Rahul effect: Siddaramaiah rains sops on drought-hit farmers

HUBBALLI: The much-needed balm for farmers in debt and distress was announced by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at the end of a padayatra which he completed along with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and other leaders at Gudadur village of Ranibennur taluk, on Saturday.

In addition to an enhanced ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the kin of growers who committed suicide across the state in recent months, the package includes waiver of penal interest on all agriculture loans borrowed by farmers from co-operative societies. Co-operative banks have been asked to reschedule loans and defer recovery of installments for a year.

The widow pension for kin of farmers who committed self-harm has been hiked from Rs 500 to Rs 2000 with the government making a commitment that it would provide medical insurance and support their children till they complete post-graduation.

The announcement was peppered with a fervent appeal to the farmers not to end their lives. “It (suicide) is not the solution,” he said adding that the government would also work for waiver of loans borrowed from private money lenders.

Assuring that the minimum support price would be increased for agricultural produce, he said district level committees would be formed under the chairmanship of deputy commissioner to meet farmers in distress and address their problems.

The Chief Minister, who tried to derive political mileage through a slew of relief measures for farmers ahead of polls to zilla and taluk panchayats, trained his guns on leaders of the state unit of BJP as well as the BJP-led NDA government in New Delhi.

“Karnataka has suffered crop loss to the tune of Rs 16,000 crore due to failure of rainfall. New Delhi has not released funds though we sought Rs 3,800 crore to provide compensation to the farmers,” he added.