Expressing concern over the money and muscle power ruling the roost in Indian politics, former IPS officer V.V. Lakshminarayana has made a strong pitch for ‘zero budget politics’.
“A good number of educated persons are keen on entering politics and contribute to the development of the nation by providing valuable inputs to the government for framing right policies and programmes. Yet, they are shying away because of the highly prohibitive cost involved in contesting elections vitiating the democratic polity,” he said during an interaction programme organised by the Forum for Good Governance president Sunkara Sai Babu here on Monday.
Mr. Lakshminarayana suggested that the poll campaign cost should be drastically brought down by encouraging the contestants to go for small group meetings and debates with fellow contestants on TV channels instead of incurring extravagant expenses .
Replying to a question, he said he would take a call on his entry into politics on completion of his two-month tour of the State to understand the problems of people, particularly farmers.
After a meeting with a group of tobacco ryots near Thuravagunta, he said forming of ‘Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) comprising small and marginal ryots was the need of the hour to address the challenges relating to farming such as capital formation, hybrid seeds, technology, subsidised farm inputs and etc.
Farmers’ issues
“At present, farmers follow no plans on the kind of crops to be grown and its acreage. A majority of farmers growing the same crop results in a slump in the market price, triggering distress sale,” he observed.
The FPOs must be in a position to estimate the future prices by studying commodities markets ahead of the cropping season and realise a better price for the produce through collecting bargaining. “Individual farmers should be freed of the marketing issues and the profit generated by the FPO should be shared among farmers,” he felt.
Single window system
The single window system for providing all clearances to industry captains should be extended to farmers too as the latter who should be busy taking care of their crops are running from pillar to post meeting government officials , he added.
The nation’s happiness index would not improve without ensuring the happiness of farmers who are often fall prey to the pro-consumer approach. The farmers should be allowed to fix the market price by adding a decent profit to the cost of cultivation to end the spree of suicides, he said while interacting with a group of mango farmers at Ulavapadu.
