ALWAYS TOGETHER: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy (second from right) greeting Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa at the inauguration of a seminar on `11th Plan of Karnataka: Perspectives' in Bangalore on Friday. Photo: — V. Sreenivasa Murt hy

BANGALORE: Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Friday said he has drawn a "Lakshmana Rekha" for himself.

He said he would not react through media to any of the statements made by Janata Dal (Secular) president H.D. Deve Gowda.

"Instead, I will try to understand the context in which Mr. Gowda has made such a statement.

Then I will discuss the same with Mr. Gowda either in person or over telephone, but definitely not through the media," Mr. Yediyurappa said to presspersons here on Friday.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister met briefly to discuss the political developments in the State.

The two were in a state of shock with the recent statements of the former Prime Minister particularly with reference to Mr. Yediyurappa, it is said.

All-party team

Mr. Yediyurappa appealed to Mr. Kumaraswamy and the Opposition parties to take an all-party delegation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for urging the Centre to waive farmers' loans and reduce the interest rates on co-operative farm loans to 4 per cent.

The Deputy Chief Minister, who was at the inaugural session of the two-day seminar on 11th Plan for Karnataka, told presspersons that nearly 70 per cent of farmers had obtained loans from the nationalised banks.

The Centre should waive these loans to help farmers in distress. Karnataka had not only waived cooperative loans up to Rs. 25,000, but also reduced the interest rates on cooperative farm loans to 4 per cent. There should be united effort from all parties to exert pressure on the Centre to help farmers by waiving the loans and reducing the interest on loans. It was a misconception that the waiver of farmers' loans would cause funds crunch for development works.

No tax cut

The Deputy Chief Minister made it clear that there was no proposal before the Government to reduce sales tax on petrol.

He blamed the Congress for the high taxes on petrol in Karnataka.

Forward marketing

To a question on whether the plans to allow forward marketing in agricultural commodities would not give rise to hording of commodities, which would trigger price rise, Mr. Yediyurappa said the Government would take steps to tackle such problems with regard to the availability of essential commodities. .

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