Minister of State for Agriculture Krishna Byre Gowda has alleged that the Union government is not responding to the State’s request for releasing funds for disbursing input subsidies among farmers whose rabi crops were destroyed due to adverse weather conditions. He was speaking to presspersons here on Tuesday.
Additional blow
“Winter crops on vast tracts of lands have been destroyed in the State. This is an additional blow to farmers who had lost kharif crops due to the failure of the monsoon. The State government had sent a report to the Union government in January seeking Rs. 1,417 crore as relief. However, the Centre is unnecessarily delaying releasing the funds,” Mr. Byre Gowda said.
A considerable portion of the amount, if released by the Centre, would be used for paying compensation to farmers of north Karnataka where crop loss was massive, he added.
Filling vacancies
Mr. Byre Gowda said that the process of filling 608 vacancies in his department was under way for the last one year. “We will soon complete it. Transparency is ensured while making fresh recruitments. The candidates will be selected on the basis of the marks obtained in degree and competitive examinations. Special rules are formulated for the purpose,” he said.
The Minister said that the privatisation of agriculture universities in the State was a mere rumour.
“There is no such proposal. We will not allow for that. Some private parties have opened agriculture colleges taking advantage of the policy changes made by the previous BJP government,” he said.
Mr. Byre Gowda said that Joint Directors of Agriculture had issued notices to Bt cotton seed companies seeking explanation for the Bt cotton crop destruction.
“After getting their response, we will initiate an inquiry and take action against the seed companies,” he said.
‘Not an aspirant’
Mr. Byre Gowda said that he was not an aspirant for the post of president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee. He, however, added that he was ready to handle any responsibility that the party would assign to him.
“I never asked any position in the party or the government. I have been sincerely doing whatever the tasks that my party was assigning to me and I will continue to do so,” he said.
Council of Ministers
To a question, he said that whether or not he would continue in the council of ministers was left to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the party leadership.
Later, Mr. Byre Gowda left for Lingsugur taluk for inspecting implementation of various schemes initiated by the department.
Deputy Commissioner S. Sasikanth Senthil, Basavaraj Patil Itagi, MLC, and Congress leaders K. Shantappa, Ravi Boseraj, and Srinivas Reddy and others were present.
‘Privatisation of agriculture universities in the State a mere rumour’
