Karnataka - Gulbarga   

`Farmers continue to be neglected'

Special Correspondent

GULBARGA: Former Deputy Chairman of the legislative council and suspended Janata Dal(S) MLA B.R. Patil here on Tuesday criticised the State Government for its failure to address the problems faced by the agricultural sector in the State Budget proposals for the year 2007-08 .

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Patil said that the budget had tried to provide a piecemeal solution to the problems of the farmers. Benefits such as waiver of farm loans upto Rs. 25,000 and waiver of interest on loans of more than Rs. 25,000 would not benefit the larger section of the farmers.

Mr. Patil said out of more than 72 lakh farmers in the State, about 42 lakh farmers had availed loans from cooperative and scheduled banks. The number of farmers who had availed loans in the cooperative institutions was only 17.28 lakh.

He said the Budget proposals fell short of the assurance given by the Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy that loans taken from cooperative and scheduled banks would be written off with the main intention of helping the farmers come out of the debt trap and prevent suicides. The Government has also not said anything about farmers who had availed loans in the Primary Land Development Banks.

`A first'

Mr. Patil said it was for the first time in the history of the State that the Ministers in the Cabinet had voiced their protests against the Budget proposals. Terming the budget as a "Muzrai Budget", Mr. Patil said that more stress was laid on temples and maths rather than on developmental issues of the State. Key sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, irrigation and development of underground water potential had been neglected. The budget had not addressed the problems faced by sugarcane growers in the State.

He said that the decision of the State Government to allow more number of retail outlets of IML and marketing of cheap liquor in place of arrack was a dangerous step and would defeat the purpose for which the arrack sale was banned.

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