Karnataka - Mysore   

Waive loans without troubling farmers: Dharam Singh

MYSORE: Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Dharam Singh on Thursday urged the Government to waive loans taken by farmers from cooperative institutions without “troubling” them.

Inaugurating an exhibition organised to mark the valedictory function of the centenary celebrations of the cooperative movement at the Exhibition Grounds here on Thursday, he said that farmers were facing problems because of the delay in the release of funds to apex banks and they were not getting fresh loans because of this. It was necessary for the Government to release funds to help the farmers, he added.

He urged the Government to implement programmes under the Vidharbha Package announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council H.K. Patil appealed to the Chief Minister to implement the sugar package announced by the Union Government to sugarcane growers who were in distress.

He suggested to the Government to amend the Cooperative Act to make lending easy and strengthening financial position.

He said that for the implementation of the Vaidyanathan committee recommendations, which was constituted to improve health of rural credit cooperatives, the Government could make use of a package envisaged by the Union Government. For this, the Government had to promise the Union Government that it would not nominate members to cooperative institutions.

The condition of farmers would not improve by mere waiving of their debts. It was necessary to provide scientific price for their produce, he added.

Minister for Public Works and Energy H.D. Revanna urged the Chief Minister to form a corpus of Rs. 500 crore to support farmers when prices of farm produce crashed.

A Cabinet subcommittee headed by him to implement the Vidharbha package would submit its report shortly, he said.

The committee would also recommend to the Government against interference in the working of cooperative institutions, he said.

Welcoming the dignitaries, Minister for Cooperation G.T. Deve Gowda urged the Government to include cooperation as a subject in the curriculum.

The four-day convention of cooperatives would pass resolutions and submit them to the Government, he said.

Souvenirs in English and Kannada were released.

Ten persons, who have contributed for the growth of the cooperative movement and cooperative institutions that have completed 100 years, were felicitated and a documentary on the cooperative movement was released on the occasion.

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