'UPA policies detrimental to farmers'

“As many as 1.80 lakh farmers have committed suicide due to wrong policies of the ruling dispensations. The policies of the United Progressive Alliance government have done little to ameliorate the plight of the farmers,” Manpade said at the 15th district-level convention of KPRS here on Monday.

Expressing concern over the fallout of globalisation and liberalisation on agrarian community, Manpade said that farmers are being entrapped in the hands of private money lenders. Life has become miserable for farmers reeling under the debt burden coupled with usurious rate of interest.

A stringent legal framework is the need of the hour to safeguard the interest of thousands of such farmers, he opined, urging the government to take necessary steps to resolve the crisis in agriculture sector. Manpade said that the farmers of drought-hit Kolar district were also in distress on account of the global phenomenon. Former legislator G V Srirama Reddy released “Odanadi,” a book  in memory of the farmer leader Holur Shankar, who expired recently.

ZP president M Srinivasan, KRPS District unit president Gangireddy, general secretary Suryanarayan, T M Venkatesh of Taluk KRPS unit, V Geetha of Janavadi Mahila Sanghatane, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) leader Gandhinagar Narayanaswamy were present. Hundreds of representatives from Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts are taking part in the convention.