CHITRADURGA: More than 100 cocoon producers, mainly from Challakere and Molakalmaru taluks staged a one-day dharna against the Union government's unilateral decision to import raw silk at slashed import duty in Chitradurga on Friday.
GS Chandrasekhar, president, G Thippeswamy, secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Sangha (BKS), SV Rajasekharappa from Soorammanahalli and Chandranna from Kondlahalli, while speaking to The Times of India, lamented over the fall of cocoon prices from Rs 350 to Rs 135 a kilogram in all the markets in Karnataka.
They expressed their anguish over the central government's hasty decision to slash import duty which hurt the interests of cocoon producers in the country. While the chairman of Central Silk Board, H Hanumanthappa boasts about the expansion of mulberry cultivation and cocoon production areas, the central government has given a death blow to us, they complained.