Toddy movement condemns Tamil Nadu government's policy on neera

ERODE: TN toddy movement has strongly condemned the rigid norms of the government to produce neera (sweet toddy) from coconut and palm trees and sell it locally. The movement functionaries told Express, the CM Edapadi K Palanisamy gave licences to 2 firms of Coimbatore and 1 of Pudukottai to produce neera though his announcement made last year was to help the ryots to tap neera and sell it.

The government laid many rigid norms for ryots including they should constitute co-op societies to tap neera and sell it and of the total number of trees owned by them, neera could be tapped in just 5 percent of the trees only. Then lot of restrictions were made to carry the neera from one area to another. Hence, altogether no ryot directly got any benefit out of his order so far.

On the other, many co-op societies of palm tree climbers and gur and jaggery producers were defunct or politicized so that the real farmers did not get due benefit out of them also. Such societies were also not able to produce neera due to rigid licensing norms. They said that though toddy was allowed in almost all states in the nation and also in many nations, it was banned here to promote IMFL produced by a handful liquor manufacturing firms.

By not allowing toddy, the government argued that some persons would mix some chemicals in toddy to increase its kick and sometimes it would become toxic and lead to death of consumers. By this way, the ryots rights to tap toddy and sell it locally were snatched. In reality, the IMFL is more harmful to public health than toddy which has less alcohol.

The rigid norms to produce neera even hit major firms to involve in the production activity by using ryots and selling it as branded products after getting FSSAI certificate, they pointed out. In neera production also, the government feared that the neera could become toddy due to natural fermentation process while keeping it open places for some hours. Hence, in Lanka, the co-op societies directly tap the neera in ice boxes and send it without handling manually.

The neera packed neatly like soft drinks and exported to various nations. Here also, the government itself can arrange such modern co-op societies by engaging its workers to tap neera from the trees of the ryots and market it as branded product through the KVIB. It would help the ryots to get some income. The CM announced many value added products could be produced by the 3 firms out of neera. The scope for producing such kind of goods is more in the state. Hence, the government itself can produce such things through its KVIB and thus it can give lot of job opportunities to rural masses, they suggested.