Thu. Mar 28th, 2024
bengaluru-farmersHundreds of farmers are protesting to get their demands met; increase pressure on Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy

On Monday morning, the road leading to Bengaluru’s Freedom Park was filled with hundreds of protestors waving green flags and shawls. The protestors consolidated in front of the park behind a barricade set up by the police. KT Gangadhar, General Secretary of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha announced,”We are here to ask three simple things. A full loan waiver, minimum support price for crops, and relief measures for drought hit areas. We will continue till our demands are met.”

The farmers intended to proceed to Vidhana Soudha,  however after police formed a barricade in front of Freedom Park, they decided to continue protesting in the area. There were agitations held in several parts of the state including in Ramanagara, Mandya, Mysuru, Kodagu, Kolar, Gadag, Tumukuru, Shivamogga, Hassan, Haveri, Hubballi, Belagavi and Bagalkot .

The protests came a day after sugarcane farmers stormed into the Suvarna Soudha in Belagavi seeking a higher MSP for their crop. CM Kumaraswamy landed himself in trouble when he appeared to dismiss a woman protestor who questioned him over the issue at the University of Agriculture Sciences in Bengaluru. “What I meant was why have you woke up to the situation now? Were you sleeping? I would never disrespect women. These are not farmers who are protesting but these are sponsored protests,” said Kumaraswamy. He further raised question marks over the protesting farmers and described them as ‘goondas’.

CM’s response has further aggravated the protesting farmers. “By responding rudely to a woman, CM is basically insinuating that a woman should not come out and protest. We have been raising the issues in Yadgir district for months now but northern Karnataka is not an area of focus for this government,” said Nagarathna Patil, a farmer leader from Yadgir.

Co-operations Minister Bandappa Kashampur met the protesting farmers at Freedom Park around 12 noon. After speaking to a number of protestors, Bandappa tried to appease the people gathered by promising to inform CM Kumaraswamy about their concerns and announced that a meeting will be convened with the farmers. “The Chief Minister has called for a meeting tomorrow and strict instructions will be given to mill owners in order to protect the interests of farmers,” he said.

BJP leader of opposition Yeddyurappa accused Kumaraswamy for showing indifference to the plight of the farmers. He said,”The issue of not buying the produce that farmers have got has led to many people committing suicide in the past few months. It is also the failure of the state government’s loan waiver scheme. There are areas affected by drought in the state and he has now given room for protests there. My question to him is this. You played on the sentiments of farmers and loan waiver and became CM. Now, he needs to answer.”

According to a state government notification, 100 out of 175 taluks in Karnataka have been hit by drought. The partial loan waiver scheme announced in August is yet to be implemented with several farmers pointing out that they have not received the money promised. “This is about Rs 48,000 crore. The resource is required and you need a little time to check out each loan account. I urge the farmers to be patient and not to be desperate,” said CM Kumaraswamy in the face of increasing protests.

Kumaraswamy said,”A debt waiver is not a solution to farmers’ problems. But our government is not only waiving off loans from the cooperative banks but also the crop loan in commercial banks, hoping to help farmers’ debt so that he can start a new life, and the preparation process is in the final stage. The loan waiver will begin soon.”

It remains to be seen if the promises will appease the protesting farmers.

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