Hundreds of farmers who were protesting outside the district administrative complex here on Saturday demanding scientific Minimum Support Price (MSP) for red-gram crop spontaneously resorted to a road blockade after police prevented them from using loudspeakers.
As per the schedule, the farmers associated with Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS), Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), Welfare Party of India (WPI), Chittapur Red-gram Growers Association and Karnataka Sugarcane Growers Association (KSGA) took out a procession from Jagat Circle, waving flags, beating traditional drums and raising slogans. When they began raising slogans using loudspeakers outside the district administrative complex, they were prevented by police from doing so as their agitation was disturbing an officers’ meeting inside the building. The angry farmers went out of the office premises and sat on the road in protest, disturbing traffic flow for around two hours.
Addressing the farmers at the agitation site, Maruti Manpade, State vice president of KPRS, condemned the Union government for importing pulses and causing price crash in the domestic market.
“The Union government is hell-bent on safeguarding the interests of big corporate houses. It allowed big corporate groups to import 67 lakh tonnes of pulses in 2015-16, 57 lakh tonnes in 2016-17 and 18 lakh tonnes in 2017-18. As it did not impose 30% duty on the imports as demanded by farmers’ organisations, the imported pulses were sold in the domestic market at low prices causing price crash,” he said.
The farmers’ leaders lashed at governments for “unscientific” MSP and quantity restriction in procurement. “Considering the cost of cultivation, farmers demand an MSP of ₹ 7,500 a quintal of red gram. However, the Union government has fixed only ₹ 5,450 a quintal and the State government would add ₹ 550 to make it ₹ 6,000 a quintal. Though the expected yield in the State is around 9 lakh tonnes this year, the Union government has decided to procure only 1,65,750 tonnes at MSP. This cap would push farmers to sell their crop at a much lower price in the open market,” a farmers’ leader said.
The agitation was withdrawn after a representative from the office of Deputy Commissioner visited the agitating farmers and received a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister of Karnataka. Their demands included fixing an MSP of ₹ 7,500 a quintal of red-gram, removing quantity cap for procurement, opening procurement centres at each gram panchayat, imposing 30% import duty on pulses import and implementation of M.S. Swaminathan panel recommendations.
