Bangalore:
Karnataka government today said the ban imposed on gutka would stay, rejecting the demand of the opposition BJP which argued that the move would hit arecanut growers in the state.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, at the end of a debate on the issue in the state Assembly, said revoking the May 30 government notification would only benefit the gutka lobby and would not help the cause of curbing cancer cases.
The ban is as per the Supreme Court order, he said, denying that it was a hasty decision. The government had little option but to impose the ban, with as many as 23 states and five
Union Territories already having taken similar steps.
Seeking to allay concerns of the growers, Mr Siddaramaiah said the decline of price of arecanut was only marginal. Government would extend them support if the prices crash, he assured.
BJP floor leader and former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said government has not come out with any specific roadmap to find solutions to growers' woes and announced that party members would stage a walk-out in protest, prompting Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa to adjourn the House for the day.
Earlier, BJP members, who spoke in the House, demanded immediate withdrawal of the government notification, asserting that it would hit arecanut growers. Mr Shettar charged the government with having taken a hasty decision without pondering over its implications, and said it should have held discussions with legislators from arecanut growing areas, before issuing such a notification.
Visweshwara Hegde Kageri (BJP), a former minister who hails from Uttara Kannada district, a key producer of arecanut, alleged that a "powerful lobby" is behind the government's decision which he termed as "unilateral" and "dictatorial".
He noted that Karnataka accounts for 60 per cent of the country's arecanut production and maintained that there is nothing to suggest that it is harmful to health.
Former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa (Karnataka Janatha Paksha) demanded that government should announce a support price for arecanut and reimburse the balance amount in case the price falls below that.