Federation of Tamil Nadu Agricultural Association today termed as "national shame" the import of cooking oil and hit out at the government for "neglecting" domestic farmers' interests, particularly coconut and ground nut growers.
Despite plenty of coconut,ground nut and gingelly available for extracting oil, the government was importing palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia to supply through the Public Distribution System at Rs 30 per kg, with 50 per cent subsidy, association secretary S Nallasamy said in a release here.
He termed as 'national shame' the import of cooking oil and accused the government of 'neglecting' domestic farmers' interests.
If the government provides 50 per cent subsidy to coconut, ground nut and gingelly oil and supply through PDS, the Indian farmers will be protected, since there was no remunerative prices for these crops, Nallasamy claimed.
