"It is not proper. The Agriculture Minister should reply to a Calling Attention and not the Minister of State. This (motion) should be taken up once again when Pawar is present," DMK leader T R Baalu said while leading his party's walkout.
Minister of State for Agriculture Charan Das Mahant regretted that the members had walked out when he was ready to respond to all the issues they had raised.
Observing that Pawar had already intimated his inability to be present to the Speaker, Mahant said the senior Minister was always ready to meet Baalu and resolve the problems.
Earlier, when Baalu raised the issue of coconut growers, he was supported by members of the AIADMK who joined him in demanding raising of the minimum support price of coconut.
Raising supplementaries, Baalu spoke of the problems faced by farmers due to growing incidence of a "cancer-like" disease afflicting the coconut trees for which there is no remedy.
He also spoke about the lack of availability of water, power and high prices of fertilisers and pesticides, which he said had severely hit coconut production in Tamil Nadu and lamented that no step had been taken by the Union Agriculture Ministry despite several meetings.
The DMK leader also pointed towards several cases of suicide by coconut growers and wanted the government to take hasty steps to ameliorate the situation.
Replying to the motion, the MoS said MSP would come up for review in January, following which the Cabinet approval would be sought.
Regarding the disease, Mahant said the Indian Council of Agricultural Research was conducting experiments on it and a solution was expected to be found soon.
