Coimbatore, Nov 25 : United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI) Monday requested the Centre to sanction additional allocations to the commodity Boards to enable them to disburse the overdue amounts to the
South Indian plantations immediately.

This would go a long way in helping the South Indian growers to tide over the critical financial crisis they are in today, to some extent, UPASI President, AL RM Nagappan said in a statement here. Stating that substantial amounts are outstanding to the growers towards approved schemes of the Commodity Boards, he said that in tea alone,
Rs 55 crore is due as of now for South India.

Allocations to the Boards were curtailed year after year and the meagre additional allocation made to them in the current Budget will not be sufficient to clear at least the pending dues, he pointed out.The plantations are going through a quite stressful period as they face the agrarian distress due to climate change and not able fetch remunerative price for the plantation commodities, Nagappan said.

Majority of the estates are making huge losses and struggling to carry out day to day operations and make timely wage payments to the workers and prospects of improvement in prices in the near future is bleak and they look
forward for the immediate intervention of the Government, he said.