Venkaiah Naidu’s statement shows his attitude towards farmers – Krishna Byre Gowda

Venkaiah Naidu’s statement shows his attitude towards farmers – Krishna Byre Gowda

Pics By Prasanna Kodavoor, Team Mangalorean

Udupi: Krishna Byre Gowda Minister for Agriculture slammed Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu for his statement against the farmers demanding loan waiver and said that the monetary burden on cultivators is an outcome of the Centre failing to full fill its promise of waiving the loan of nationalised banks made by the farmers. He was speaking after inaugurating the Agriculture Diploma College at Brahmavar on Friday, June 23.

Naidu’s statement is unfortunate and said that his statement has insulted the farmers. Such statements by ministers on farm loan waiver shows their attitude towards the poor farmers. This remark is an insult to them. The state government has given many incentives to farmers directly and indirectly. For instance, the energy bill that the government pays on behalf of the farmers is close to Rs 9000 crore per year. Many other states charge the farmers for electricity, whereas in Karnataka, the government pays on behalf of the farmers. We also give farmers incentives on milk production, for every litre of milk, we give about Rs 5 in a year that totals to about Rs 203 crores every year,” he added.

Gowda further said that interest-free loans of about Rs 1000 crore is given to the farmers per year. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today announced a waiver of short-term loans of farmers up to Rs 50,000 availed till June 20, 2017, from cooperative banks. With this, loans worth Rs 8165 crore will be waived, which will benefit around 22,27,506 farmers across the state. The chief minister Siddaramaiah led Karnataka government is ‘pro-farmer’, and is the first state in the country to transfer input subsidies directly to the farmers’ bank accounts. The BJP state unit has failed to convince the central government to waive the remaining debts of farmers in nationalised banks, he said.

BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa’s statement that after BJP’s demand and protest the government waived the loan of farmers. then why is BSY is not ready to convince Narendra Modi to waive the farm loans. No BJP MP’s has voiced their opinion in front of the Prime Minister. Yeddyurappa has double standards when it comes to the farmer’s issue. Recalling Yeddyurappa’s tenure as chief minister, the minister said that, “When Congress asked Yeddyurappa, the then chief minister, to waive off farm loans in the Legislative Council, Yeddyurappa said that he did not have a note printing machine. The document is available in the Council. Yeddyurappa is a liar and is making false and baseless allegations against the state government for political gains. BJP MPs have not raised their voice on the farm loan waiver in the Parliament, he added.

The government is giving priority to constructing Raitha Samparka Kendras in the Hoblies in the State so that farmers could easily get all the facilities and benefits of the government schemes. About four years ago, there were 100 Raitha Samparka Kendras in the State. But in the last four years, their number had gone up to 350. The government’s intention is to see that these Kendra’s had their own buildings. The traditional method of paddy cultivation was labour intensive, time-consuming and less profitable. The traditional method of paddy cultivation cost nearly Rs 24,000 an acre, whereas mechanised cultivation would cost about Rs 10,000 an acre. Mechanised farming was the only way for farmers to make paddy cultivation profitable. The Department of Agriculture ha set up Customer Hire Service Centres, where farmers could take some agricultural equipment on rent, he said.

Pramod Madhwaraj, Udupi District minister in-charge, Sheela K Shetty vice president ZP, Nalini Pradeep Rao president TP, Saraswathi V Naik president Chantharu GP, Janardhan Tonse, Sudhakar Shetty member ZP and others were present.