Kolar
After rows involving Hijab, Halal meat and the loudspeakers atop the mosques now the king of fruits Mango is making sound as a campaign has begun to promote only Hindu mango traders. The campaign which has begun in some parts of the State through social media platforms has gained momentum over the last couple of days. However no such messages are being circulated in Kolar district said Neelatur Chinnappa Reddy, President of Kolar district Mango growers’ Association. Kolar district is known for Mango crops as Mango is grown in more than 50,000 hectares of land in Kolar district and Srinivasapur Taluk in the district accounts for nearly 35,000 hectares engaged in Mango cultivation. Eight to Ten lakh MT of Mangoes are being sent to various parts of Kolar district from Srinivasapur wholesale market where there are about 120 stalls. Of these Muslims has control over 80 stalls, while the rest are owned by Hindus.
The mango business is being conducted for over two months with trucks ferrying mangoes to far off places of the country and ever some traders in Srinivasapur export the fruit to some foreign countries. Last year the South Western Railway ran Kissan rails to ferry mango direct to Adarsh Nagar Mango market in New Delhi.
This move by the Railways not only helped the traders in transporting Mangoes at a lesser cost but also resulted in reduced time for transit of fruit said Chinnappa Reddy. Chinnappa Reddy said he has not received any messages through social media about the need to take steps to make Hindu traders take control of Mango market in Srinivasapur taluk. He said instead of promoting such movement or campaign, efforts should be made to provide better sops to mango growers and the farmer needs to get remunerative prices he pointed out.
He said farmer’s toil the entire year in the fields withstanding weather fluctuation to grown mangoes in his fields, but he secured little money. On the other hand traders who put up stalls for a couple of money make hefty amounts without even toiling for a day on the fields. Chinnappa Reddy further said such campaign to single out a particular community would not succeed and the Muslims brethren have been assisting the farmers to provide market facilities for the farmers all these years. Anees Ahmed, a Mango trader in Srinivasapur said such campaign will make no sense as both Hindu and Muslim traders are cooperating with each other all these years and at times the Muslim traders have provided financial assistance for Hindu farmers to procure agri input for growing mangoes in their farmers. Krishnamurthy N, Social activist in Srinivasapur ridiculed the efforts and termed it as an effort by vested interests.
He said efforts are being made to provide better amenities at the Srinivasapur Mango market as more and more traders and farmers are engaged in mango business. Such a campaign not only hamper the efforts of the administration in taking up developmental works at the Mango market but also will tarnish the reputation the taluk has earned through mango business. Good road connectivity from the market to various parts of the country especially certain parts of Andharpadesh where there are many fruit processing factories have given a new dimension to market in Srinivasapur he said.
Murthy said any effort to divide the market on religious lines would do no good to Srinivasapur taluk as the progress and development of the taluk depends mainly on the development of mango cultivation and mango business. Thousands of poor families both from Hindu and Muslim religions are either directly or indirectly dependent on mango trading and robbing their living in the name of religion is most “inhuman” said Krishnamurthy.
