The Janata Dal (Secular) on Saturday alleged that no guidelines had been drafted to fix compensation to be given to families who have lost cattle to the foot-and-mouth disease. The party threatened to take out a padayatra from Srirangapatna to Bangalore if the government fails to release compensation in the next 10 days.
Addressing presspersons here, Leader of the Opposition H.D. Kumaraswamy said the government had hurriedly fixed the amount of compensation without an in-depth study of the disease. The JD(S) has urged the government to give compensation of Rs. 25,000 per family for their loss.
The government has set aside Rs. 5 crore for providing compensation to families affected by FMD. The amount fixed for milch cows is Rs. 16,400, ploughing cows: Rs. 15,000, and calf: Rs. 10,000, said an order issued on October 11. The JD(S) has decided to pay Rs. 5,000 each to affected families. For this, the party will incur an expenditure of Rs. 1.25 crore, he said.
Answering Minister for Animal Husbandry T.B. Jayachandra’s request that the JD(S) extend compensation also to potato, coconut and arecanut farmers, who had lost crops due to heavy rain and drought, Mr. Kumaraswamy said: “Let the State government declare that it has become bankrupt and there is no money to give compensation to farmers... Then we will see.” He alleged that the government had still not released compensation to arecanut and coconut growers who had lost their crops.
On a question on the Karnataka High Court’s ruling that the headquarters of Janata Dal (Secular) on Racecourse Road here belongs to the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), Mr. Kumaraswamy said: “We will take the case to the apex court,” he said.
