the necessary to ban Tobacco. Even the tonic contains the alkaline, and then the government must also ban it, he added.
He urged the opposition party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley to oppose the bill and requested work with unity to cancel the implementation of the anti- arecanut bill to save the lives of farmers. He also assured to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and discuss the issue.
Condemning the state government’s plans to bring Maths under the control of the state muzrai department he said that the government should not interfere with the Maths, especially as it was not a part of the Congress manifesto.
Addressing a press meet here, he said, “Taking all Maths into the fold of Muzrai department was not mentioned in the party manifesto; hence the government should not interfere. This will hurt the sentiments of devotees. There are so many Maths like Tumkur Siddaganga Math, Suttur Math, and Krishna Math which serve the poor and needy people by involving themselves in social work.”
Kallige Tharanath Shetty, Suresh Ballal, Harikrishna Bantwal and Arun Coehlo were present.
