Karnataka   

No crop insurance for those enjoying loan waiver

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai

This is gross injustice, say farmers' organisations

Bidar: It seems the Government has decided to take away with the left hand, what it gave to farmers with the right hand.

Farmers who avail themselves of the crop loan waiver will not be eligible for crop insurance.

In his Budget speech on Friday, Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has said: "As (the) Government is proposing to waive all the current crop loans up to Rs. 25,000, crop insurance compensation if any, received by the farmer will also be adjusted to the loan account."

Farmers associations say this is gross injustice. "Mr. Yediyurappa is unnecessarily mixing two separate issues," Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) State unit president Basavaraj Tambake said.

"Crop loss is one issue and farmers' inability to pay farm loans is another. Crop loss may be due to weather conditions, use of spurious seeds or other reasons. However, the inability to repay loans may be due to lack of market for agro produce, or due to government's policies as in the case of sugarcane, or owing to other extraneous factors. The Government should realise this and allow farmers to avail themselves of both the benefits — crop loan waiver and crop insurance," he said.

The KRRS is planning a Statewide agitation against the "anti-farmer" clauses in the State Budget. "We urge the Government to make necessary changes in the budget before presenting the Finance Bill," he said.

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