Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to visit Karnataka in July to review  progress of the “Vidarbha package” which was introduced to mainly to contain farmers’ suicides in six districts of the state besides three other states.

This was revealed by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar at a meeting of state agriculture secretaries he convened here on Tuesday. The Prime Minister will visit all the four states under the package —Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala —  for a personal review of the package, he said.

Not too happy

Informed sources in the Government told Deccan Herald on Thursday  that the meet was not too happy over the progress of the package and discussed reasons behind it.

It was  noted that farmers suicides in these states, especially in the 31 districts where the package  has been put into operation since October 2006, has not abated.

Some states, including Karnataka — which were  represented by principal secretary to agriculture and horticulture department A Ramaswamy—  pointed out that unless farmers were freed from the clutches of money lenders, the suicides would not recede.

In this regard, the meeting felt, that the banking sector under the guidance of RBI, should take active interest and for this a meeting of the senior officials of the banks and the government should be convened.

Another reason discussed was the need for speedy clearance to irrigation projects. Otherwise, the package, to be implemented over three years, would not succeed. Certified seeds, another dire need for farmers, was not available in requisite quantity across these states.

Karnataka’s policy

At the meeting, Karnataka sought an official-level meeting on the issue every three months and with the chief ministers every six months to discuss the progress since it was a time-bound programme.

Pawar accepted the proposal. Pawar also praised the document “agricultural policy of Karnataka” brought out by the state government and urged the other states to follow it.

Pawar’s initiative

Tuesday’s meeting was part of the initiative taken by Pawar to discuss the agriculture problems with the states.

In July, 2006, the chief ministers had complained to the Prime Minister that the states were not properly consulted during the finalisation of Ninth and Tenth Plans and that it should not happen before and during the 11th Plan.

For this Pawar suggested that states prepare their plans and agriculture policy which would be discussed by agriculture ministry and the Planning Commission. Any problems involved would be discussed with the respective states.