Ashoka slams Congress, accuses ruling party of 'betraying' farmers

Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda hits back at Ashoka’s statements by saying 'highest' compensation given in 2023.

Belagavi: Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka on Tuesday accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of “failing by his word” and ”betraying” farmers.

Initiating a debate on the problems of the North Karnataka region in the Legislative Assembly, Ashoka recalled a tweet by Siddaramaiah dated May 08, 2020 (Siddaramaiah was the leader of the opposition), and noted that he had sought the creation of a revolving fund of Rs 5,000 crore for the government to provide money to farmers in case they are getting lesser than the fixed price.

“It’s not just a tweet. Even in the Congress manifesto (for the 2023 Assembly elections), it was promised to create a permanent fund for disaster management with an initial corpus of Rs 5,000 crore. Has it been created?? There are floods and losses have been more in North Karnataka than the Old Mysuru region. Why haven’t you given these Rs 5,000 crores??” he asked.

Ashoka said the manifesto also promised to offer reasonable compensation during drought and famine situations for the loss of agricultural produce and postponed the recovery of distressed funds, adding that there was also a promise to increase the milk subsidy from Rs 5 to Rs 7,which he said was not fulfilled.

While acknowledging that the Union government had fixed the price of sugarcane, Ashoka added that the state government must provide additional amounts as per the Supreme Court’s order.

“In two-and-a-half years, 2,422 farmers have committed suicide. Among them, 32 are sugarcane growers. Karnataka's share in the entire country is 22.5 per cent, ranking second. Tamil Nadu has a share of 5.9 per cent and Andhra Pradesh 8 per cent. This is the scorecard of this government. They are still not out of the guarantee illusion. Due to the treasury being emptied by the guarantees, they deferred relief for drought without providing it.”

At this point, Congress lawmakers hit back at the BJP, stating that the first position was held by Maharashtra, a BJP-ruled state.

“Krishna Byre Gowda is very intelligent. They postponed declaring the drought by 2 months,” Ashoka said.

Taking exception to Ashoka’s statements, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda noted that the Congress government had provided a compensation of Rs 4,300 crore relief to 38 lakh farmers during the drought in 2023. He claimed this was the highest compensation given in the history of Karnataka.

“They say we postponed it. We filed a case against the central government in the Supreme Court. They should have told the Supreme Court that we had not declared the drought on time. We told the Supreme Court that this was the first time a state government went to the Supreme Court that funds had not been given. We fought, got funds and gave it to the farmers,” Gowda said.

A verbal duel erupted between members of the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP, after which the session was adjourned for a while.

After the session resumed, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said: “When the Leader of the Opposition speaks, he must not be interrupted. (Others) Should speak only when he has yielded… The opposition must also not tell false things as much as possible and criticise based on facts.”