State BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa gave several assurances of announcing several welfare measures for farmers if his party was voted to power in the Assembly election. Making all efforts to get Geographical Indication (GI) tag for Sona Masuri, a very popular paddy variety grown in the Tungabhadra Command areas, development of a Rice Park established in Gangavati taluk, inclusion of river linking in the election manifesto, considering nominating/getting elected a farmer representative to the Legislative Council, adopting appropriate and scientific management of water from the Tungabhadra dam were among the other assurances given by Mr. Yeddyurappa during his day-long visit to affected paddy fields and interaction with farmers at Gangavati in Koppal district on Tuesday.
While also assuring to come to the rescue of paddy growers by setting aside ₹ 5,000 crore whenever the market price crashed, Mr. Yeddyurappa sought to know what the Congress government and the officials were doing when farmers were in crisis and undergoing loss of crop for want of water.
Taking a serious view of loss of standing paddy crop in over a lakh acre owing to non-release of water in the Left Bank Canal of Tungabhadra dam, leading to an estimated loss of around ₹ 500 crore, Mr. Yeddyurappa strongly criticised the officials for not visiting the fields and carried out a survey of the extent of loss.
Later, at an interaction session with farmers, Mr. Yeddyurappa had to face a volley of questions, including why the problems facing Tungabhadra dam were not discussed at the State-level; steps he proposed to remove the 34 tmcft of silt that has accumulated in the dam leading to reduction in the storage capacity and loss of paddy mainly due to mis-management of water release and what steps he proposed to take to set them right. Mr. Yeddyurappa, after giving a patient hearing, replied that if his party is voted to power, he would earmark around Rs. one lakh crore for irrigation, ensure 12 hours uninterrupted power supply for irrigation pumpsets and accord priority for construction of a balancing reservoir near Navali.
Mr. Yeddyurappa, while holding the Congress government responsible for ignoring the welfare of farmers resulting in 3,750 farm suicides, said that if his party came to power, steps would be taken to withdraw the cases registered against farmers during agitations.
