Raichur: To exert pressure on Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy to review the farmer loan waiver scheme announced recently, the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene will stage a protest by blocking the national highway near Hosapete on July 21.
The state honorary president of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene, Chamarasa Patil told mediapersons here that about 40,000 farmers were expected to take part in the protest.
Mr Patil said that the farming community was highly disappointed with the loan waive scheme announced by the chief minister. “The CM had promised to waive off the entire outstanding loans of farmers. But he has now announced a waiver for only existing defaulters. Moreover, several conditions have been imposed for the scheme and a limit of Rs 2 lakhs has been proposed for the loans to be waived off. This will not help farmers much”, Mr Patil commented. The CM had also announced issuance of clearance ceritificates to farmers within 15 days. But so far no such step had been taken.
Mr Patil termed as a mere “eyewash” the announcement of MSP for various crops by the Union government. “A mere announcement will not help farmers much. The government has to enact a law to debar businessmen from making purchases below the MSP fixed,” he said.
Referring to the Fasal Bima Yojana, Mr Patil demanded that the Centre fix the time limit for distribution of relief for crop losses as it had done for payment of premiums. Stating that there was an improvement in the inflow of water into the Tungabhadra Reservoir, he urged the authorities to immediately release water into the canal and also ensure that the water reaches the tail end farmers.
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