Chief Minister Siddaramaiah visited select villages that have been affected by drought to collect first-hand information about the severity of drought on Friday.
The Chief Minister, who reached Bhandiwad village nearly two hours behind schedule, visited fields and interacted with farmers. In Bhandiwad, he visited the field of Rajkumar Narayan Basava who had sown Bt cotton in his four acres of land and suffered total crop loss. He had spent Rs. 10,000 per acre and is now caught in debt, the Chief Minister was told.
Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Minister in-charge of the district Vinay Kulkarni, legislators N.H. Konaraddi, C.S. Shivalli and Srinivas Mane and others were present.
In Bhandiwad, a group of Bharatiya Janata Party workers staged a protest and shouted slogans against the State government and Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Tanvir Sait, who was caught browsing “objectionable” pictures on his cellphone during a function in Raichur on Thursday.
However, the police interfered and detained the protesters. The Chief Minister then proceeded further.
Later, Mr. Siddaramaiah visited fields in Siraguppi, Yaraguppi, Rottigawada and Nalavadi villages. He also visited a farm pond in a field en route and interacted with farmers.
However, his visit proved to be a mere formality and the advancing hours did not permit him to spend more time with the villagers.
The Chief Minister also experienced the bad condition of rural roads as his convoy passed through bumpy roads generating dust.
Later, Mr. Siddaramaiah convened a district-level officials meeting to review the drought condition in the district.
