State, Centre indifferent to agrarian crisis, say farmers

Hundreds of farmers, under the banner of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, staged a protest at Town Hall Circle here on Friday, demanding that the State governemnt should take appropriate steps to resolve the agrarian crisis.

The agitating farmers, over 300 in number, formed a human chain and blocked the road in front of the Town Hall for over an hour. Due to which the vehicular movement was affected badly.

District president of the Raitha Sangha A Govindaraju, addressing the protesters said, “Monsoon has played truant for the past four to five years. The water table in the region has gone down considerably. Several hectares of coconut, arecanut and other crops have been destroyed due to lack of water and pest menace. Add to it, the prices of ragi, rice, arecanut, copra, cotton, silk cocoons and other crops have gone down. Because of which, the farmers in the district have suffered losses running into crores.”

He urged the government to come to the rescue of the crisis-ridden farmers. The Raitha Sangha district president sought the government to fix scientific price to the crops, waive all farm laons, put a ceiling on the import of agriculture produce from foreign nations and enhance the import duty on farm produce.

He said that over 300 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide in the State in last two months. Of which, 50 farmers in Tumakuru district alone have ended their lives.

Govindaraju demanded that the Centre should withdraw the land ordinance while the State should declare the district as drought-hit and announce a package to help revive the farm sector.

Farmers’ leaders K M Nijanandamurthy, K N Venkateshgowda, C T Kumar, C K Prakash, Rajashekar, G C Shankarappa, Doddamalaiah, Nagaratnamma, Mudalagiriyappa, Yetish, Hosahalli Chandru and others led the protest.

Tractor seizure opposed
A group of farmers staged a dharna in front of a private finance company in the city alleging that the said company had seized tractor owned by Rudranna and Chikkannaswamy of Tandaga village in Turuvekere taluk.

The agitating farmers relented after the officials of the finance company assured them that they will talk to higher ups and resolve the issue.