HDK will resolve farmers’ woes, says Deve Gowda

JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda on Sunday said that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has convened a farmers’ meeting on Tuesday to address the problems faced by sugarcane growers.

Speaking to reporters here, Gowda said, “Efforts by the officials to pacify the agitating sugarcane growers have failed to yield desired results. The chief minister has instructed the deputy commissioners to respond to the problems of the farmers on a priority basis.”

We had taken a delegation to the prime minister seeking him to bail out the crisis-ridden areca, coconut and tobacco farmers. But nothing has come out of it. When the BJP government was in power in the state, the police had opened fire on the farmers. No police firing on farmers has taken place now. No state has written off farm loans to the tune of Rs 45,000 crore. Let’s not politicise the agrarian issues. The media should stop instigating the farmers, he said.

Gowda said that the like-minded secular parties would foil the BJP’s plans to make a foray into South India in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

To a query on the Cabinet expansion, Gowda said, “The Cabinet expansion will be done by this month end.” He, however, parried questions on whether his daughter-in-law Anitha Kumaraswamy and Pro-tem chairman of Legislative Council Basavaraj Horatti would be inducted into Kumaraswamy’s Cabinet.

Replying to a specific query, Gowda said, “Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has played a major role in the BJP coming to power at the Centre and several states. CAG’s reports on 2G spectrum, coal allocation helped the BJP wrest power at Centre and several states,” he added.