The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Governments should be sincere while announcing relief packages to farmers’

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Saturday, Jan 12, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Governments should be sincere while announcing relief packages to farmers’

Special Correspondent

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

NEW MEMBER: The former Minister, B.T. Lalitha Naik, who joined the Samajwadi Party is seen with State unit president of the party and former Chief Minister, S. Bangarappa, in Bangalore on Friday.

BANGALORE: President of the Karnataka Pradesh Samajwadi Party S. Bangarappa on Friday urged the Union Government and the States to make provisions in their budgets for waiving farm loans obtained by farmers from cooperative and commercial banks and announce packages for their [farmers] welfare.

Such announcements should not be made during the run-up to elections if the political parties were sincere in preventing farmers from taking the extreme step, he said.

Admitting the former Minister and a Janata Dal (S) leader, B.T. Lalitha Naik, and her supporters into the party, the former Chief Minister took the Bharatiya Janata Party leader, B.S. Yeddyurappa, to task for announcing that his party would give free power to farmers, if it were voted to power.

If he was serious he should have implemented it by including it in the budget when he held the Finance portfolio in the coalition Government. The budgets should also have provisions for giving remunerative prices to agriculture produce.

Mr. Bangarappa said that as Chief Minister he had given free power to pumpsets of farmers up to 10 horsepower which was, however, withdrawn by H.D. Deve Gowda when he became the Chief Minister.

Thereafter, S.M. Krishna and H.D. Kumaraswamy did not restore the benefits to farmers.

Similarly, Mr. Bangarappa said, he had waived 50 per cent of cooperative loans of farmers but his successor M. Veerappa Moily had failed to continue with the scheme and the Union Government also did not care to respect its commitment in the matter. Mr. Yeddyurappa only helped those who had taken loans of Rs. 25,000 and not those who were sanctioned lesser amounts.

Accusing Mr. Yeddyurappa of bringing Lambanis to his public meeting at Lingasagur in Raichur district and claiming that they were farmers, he said that the Lambanis were nomads and did not have land of their own and could not be called farmers.

Explaining her reasons for quitting the Janata Dal (S), Ms. Lalitha Naik said that workers in that party did not have respect for women.

In the case of Samajwadi Party, she said the ideology and principles attracted her.

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