Beg or steal but pay farmers: Gowda to govt

Beg, borrow or steal but pay the dues to sugar cane farmers, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda advised the State government on Friday.

Addressing a press conference here, he blamed the government for taking a “lackadaisical” attitude towards the plight of sugar cane farmers.

Gowda said he had told the prime minister during a recent meeting that farmers were being neglected in the country. “On the floor of Parliament, when a Central minister stated that agriculture was a state subject, I sought to know whether the agriculture ministry at the Centre was only for soil-testing purposes”, he said.