After a year marked by low returns and hollow promises of support, there is still no end in sight to the woes of the rubber growers in Kerala.
The Rubber Price Incentive Scheme (RPIS), launched by the Kerala government to support the rubber farmers, appears to be going off the track with hundreds of thousands of farmers unable to file their applications. With the website ebt.kerala.gov.in suspending its operation on December 6, Rubber Board has instructed Rubber Producers’ Societies (RPSs) to cease uploading on the website until further notice.
In 2023, the website opened the window for uploading the bills only in October - three months behind schedule and on December 6, it suspended the operations citing technical issues. Official sources attribute the glitch to a delay in the State government paying up its due to the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which manages the website.
