With two days left for the presentation of the State Budget, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha president Kodihalli Chandrashekar on Wednesday demanded that the government ensure them guaranteed income by setting up a farmers’ income guarantee commission.
But differing in terms of approach, Economist Abdul Aziz advocated the need to consider farmers as a “special social category” on the lines of oppressed sections such as Dalits and backward classes so that they too would get support guaranteed from the government for their welfare, including reservation in jobs and education. Expressing concern over the plight of farmers at a seminar on ‘Farmers and budget’ organised by the KRRS and Hasiru Sene here, Mr. Chandrashekar alleged that both the State and the Centre were looking at the agricultural sector only from the point of food security of the country and they did not have concern for the welfare of farmers.
Alleging that the Union Budget had ignored agricultural sector and focussed only on corporate welfare, he said farmers were now looking forward to getting some support from the State Budget.
University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, Vice-Chancellor H. Shivanna assured farmers of holding a meeting with their representatives to elicit their views and conveying them to the government.
